Lynching Visual Analysis

In the photo â€Å"Lynching 1930† there is a crowd of people gathered around a tree, two African-American men are hanging from that tree, they are both dead. Lynching of African-Americans began to spread after the American Civil War and it was most popular in the South. Lynching African-Americans was used as a punishment usually carried out by a mob of white people to intimidate African-Americans, â€Å"black† people suffered from violence of white people for many years they had no freedom and no citizen rights; they were considered as slaves.Between 1860 and 1890 almost 5,000 African-Americans were lynched in front of large crowds of white people. When I first saw the photo, I focused on the two men hanging from a tree, the reason I first saw this is because they are both in the middle of the picture and everything else in the picture is directing towards these men. The other people in the picture are smiling and they all look happy and relaxed at the sight of two dead men. I was shocked when I saw the photo, what happened to these men including many others like them is unfair, cruel and immoral.The photo shocked me and I also felt disgusted by the cruelty and cold-heartedness of people looking at corpses while looking like they are about to have a celebration. In the crowd the people who are standing nearest to the photographer are all looking at the camera, one man is pointing at the corpses with a proud look on his face as if he just accomplished doing something important. Near this man, there is a young couple holding hands both smiling as if it were the happiest moment of their lives. Two other men seem careless at the horrible sight and are smoking cigars.People of all ages are gathered around the big tree, there is even a little girl who looks like she is 10 years old who is smiling. I feel horrified looking at all these smiling faces that have all seen the same thing and are joyful about it; murder. No one in the picture looks sad or disg usted after seeing two men who have just been murdered, it is worrying to see how proud and happy people are to be taken in a picture in front of dead people. Not one person in the photo looks shocked, not the men, not the women and not even the little girl. There are people of all different ages in the photo, but the all have he same reaction to racism. Men are wearing suits or dress shirts with ties, some of them are wearing hats while the women are all wearing dresses and have short hair. People in the crowd look like they are mixed between the middle class and rich people, the person who stands out the most in the photo is a man who looks like he is in his 50’s, he is wearing a white dress shirt and dark trousers, he has a thin mustache on his upper lip and he is pointing at the man hanging on the right side of the tree with a look of accomplishment on his face.An old woman is standing beside him, she seems distracted by someone else and her eyes are looking in the direct ion of a young man who is at the right side of the photo only half his face is showing in the picture, the other half is cut out. I think this photograph was taken on a summer night because people are wearing light clothes. Women are wearing dresses with prints on them and most men are only wearing shirts without jackets.The dark sky is visible behind the tree; there are also two streetlights that appear in the picture behind the dead men. Focusing on the two dead men, they both look poor because their clothes are ripped and do not look as expensive as the clothes of the people in the crowd. The man on the left has his head looking down; he is wearing an unbuttoned shirt and trousers. I can see stains on his shirt and trousers, they looks like blood. I think the man was tortured in before being hung to the tree.The man on the right has his head tilted to the side he is wearing a shirt but instead of trousers there is a piece of cloth wrapped around his waist, the hemline is uneven a nd he is barefoot. He also has bloodstains on his clothes. I think this photograph is one of the most famous ones because it isn’t only a picture of the dead men but you can also see the crowd’s reactions to this scene. You can see how intolerant people were and not accepting people for their skin color.I think that people’s view and feelings from this photo has changed over the years, in the 1930 this photo would be pleasant for white people to look at and it would evoke a feeling of happiness and pride when seeing the huge crowd gathered around the tree but nowadays this photo would shock anyone even white people. People’s acceptance of different races and skin colors has evolved during the years, if this happened today it would not be acceptable like it would have been at the time the photo was taken. I am glad I do not have to see this sight nowadays because I think it is unfair to judge a person by their looks, skin color or race.

Controversial issues in psychology Essay

Controversial issues in psychology are those that cause the greatest concern within both psychology and within society as a whole. Advertising uses techniques of persuasion to manipulate people’s behaviour in the desired direction of the perpetrator of the persuasive message, which uses invasive and exploitative techniques and try to show that social norms and values are not always for the best. Advertisements are a set of shorthand signals about products we are to buy and the circumstances we would use them in. They are a ready source of stereotypes, sexual, regional and cultural, e. g. families are always happy and adults are always employed. The first advertisement on TV in the UK was for Gibbs SR’s toothpaste. The ad has become an icon of the consumer age, and psychologists have become increasingly fascinated by the art of persuading people, despite its controversies. What persuades people to buy or use the advertiser’s product or service is how the advert makes them feel, i. e. the meaning we attach to the advert. However the advert is interpreted by the individual, the impact of any advertisement is what it means to us. The author invites us to participate in constructing a meaning for the advert. O’Barr (1994) suggests that advertisers create an advertisement for us to use as a skeleton to add flesh to and breathe life into. Another area controversy in advertising is that it is difficult to disentangle the impact of advertising from other influences that might be current at that time. Hedges (1982) points out that to the consumers, advertising is just part of their background – advertisements form just one part of the sensory bombardment that we experience every day. We cannot stop to evaluate every piece of sensory input, so for the most part, advertisements are relegated to fairly low levels of consciousness. Advertisers use many psychological theories to make their work successful, including associating their product with a particular emotion or image. A need for an item must be created, therefore we must be motivated. In the case of pre-existing needs, such as for bread, the motive must be to buy a particular brand (e. g. through price, quality). Where there is no pre-existing need, it must be created, as in the case of children’s toys. Neurological research has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain is more concerned with ‘practical’ functions such as language, where styles of response are, foe example, verbal and analytic. The right hemisphere is more concerned with spatial, imaginative processing, where responses concern feelings and are, perhaps, unconscious. Lannon and Cooper (1983) suggested that because of this, much advertising is geared towards the right hemisphere. Fast marketing is a relatively new approach, which targets those that have developed brand loyalty and become offensive when they are offered a new alternative. This creates problems for advertisers trying to target new groups, so a blitz of free samples is distributed (fast marketing) so that everyone has a chance of trying out the new product. Consumers are then more likely to change their attitudes or opinions about the product, and so the advertisers will have succeeded. People are also more easily persuaded to change their minds after witnessing testimonials or adverts which use someone who they think is admirable or attractive, such as sports heroes or actresses (Pratkanis and Aronson, 1992). Advertisers typically pair an attractive person or item (unconditioned stimulus) with their product (conditioned stimulus) to produce a positive attitude towards their product (conditioned response). This helps to give positive attitudes towards the products.

Nau company

Ana Innovating for Social Consciousness By Alex Claws Can a for-profit enterprise succeed if its main innovation is valuing social consciousness as much as shareholder returns? The question is particularly relevant in a time of high gas prices and a growing sense that our current consumption of natural resources is simply unsustainable. The founders of Ana, a fledgling retail outerwear company, believed the answer to this question to be a resounding mimes. Built with an unprecedented level of environmental, social, and human-rights unconsciousness, by April 2008 Ana was an underground success on the West Coast, opening five stores and a website selling critically acclaimed clothing collections. Then, at the beginning of May, Nan's board of directors voted to shut down the company. Viewed through Insight's lenses, Nan's promise becomes clear-?along with the perils that led to its downfall. Ana had a reasonable business model built around a well-defined Job-to-be-done. But as will beco me clear, Ana didn't follow an emergent strategy.And Nan's management discovered that a business model that looks good on paper doesn't always translate into immediate profits. Ultimately, a lack of careful execution and a push for quick expansion doomed Nan's first incarnation. But the story of Ana is still unfolding. Ana 2. 0 is currently underway, and that venture appears to have a better chance of success. The Launch Ana (Maori for â€Å"welcome†) began with the dream of Eric Reynolds, an outdoor enthusiast entrepreneur, co-founder (in 1974) of outerwear brand Marmot, and subscriber to the belief that a single individual can have an impact on the world.In the summer of 2003, Reynolds conceived of Ana, a sustainable clothing company that would donate a significant portion of its revenue to nonprofit organizations. Specifically, Reynolds envisioned customers presented with a unique question at point-of-sale: â€Å"To which organization should ‘my five percent' go? â €  By giving five percent of its revenue to nonprofits, Ana would break new ground. (For comparison, the most generous corporations give away one percent of revenue, with the average corporation giving less than . 05 percent. ) In the summer of 2004, Reynolds began recruiting a management team.In 2005, he hired a number of individuals away from Patagonia, a firm commonly considered a leader in outerwear, social consciousness, ND charitable giving. Chris Van Dyke (son of actor Dick Van Dyke), an ex-Nikkei employee 1 and ex-Patagonia vice president of branding and marketing, was hired as CEO. Mark Calibrating, a successful Patagonia designer, Joined Ana as lead designer. Patagonians director of marketing, Ian Yells, Joined as vice president of marketing. Nan's commitment to sustainability framed the constraints within which Calibrating worked as he designed Nan's clothing collection.Calibrating avoided any materials that weren't renewable or recyclable while seeking a balance betwe en performance, sustainability, and style. As a result, nearly all of the 30 fabrics utilized in Nan's clothing collection were custom materials developed specifically for Ana. The fabrics -?made from corn, recycled plastic bottles, 100 percent organic wool, and recycled synthetics-?set a new standard for sustainability. Nan's clothing creation process led to a number of innovations, including the elimination of solvent-based adhesives.The efforts of Calibrating and his team were rewarded-?Nan's first collection received critical praise from such disparate sources as Men's Vogue and Rock and Ice magazines. One downside: The fabric choices greatly constrained the range of colors possible, resulting in mostly drab hues. Nan's custom fabrics also required that customers pay a substantial premium for their clothing, but Nan's management team did not see this as a problem for its target customer segments: the affluent â€Å"multidimensional outdoor athlete,† the â€Å"new activis t,† and â€Å"creative. The Ana team expected that their customers' passion for sustainability would overcome any price resistance. Nan's commitment to sustainability was enforced as carefully in its stores as in its clothing. The company eschewed traditional 4,000-square-foot retail stores for a 2,000-square-foot â€Å"Webfoot† concept. The store spaces were long and narrow, designed purposefully with limited space for inventory that would be restocked twice weekly. Ana also offered customers a 10 percent discount and free shipping if they were willing to try clothing in the store, and then purchase it online.Assembled from a modular, prefabricated design, each store featured energy-saving lighting and leveraged materials such as reclaimed timber, toxin-free fiberboard, and recycled resin (for mannequins). Customers were offered a choice of 12 carefully selected environmental, social, and humanitarian nonprofit organizations, and five percent of the purchase price was donated to the chosen group. Nan's values extended to its real estate leasing strategy as well-?Ana only leased store space that was LED-certified (LED certification indicates environmental- and health-consciousness standards).The company also set a minimum age limit for the workers at its overseas material suppliers. Nan's principles included the constraint that the highest-paid worker within the company could only earn a maximum of 12 mimes the lowest-paid employee's salary. Finally, Ana did not invest in marketing or public relations beyond a series of websites, choosing instead to rely on word-of- mouth, a more â€Å"sustainable† form of marketing in the eyes of Yells and his team.While Ana managed to be remarkably consistent in the infusion of its values into its processes, one of the key factors in its eventual downfall was that the company had a difficult time securing financing. At least one investor's legal counsel balked at a contract clause that placed the â€Å" needs of society' equal to the â€Å"needs of shareholders,† but Ana held firm. 2 Nan's business plan called for it to earn more than $250 million in revenue in 2010 and to achieve profitability in 2009 or 2010, figures based on opening four stores in 2007, 20 stores in 2008, and 150 stores by 2010.To build the necessary momentum toward these goals, Ana needed at least $51 million in funding. By the end of 2006, Ana had raised $24 million, largely from â€Å"super angels,† individual investors who included the chairman of Seagate Technology, Steve Lucid, and Stephen Gomez, Nan's chairman and a former Nikkei corporate vice president. Despite the fact that Ana had only reached half of its funding goal, the first Ana store penned in Boulder, Colorado, in January 2007, with three more successful store openings following during the year in Adulating, Oregon; Chicago; and Bellevue, Washington.Ana completed its first year of operation in 2007 with 92 employees, four clothing collections, and four stores. In March 2008, Ana donated $223,000 to its 12 nonprofit organizations, implying 2007 sales of around $4. 5 million. In mid-April, Ana opened its fifth store in Los Angels. In late April 2008, despite raising an additional $10 million in funding, Ana announced that it would scale back its store- peeing plans to a total of five in 2008, down from an already-reduced projection of 10.Finally, on May 1, Nan's board of directors voted to â€Å"wind down its business operations,† citing â€Å"insurmountable financial obstacles. † All inventory was liquidated at 50 percent off and the stores were closed. Post-mortem interviews with Nan's executives suggest that the company was approximately $5 million to $10 million short of the funds needed to sustain its operations and open additional stores towards its goal of profitability.In the days following the decision, many customers commented on Nan's blob, expressing sadness, frustration, and anger and questioning why Ana had failed. Ana: The Post-Mortem Looking at Ana through Insight's business model innovation framework and a number of Insight lenses offers insight into how Ana developed such a devoted following as well as how the management team might have been able to ensure a brighter future for their company. Insight believes that business model innovation is one of the most powerful ways for organizations to achieve new growth.By carefully adjusting business model components-?the customer value proposition (the offering itself), the profit system (how the company creates value for itself), key resources (the critical things required to deliver on the value proposition), and key processes (how the company organizes and acts to deliver on the value proposition) -?organizations can build the type of competitive advantage necessary to create truly transformation growth. Nan's business model looked good-?on paper, at least.But Nan's impatient push for profits made it hard to re ally validate whether the business model would in fact work, and shut all opportunities for learning. Ana pulled the customer value proposition lever expertly. The company created potently positive solutions to a number of emotional, social, and functional Jobs-to- be-done. The sustainability of Nan's operations and products set a new standard of satisfaction for the emotional Job â€Å"Feel good about 3 the environmental and social consciousness of my clothing. Nan's clothing also satisfied the social Job â€Å"Convey to others that I prioritize the sustainability of my clothing over its color and flash. † And, as lauded by Rock and Ice magazine, Nan's clothing also satisfied myriad functional Jobs related to comfort and technical performance. Since its sustainable materials carried up to a 20-percent price premium over more commercially available materials, Ana had to pass the premium along to customers.But Nan's management team was correct in assuming that the high qualit y and the redeeming social and environmental value of its clothing Justified that premium in the eyes of customers -?as long as the economy was robust enough that sufficient customers could afford it. And Ana broke new ground with its â€Å"Webfoot† stores by implementing a retail business model that required lower capital and operational expenditures than a traditional retail store model. But there was a significant downside to Nan's profit-system choices.Insight recommends that new ventures â€Å"be patient for growth, impatient for profit. † Nan's management expected the company to have 150 stores in operation by 2010, but did not expect profitability until 2009 at the earliest. Growth was thus essential to profitability, creating a significant risk of failure if the company could not reach its early-stage funding goals. Insight also recommends that new ventures pursue an emergent strategy, to take small steps by conducting inexpensive tests of its key assumptions a bout the new racket.When the test results are in, the venture can analyze the results, adjust its strategy accordingly, and then conduct additional tests. This careful approach helps new ventures optimize for success while avoiding huge, potentially fatal resource commitments. In Nan's case, an emergent strategy might have enabled the firm to consume its funding more slowly while developing an optimal strategy. Instead, the team decided to go straight to launching full Webfoot's rather than testing the clothing line in a department store or opening a single, test-store concept.The root cause for the failure of Ana 1. 0 seems to have been that Nan's business strategy and some of its business model decisions proved questionable. By following a more careful, emergent strategy and by focusing on profitability before growth, Nan's executives might have been able to strike a better balance between vision and execution. Ana 2. 0: On June 24, 2008, Nan's fortunes turned around. Horny Toad A ctivities, a Santa Barbara-based lifestyle clothing company, stepped in to buy Nan's assets with the goal of re-launching a modified version of Ana by late summer. While â€Å"Ana 2. † Is gust beginning to emerge, early signs suggest that the re-launch will follow a strategy more closely aligned to that which Insight would recommend for success. Horny Toad creates and sells men's and women's lifestyle and outerwear clothing. Horny Toad's tagging, â€Å"every day is an adventure,† introduces a humorous, irreverent, socially-conscious approach that lies at the core of everything the company does. Indeed, Horny Toad and Ana have much in common. Horny Toad's stated commitment to â€Å"lightening its environmental footprint† and to 4 supporting both the community and organizations that improve the world immediately suggest synergies.Much as Ana showcased the organizations chosen for customer contributions, the Horny Toad website highlights its support for causes rang ing from helping adults with developmental disabilities to supporting clean energy, with a wide range of other environmental and community-activist organizations in between. However, in contrast to Nan's commitment to sell its clothing solely through a growing number of its own stores, Horny Toad has only two stores and sells its clothing in a wide variety of online and brick-and-mortar retailers. In addition to a store inFreeport, Maine, Horny Toad runs the â€Å"Lizard Lounge† in Portland, Oregon, complete with music, wireless access, coffee, and ping-pong. Horny Toad clothing has been lauded for its hip funkiness by print publications and blobs alike. Recognizing the similarities between Ana and Horny Toad, Horny Toad felt that it would support its motto â€Å"do well by doing good† by purchasing Nan's assets and hiring its leadership to help re-launch the clothing line. In addition to providing financial support, Horny Toad will sell Ana clothing in the Lizard Loun ge and, in a break from Nan's original treated, through other retailers as well.And, with Horny Toad's support, a percentage of Ana sales will continue to go to worthy non-profits. According to Nan's â€Å"Thought Kitchen† blob, shortly after the relationship was finalized Ana leadership began working to resurrect relationships with company partners and to put together a Fall/Holiday clothing collection in time for October availability. While the Ana clothing line will continue to deliver on the â€Å"Beauty, Performance, and Sustainability' commitment through the use of environmentally friendly and socially conscious trials and methods, a quote from Nan's website gets to the heart of why Ana 2. May very well succeed while 1. 0 failed: â€Å"As we move forward with the re-launch of Ana, you'll definitely recognize us, but we intend to do some things differently†¦ We're going to start small and grow the business organically in relationship to the demand for our product. We'll continue to sell our product at Ana. Com, but we're also going to partner with select retailers who share our common goals. We will not be operating our own retail stores, at least not in the near term†¦ So stay tuned. We're coming back. Smaller and a little wiser, our ambitions tempered a bit by the experience, but our passions most definitely intact. Ana 2. G's strategy will most likely enable the brand to focus more closely on identifying the product, marketing, and channel mix that appeals most to customers, without worrying about the pressures of rapid expansion. Particularly in a new venture, vision and passion tempered by patience and pragmatism is the way to go. This approach is also particularly appropriate in these tough economic times. Satisfying social and emotional Jobs-to-be-done around environmental friendliness ND social consciousness may be enough to earn significant premiums for clothing in a strong economy.However, during an economic downturn, financia l reality frequently wins out as consumers prioritize value over the satisfaction of some social and emotional Jobs. 5 For example, since the economy began to sour, Whole Foods Market has seen some of its consumers move their food spending to more budget-friendly alternatives. Whole Foods has responded by shifting its marketing strategy from a focus on quality and environmental friendliness to an emphasis on discounts, store brands, and reduce value as it attempts to keep its customers.Even if Ana 1. 0 had received enough funding earlier in 2008 to continue operations, economic conditions would likely have pushed the enterprise to the breaking point, as has happened with many other fledgling clothing boutiques. When Ana 1. 0 launched, its management team made an impressive commitment to the company's values, taking steps such as tracing the wool used in its clothing back to the sheep to ensure that they were well-treated and implementing a â€Å"sustainable† word-of-mouth mar keting strategy.To launch the new Ana, it is clear that the team as had to compromise on some of its values, such as the control provided by company-owned storefronts, a grassroots-only marketing effort, and potentially the level of contribution to nonprofits. In the end, however, the Ana 2. 0 strategy, with the help of Horny Toad, may be the key to enabling the company's sustainable operation. Making their operations as sustainable as their values will help ensure that Ana is able to be a force for good in the world for a long time to come. For more information: http://www. Ana. Com/coming-this-fall. HTML (Accessed 8/29/08, 1 :41 pm) http:// www. Gibbousness. Com/CGI-bin/magma/article. Pl? Articled=30412; http:// gratifiers. Com/content/fullest/? Acid=50781 6 Innovator's Insight In Need of an Innovation Fill-up By Stephen Hunker Recent news that Consulship's will be selling all 600 of its U. S. Service stations for $800 million comes as little surprise. Oil companies are facing ext raordinarily attractive investment opportunities in exploration and production, and the service station business has been tightly squeezed between rising wholesale costs, inability to pass along those cost increases, and falling demand as driving declines.Clearly the station's buyer-?closely held Peterson Fuel-?sees it differently. We do too. In our view, Peterson Fuel is buying cheap assets with lots of innovation headroom. While â€Å"stick to your knitting† is a popular business maxim, it is of course common to find diversified businesses. There are several reasons diversification can make sense: ; If the new business can share costs and customers with the core business-? in this case, owning both enterprises can provide scale economies, improve distribution, create a better buying experience, and other advantages.This is why many European parameters have service stations outside their doors, for example. ; If the new business provides a useful hedge against a core with vo latile returns but a need for consistent investment. This explains why many pharmaceutical firms own over-the-counter consumer healthcare brands. ; By diversifying, a firm can hold on to a seemingly unrelated business because it sees substantial headroom for growth and a right to triumph in that arena. This is one reason News Corporation bought Namespace. Historically, oil companies owned service stations for each of these reasons.The end nonuser drove demand, and having direct access to that consumer allowed firms to exercise some control over demand levels while also gaining precise information about what products were demanded where. Profits from service stations could offset volatility in exploration and production. Also, the advent of convenience stores at service stations created a new high-margin business. Each of these Justifications for integration now seems threatened by changes such as improved information technology, more efficient capital markets, and communication of t he service station experience.With supermarket-owned service stations now coming to the United States, oil companies face new competitors who may even sell gasoline at a loss in order to drive traffic into their stores. In the I-J, pressure from supermarkets is a factor leading to the net closure of 600 service stations per year. The service station business is looking much less attractive than it used to. So, what might Peterson Fuel be thinking? We imagine two major Justifications for the investment. First, if oil prices decline, the profit margins on service stations may rise, and Peterson will have bought valuable assets for a song.Second, there may be much more innovation headroom in this business than oil companies have traditionally assumed. For instance, Fullness Media International offers local news, weather, and sports on screens at pumps at a few hundred stations. Fullness pays the retailer and shows ads to this highly captive audience. Shell is experimenting with fuel pu mps that are activated simply by a swipe of a fingerprint. Dutch inventors have created a robotic arm that finds a car's fuel cap, unscrews it, and automatically pumps gas. Regional fuel retailer Sheets differentiates itself through premium coffee and made- o-order sandwiches.Another retailer, Valier, is piloting 5,000-square-foot convenience stores with fully nonwhite of the space dedicated to fresh food and other perishables. Oil companies would be well-served by thinking through how well the jobs of their customers are getting done, and whether they can De-commoditized the service station business through new propositions or re-definition of the competitive set. Looking through this lens, we can imagine how a mother could prefer a certain service station because it offers very fast, targeted entertainment for bored children n the back seat, or how a senior might prefer one with very brightly lit displays.The advent of electric- and fuel-cell-powered vehicles opens further possibi lities for using service station real estate in new ways. Look at how Best Buy reconciled what an electronics retailer could be, and how it escaped industry communication in the process. While Wall-Mart and others cut prices ruthlessly, Best Buy rolled out Geek Squad-?a service tightly integrated with its retailing business that addressed a wide swath of unsatisfied Jobs its customers faced post-sale. It also became a place to try new videotapes. The store is even trying to become a hub for musicians buying electric guitars and other gear.In the process, the company increased revenue 92 percent over five years, almost entirely through internally generated growth. It turned out that electronics retailing wasn't a commodity business at all. Sometimes a dog business is Just a dog business. MM spun off its floppy disk and magnetic tape business in 1996, and that turned out to be a smart move. But we find it hard to believe that there is little room for profitable innovation in a retail business that hundreds of millions consumers have to visit on a regular basis.When the finance people come knocking, looking to sell downtrodden assets and invest the proceeds in high-flying businesses, lock the doors for a bit. The business may indeed have few prospects. On the other hand, it may support the core business in many oblique but important ways, and it may have far more innovation headroom left to exploit. – â€Å"Consulship's Will Sell Its Company-owned Service Stations†, by Brett Clayton, Houston Chronicle, August 27, 2008 (http://www. Chronic. Com/disk/story. Ml/business/energy/5969574. HTML) 8 â€Å"Finding the Right Job for your Product†, by Clayton Christensen, Scott Anthony, Gerald Brewster and Denies Meetinghouse, Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007 (http://www. Insight. Com/innovation_resources/research. HTML? Id=167) 9 Innovators' Update A Good Start for Amazon AMP Amazon's digital music store keeps sailing on the winds of industry change s Insight #98 from October 2007, â€Å"Handicapping Amazon's Low-Cost Music Store,† suggested that Amazon might find the results of its then newly launched music download store disappointing. What has happened since?By Renee Hopkins Callahan When Amazon launched its Amazon AMP online music download store in September 007, we were skeptical. At the time, Apple had sold more than 100 million pods and tunes had a lock on the online music market. Amazon AMP planned to sell music free of Digital Rights Management (DORM) protection-?a limited supply, since at the time only one of the four major music labels had agreed to make its music available without DORM protection. Amazon AMP seemed unlikely to succeed with a business model focused on undercutting tunes on price, selling songs for 89 cents instead of 99 cents.We were right that the low-cost strategy would not put much of a dent in the popularity of Tunes. Yet circumstances in the year since its launch have helped Amazon refine its strategy and offer a preview of possible success. According to NYPD Group research released in late July, tunes remains on top of the music retail pack. It is the largest music retailer in the world and it sells at least 90 percent of digital downloads in the U. S. However, the same research showed that Amazon AMP has grown to be the fourth-largest retailer of music in the U. S. , behind tunes, Walter, and Best Buy.That puts Amazon AMP in second place for online music download sales. And while here's still a huge gap in volume between tunes and Amazon AMP-?with Amazon's share of the market in single digits-?Amazon is in the game. However, Amazon hasn't accomplished that by stealing tunes customers. Russ Cropping, an entertainment industry analyst for NYPD, said in an April 2008 report that only about 10 percent of Amazon AMP customers used to be tunes users, with the other 90 percent likely to be people who had been using other services or were new to digital downloading.Amazon AMP attracts young adults age 18 to 25, while tunes' strongest demographic is teens age 13 to 17, another April 2008 study said. Amazon has likely benefited from winds of change blowing in the music industry. A number of analysts have speculated that the industry sees Amazon as an ally in an effort to break Apple's dominance in digital music. It would seem counterintuitive that the music industry would want to bypass its richest retail channel. But some of Apple's practices cut profits for the major labels.In late August, the Wall Street Journal reported on a growing trend in the music business: labels deliberately withholding some of their music from tunes. The article cites several cases in which albums were either not made available on Tunes or were pulled. Why? While consumers strongly prefer purchasing music by song, music label executives, managers and even some artists dislike the tunes policy that requires that music be made available by the song as well 10 as by the album, because profit margins for single-song sales aren't nearly as good as the margins for album sales.Meanwhile, Amazon AMP lets labels sell music the way they want to. If a label wishes to make an artist's work available only by the album, Amazon AMP allows it. Some of the music that the labels have been withholding from tunes is ending up on Amazon AMP. The DORM issue has worked to Amazon's benefit as well. Apple's tunes has historically sold Deteriorated downloads. Such encoding means that songs downloaded on tunes cannot be played on other AMP devices. Apple has worked to persuade the major labels to drop DORM, though it still seeks to keep tunes the only source of song downloads for the pod.At the time that Amazon AMP launched, only MIME, one of the four major music labels, had announced it would drop DORM protection on its music. By early January 2008, a few months after Amazon AMP launched, the three other major labels-universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMW- dro pped DORM. That meant their music could be made available on Amazon AMP, which does not use DORM, and which features free software that delivers a customer's AMP file directly to their tunes library.Meanwhile, according to a May 30 Macdonald magazine story, â€Å"Sony, Universal, and Warner continue to withhold the unencumbered tracks from Apple, choosing instead to back tuner's rivals. † Amazon may have more surprises up its virtual sleeve. In late July, Fortune magazine reported that Amazon was in talks with Namespace about becoming the social networking giant's download store partner hen it rolls out its highly anticipated Joint venture with Universal, Warner Music and Sony BMW in September.If the deal goes through, it puts Amazon in a good position to continue nipping at Apple's heels. According to the Fortune report, Namespace plans to let its 120 million users stream entire songs before downloading them. That potentially changes the convenience trade-off for the Namespa ce customers in Amazon's favor, because they would be able to buy a song and get it into their computer's music manager, even tunes, with one click using Amazon's software. Those who wanted to use tunes would have to leave Namespace and physically go to Tunes to accomplish the same end.Clearly, we underestimated the desire of other companies to develop a reasonable Number Two to Apple, a position that Amazon AMP seems to have grown into in the last year. If Amazon can figure out more ways to capitalize on its toehold position in the digital music business,

Anthropological Theory Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Anthropological Theory - Assignment Example The author goes into detail and examines extending of the interconnection and the relationships of such names and tries to place them into their reality. In his idea of interconnections, Eric Wolf states that the reification has led to the misconception of the fact about nations. He cites that nations have been taken as entities that existed independently of one another. However, in his idea of connections, Eric Wolf clearly outlines the relationship between nations dating back a long time ago. Eric Wolf cites the dangers of reification as being that of giving falsehood on the reality of humanity. He cites that there is a neglect of interrelationships between human beings. He gives examples of the spread of diseases from past to present, similarly, he cites the diffusion of people through slavery and servitude to justify his idea of connections. One other danger, Eric Wolf cites in his idea of connections is that reification has led to the misconception and division of disciplines. He gave examples to show how scholars of Sociology and political science split political economy. He cites these examples as misleading misconceptions from scholars. Eric Wolf critically examines social sciences split from political economy. He argues that political economy made sense since it justified the idea of interconnection. He points out that the treatment of independent states, for instance, the United States and Greece as static and in rival by stable internal interactions and control from outside has prevented us from understanding their relationships and confrontations, a fact inconsistent with his idea of interconnections. He further points out that the difficulty is further compounded with the imaginary arrangement and division of nations into blocks as well as civilization based categorizations. Such names like, the East and West, the civilized and developed west and the

Lack of staff training Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Lack of staff training - Essay Example The training and development of staff is predominantly based on the fact that staff skills bear direct relation with the growth of the organization and the requirement to grow the skill is to make the organization grow. Training is regarded as a systematic way of developing knowledge, attitudes and skills of employees to help them perform to the best of their abilities in their respective job roles. The new recruits in organizations have many different skills and may be specialised in a variety of specializations. However, the skills may not be as per the organizational needs and requirements. This is where the need for training and development finds importance in the organizational context. It helps the staff in taking the organization towards its goals and destinations. This project aims to address the issues which might arise due to the lack of staff training in organizations (Olaniyan & Ojo, 2008, p.326). Training, both socially, physically, mentally and intellectually are consid ered to be extremely important for facilitating the productivity of the organization and also for development of the personnel in the organization. ... The organization chosen for the purpose is the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which has decided to make investments in the training and development of its staff (WHICH, 2011). The literature review brings forth the supportive and contradicting arguments for the topic. The study also makes a primary research on the topic. This is done by using the method of questionnaire. Finally the data collected is analysed and based on the analysis the project makes suitable recommendations for the same (Olaniyan & Ojo, 2008, p.326). Chapter 1: Literature Review The demand of the marketplace for quality, speed, customization, punctuality, and variety or services and products has been responsible for dramatically changing the landscape for conducting business across the world. Technology usage, the relentless speed with which technology has been changing and upgrading it, skills which the workplaces demand have completely changed the corporate scenario. The increased pressure which has been coming fr om these factors is acting as the driving force behind the constant search for improved and better performance. This is applicable for the smallest and simplest of tasks to the most complex corporate strategies in organizations today. The nature of this dynamic learning and performance of individuals especially at the management levels have been responsible for converting it into a rat race which does not have a finish line. The broader perspective shows that the individual learning and performance acts as the prime factor which keeps organizations ahead or behind their competitors (Kunneman, Key & Sleezer, 2000, p.40). In the year 1998, a study was conducted by the Training Magazine in US reported that organizations in the nation had been

Article Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Article Critique - Essay Example While the article is helpful as a general information piece, it lacks any substantive depth, and does not draw any conclusions. The author writes of "millions of new jobs" and "a demand for green jobs, which could provide meaningful work", but offers no specifics or details. The author was further challenged by the topic as he could not even offer a definition for the term green job. Due to the immense scope of the topic, and the relative of the issue in the national spotlight, it would be impractical to devise any research based on empirical data or a quantitative study. Research could best be accomplished by a review of the existing literature on the topic and consulting the writings of industry experts. I would examine the experiences that other countries have had with green technology and how it has impacted their employment and economic outlook. In addition, I would make some conjectures and predictions on the impact of energy on the economy if we do nothing. Solar panel technology for residential housing is an area of green technology that has vast potential. At the current cost of solar cells, they are economically impractical without a government subsidy. Currently the federal subsidy is 30 percent, with some states adding an additional amount ("Northern Arizona Wind & Sun"). If the subsidy were 70 percent, it would take the homeowner just 6 years to recover the cost of a system that has a life span of 20 years ("Northern Arizona Wind & Sun"). As the technology gets more developed and manufacturing reaches scale, the price will drop dramatically and the subsidies could be cut back. The long term effect would be to significantly lower the cost of utilities in America and there would be more money in the economy to spend on cars and houses. Closing the coal fired electric plants and replacing them with nuclear facilities would greatly reduce green house gas emissions and create a

Brain Cancer Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Brain Cancer - Research Paper Example The growth of cancer cells in the brain tissue is termed as brain cancer. A tumor or mass of cancer tissue is formed by the cancer cells. These tumors affect the functions of the brain, such as memory, muscle control and memory. Tumors are classified as malignant, when they are comprised of cancer cells. On the other hand, tumors consisting of non – cancerous cells are termed as benign (Davis & Stoppler, 2013). Furthermore, cancer cells resulting from brain tissue are termed primary brain tumors; whereas the cancer cells that spread to the brain from other sites in the body are termed as metastatic brain tumors. It has been projected, by the available statistics that brain cancer could develop in approximately 22,000 individuals per year. Moreover, 13,000 deaths could occur due to cancer (Davis & Stoppler, 2013). Symptoms Individuals with glial origin tumors depict general, non – focal signs and symptoms, or focal manifestations pertaining to the specific region of the brain where the tumor is located. The most frequently observed symptoms among such individuals include headache, nausea, vomiting, generalized seizures and alterations in the level of consciousness. Headache tends to accompany several instances of brain tumors; nevertheless, only a few individuals with headache have a brain tumor (Pan & Prados, 2003). Headache tends to be the sole symptom in a fifth of the patients with brain tumors. Such headaches vary between moderate to severe, tend to be intermittent, and pronounced to a greater degree in the early morning, or increase with coughing and other actions that enhance the intracranial pressure. Headaches that are associated with increased intracranial pressure tend to be generalized, non – focal and non – lateralizing to the location of the tumor. Furthermore, tumors can be localized by headaches that are not associated with enhanced intracranial pressure (Pan & Prados, 2003). In 15% of the cases, the initial manifestat ions of brain tumors are seizures. In addition, 30% of the individuals with brain tumors could develop seizures in the long run. Usually, seizures transpire along with the slower developing and superficial tumors that involve the sensorimotor cortex (Pan & Prados, 2003). Some of the rapidly developing brain tumors may not present seizures as a distinguishing feature, but may do so eventually. With respect to adults, the onset of a new seizure necessitates neuroimaging, so as to eliminate the presence of a brain tumor as the underlying cause. Brain tumors have been seen to prevail to the extent of 10% among patients suffering with generalized seizures (Pan & Prados, 2003). With regard to children, seizures had been observed to result from intracranial tumors in less than a hundredth of the instances. This could be indicative of the fact that the majority of the central nervous system lesions in children transpire infratentorially. All the same, if a child exhibits seizures that tend to be difficult to control, then magnetic resonance imaging techniques have to be used, in order to evaluate the condition. In general, the brain tumors that cause seizures in children tend to be slow growing neoplasms (Pan & Prados, 2003). Increase in intracranial pressure can cause vomiting in a patient with glial tumors. On rare occasions, such vomiting can be due to invasion by the tumor of the vagal nucleus in the posterior fossa. Sometimes, a rapid