word:(😀 新春传统年俗韵味长央视网) questions

Questions

Make a package a5. To this package, add SearchTest.java (Links to an external site.) with starter...

Make a package a5. To this package, add SearchTest.java (Links to an external site.) with starter code for the assignment. You will want to carefully read the comments in this file to see where you need to add code.

Search Experiment

In this assignment you will measure the relative performance of binary search and sequential search on different length arrays. The basic idea is to make an array of random values, sort them, and then compare the performance of binary search and sequential search by searching for different key values.

There are many ways to compare performance. For example, the amount of time spent getting an answer is one way. However, even this simple measure has complications. For example, if part of the experiment is run while playing a game on the same computer, this can distort results. Another issue is that code can run so fast on a computer that it is difficult to capture meaningful timings.

Instead, you will use a simple measure - the number of times a the search loop iterates while searching for the key. This is related to the execution time.

Example binary search and sequential search are implemented in the starter code file. Your job is to copy and modify those so they do not return an index value, but instead the number of times the search loop iterates.

Then, write code in the specified methods to use an array of test data, pick a random key, and search for that key. Since the randomness makes it possible for a particular search to find the key the first time it looks, the experiment code repeats the process of picking a random key and counting the search steps for a number of times. Finally, the results are averaged and returned to main, where the results are summarized. In main, add a loop to report results for different length arrays.

For example, a (very small) test array might look like

[1, 2, 4, 4, 5]

If the number of tests to be run is 3, you would run binary search on that array for three randomly chosen keys, like 1, 4, and 5. Then you would run sequential search for the same array for three randomly chosen keys, like 2, 1, 5. If the number of tests to be run is large enough, the specific keys are not likely to change the results.

You will count up the iterations for each key, add them up, and divide by the number of tests to get an average.

Then, repeat the process for a different-sized array.

You will have to generate random numbers for this. There is an example in the code, and you also made random numbers in Lab 4. Please refer to those instructions or resources from the Internet to remind yourself how that works.

Decide what different sizes of arrays will provide insight into the relative performance of the search techniques. In addition, the bigger the repetitions value, the more accurate the average will be - something like a 100 repetitions is probably fine for this experiment. Record the average for each method in a table with the type of search, the size of the array, and average search count.

Write up a short document in a word processing system (Google docs, MS Word, laTEX) showing the table and a graph where the x axis is the length of the array and the y axis is the average iterations for that size array. Then discuss why you chose the array sizes you tested and what trends you see in the experimental data. A paragraph is likely a reasonable length for discussion. Add your name, assignment, and class to the document. Create a pdf (usually a "Save as" or "Print to" pdf is a mechanism to do that) called SearchReport.pdf.

You do not need to write tests for this assignment. However, you should be carefully checking your code using prints or informal tests that you will remove before submitting. You should interpret the table and graph to see if they make sense given what you know of the behavior of these search approaches.

CODE:

package a5;

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.Random;

/**
 * This class compares the number of operations needed to search using
 * sequential search and binary search.
 * 
 * 
 *
 */
public class SearchTest {

        /**
         * The main method controls the rest of the program. It determines the size of
         * the array to be tested, the number of tests to be done per array, and then
         * runs the tests and outputs some results.
         * 
         * Change this to loop over a range of array sizes such that the results provide
         * insight into the behavior of binary search vs. sequential search.
         * 
         * @param args
         */
        public static void main(String[] args) {

                // MODIFY: Make a loop here to test different array sizes. Running
                // the program should report on average search costs for several sizes.
                int testArraySize = 1_000;
                int numberofTestsPerArray = 100;
                int[] testArray = randomSortedFill(testArraySize);
                double sequentialResults = testNRepetitionsSequential(testArray, numberofTestsPerArray);
                double binaryResults = testNRepetitionsBinary(testArray, numberofTestsPerArray);
                System.out.println("For an array of size " + testArraySize + " the average search costs are:");
                System.out.println("     binaryAvg    : " + binaryResults + " iterations");
                System.out.println("     sequentialAvg: " + sequentialResults + " iterations");
        }

        /**
         * The method tests how many search loop iterations, on average, are needed to
         * search a given int array for different key values using sequential search.
         * The array has values ranging from 0 to length of the array - 1.
         * 
         * Pick a random key in that same range of values. Search for this key in the
         * array and measure the number of search loop iterations by using the
         * methods that need to be implemented below.
         * 
         * Repeat this search on the same array but a new key for numberOfTests times.
         * 
         * Calculate the average tests using the total number of search iterations and the
         * number of tests.
         * 
         * @param randomSortedNumbers: an array of ints filled with random sorted
         *                             values.
         * @param numberOfTests:       the number of times to repeat the tests. Must be
         *                             greater than 0.
         * @return the average iterations used to search the array.
         * 
         */
        public static double testNRepetitionsSequential(int[] randomSortedNumbers, int numberOfTests) {
                return 0.0; // change this code to return the average iterations
        }

        /**
         * The method tests how many search loop iterations, on average, are needed to
         * search a given int array for different key values using binary search.
         * The array has values ranging from 0 to length of the array - 1.
         * 
         * Pick a random key in that same range of values. Search for this key in the
         * array and measure the number of search loop iterations by using the
         * methods that need to be implemented below.
         * 
         * Repeat this search on the same array but a new key for numberOfTests times.
         * 
         * Calculate the average tests using the total number of search iterations and the
         * number of tests.
         * 
         * @param randomSortedNumbers: an array of ints filled with random sorted
         *                             values.
         * @param numberOfTests:       the number of times to repeat the tests. Must be
         *                             greater than 0.
         * @return the average iterations used to search the array.
         * 
         */
        public static double testNRepetitionsBinary(int[] randomSortedNumbers, int numberOfTests) {
                return 0.0; // change this code to return the average iterations
        }

        /**
         * Given a length, make an int array of that length and fill the array with
         * random values from 0 to length-1 (inclusive) int values. Use the Random class
         * to generate these values. The array can have duplicate values, this is not a
         * shuffle of all values from 0 to length-1, but instead length values picked
         * randomly from 0 to length-1.
         * 
         * The values are then sorted in ascending order.
         * 
         * This method has been implemented for you. You do not need to change the
         * documentation for this method.
         * 
         * @param length: the length of an array to be filled with random values.
         * @return the array of sorted random values.
         */
        public static int[] randomSortedFill(int length) {
                Random generator = new Random();
                int[] randomArray = new int[length];
                for (int index = 0; index < randomArray.length; index++) {
                        randomArray[index] = generator.nextInt(length);
                }
                Arrays.sort(randomArray);

                return randomArray;
        }

        /**
         * Search values for the key using binary search. Assumes values is sorted in
         * ascending order. This code is provided as a reminder of how binary search
         * works. You do not need to run it or modify it.
         * 
         * @param values a sorted array of values
         * @param key    the value being searched for
         * @return the index where key is found, or -1 otherwise.
         */
        public static int binarySearchForKey(int[] values, int key) {
                int lo = 0;
                int hi = values.length - 1;
                while (lo <= hi) {
                        int mid = lo + (hi - lo) / 2;
                        if (values[mid] == key)
                                return mid;
                        else if (values[mid] < key)
                                lo = mid + 1;
                        else // if (vals[mid] > key) is the only case left, so we don't need to check it.
                                hi = mid - 1;
                }
                return -1;
        }

        /**
         * Search values for the key using binary search. Assumes values is sorted in
         * ascending order. Count the number of times the search loop repeats.
         * 
         * @param values a sorted array of values
         * @param key    the value being searched for
         * @return the number of search loop iterations.
         */
        public static int binarySearchForKeyWithCount(int[] values, int key) {
                return 0; // change this code
        }

        /**
         * Search values for the key using sequential search. This code is provided as
         * a reminder of how sequential search works. You do not need to run it or
         * modify it.
         * 
         * @param values a sorted array of values
         * @param key    the value being searched for
         * @return the index where key is found, or -1 otherwise.
         */
        public static int sequentialSearchForKey(int[] values, int key) {
                for (int index = 0; index < values.length; index++) {
                        if (key == values[index])
                                return index;
                }
                return -1;
        }

        /**
         * Search values for the key using sequential search. Assumes values is sorted in
         * ascending order. Count the number of times the search loop repeats.
         * 
         * @param values a sorted array of values
         * @param key    the value being searched for
         * @return the number of search loop iterations.
         */

        public static int sequentialSearchForKeyWithCount(int[] values, int key) {
                return 0; // change this code
        }

}

In: Computer Science

Can someone makes this essay more cohesive and involve ways of knowing. Myth Busters: Analyzing the...

Can someone makes this essay more cohesive and involve ways of knowing.

Myth Busters: Analyzing the Science of Memories

The study of psychology is a very controversial and debatable field. Thus, it is no surprise that over the years, various myths have come into the psychology world which may seem completely plausible, and sometimes difficult to discredit. One of these myths is that memory works like a video camera and accurately records events we’ve experienced. The human brain is a very intricate organ. Exploration of the mind has been on going. The storage and retrieval of information in the brain is called memory. Memories are essential for learning and incorporating our experiences into behavior and parcel to our consciousness. In truth our recording of memories is through a biased lens, what we do record is often interpreted through our perceptions which can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of sensory stimulus and when recall what we have stored any incomplete sections are substituted with generic knowledge from a suitable schema. A schema is an organized knowledge structure or mental model stored in memory, which are acquired through past learning and experiences, and the shape our perception. Bartlett and Loftus, two prominent key theorists show great insight into the workings of human memory and provide explanations for the errors we encounter during both encoding and remembering.

The common myth that human memory works like a tape recorder mostly represents the layman's view of how memory works. The truth is far more complex, memory is highly pliable and certainly not infallible. There are many types of memory. Memory is essential for functioning in everyday life, without it you could not operate as a human being. Our memory of an event is influenced by a range of factors, especially personal bias. Information that is supplied to us after the fact can dramatically influence how we reconstruct an event when calling on it from memory. Our memory does not provide a perfect and factual recollection of events, our imagination and schema for how a certain event should be executed can dramatically influence our recollection. Frederick Bartlett described the process of memory as a collaborative function, related to perception, imagining and constructive thinking and based upon previous knowledge, expectations, beliefs and attitudes that are derived from differing sources. Bartlett coined the term Schemata and the idea that remembering is based on the previously mentioned processes can be attributed to him.

To disprove the myth that human memory works like a tape recorder, one must briefly understand a memory model and how memory is thus categorized and stored. Discerning what impacts upon the validity of human memory is a more complex process. As memory is a broad field, the primary focus will be the role of schema and its influence on memory. The Atkinson-Schiffrin model of memory is a three-stage model that is comprised of a sensory memory, a short-term memory and a long-term memory. This model of memory as illustrated in figure 1, shows the process of how memories are stored. Baddeley and Hitch however improved upon this model of memory, creating what is called the working memory model. This model as shown in figure 2 has four sections, the central executive (the supervisory system) and three slave systems, the phonological loop (language), visuo-spatial sketchpad (visual semantics) and the episodic buffer (short term episodic memory). The central executive as it is aptly named controls the actions of all the other slave components. The three basic steps in memory are the initial encoding of an episode, the storage of the information and then the retrieval stage where most errors occur, often due to insufficient attention during encoding, or failure to recover the information.

Preceding Bartlett the studies of qualitive, accuracy focused research on memory were evident amongst gestalt psychologist Koffka 1935 and Riley 1962. Wulf (1922), who had subjects draw geometrical figures from memory, identified two opposite types of changes: sharpening, which involves the exaggeration of selected characteristics of the original figure, and levelling, which entails a weakening of one or more features. These changes were assumed to be progressive, such that later reproductions tend to exaggerate the deviations of the previous ones.

Based on these results, Wulf put forward three causal factors underlying both levelling and sharpening. The first of which, normalizing, refers to changes toward a well-known or conventional figure. Second Wulf coined pointing which refers to changes that emphasize a feature of the stimulus, and autonomous changes, which reflect systematic self-governed modifications of the memory trace toward simpler and more regular patterns, good form. It is the postulation of autonomous, intrinsic changes operating on the memory trace that is unique to Wulf Gestalt perspective.

The Psych textbook defines schema as an "Integrated pattern of knowledge stored in memory that organizes information and guides the acquisition of new information." Put simply a schema is much like a plan that gives the user a familiar routine to follow or a recognizable way of categorizing and dealing with everyday life. We have schemas for nearly everything we do. Therefore, it is no surprise that schemas will affect how memories are reconstructed when there is error in the recollection of a past event. The schema theory claims the content of what people remember is a combination of the input information and their pre-existing schemas. Any generic understanding of how an event should occur will fill the blanks. Schemas have been proven to affect the connection between input and remembering in several different forms, occurring at different stages in the memory process. Alba & Hasher (1983) identified the effects of five basic types of schema processes. These processes, encoding, abstraction, interpretation, and integration, all occur during encoding, with the exception of reconstruction which occurs during retrieval.

All of these effects provide explanations for ways in which memory can fail, or become inaccurate. They are different from forgetting in the understanding that forgetting is a conceived loss of correspondence between the memory and actual occurrence. Selection effects focus more so on the amount of information that is remembered rather than the accuracy. Details of an event that can be incorporated into an active schema have a higher chance of being remembered than information that is irrelevant to the schema. During encoding, the lack of relevant knowledge or a pre conceived schema can dramatically reduce the likelihood the information is to be recalled. (e.g. Johnson 1970) The effects of abstraction are similar to those of selection in that event specific details are often lost as they are encoded under the generic schema for an activity. An example of this is the fact that during encoding of information from a text we do not remember a word for word recount, rather the general gist of it. As does selection effect, this incurs a reduction in the amount of encoded and consequently remembered information. This plays a critical role when determining the validity of a memory and abstraction leaves memory open to alterations and error. For example a witness when asked about their whereabouts at a certain time may try to reconstruct a plausible explanation based upon their schema processes. (Bartlett 1932, Neisser 1967).

Dissimilar to both the selection and abstraction errors during encoding and remembering interpretation refers to actual changes and addition to the input information during encoding. This is where the individual uses schematic knowledge to deduce meaning that goes beyond the actual input event, thus becoming part of the memory and its representation. Interpretation can cause a great deal of interference in recollecting accurately if one from the initial encoding cannot determine the veridicality of the situation. Integration is the combination of various fragments of information into a cohesive schematic episode, either whilst or after initial coding. Integration following the first encoding is largely responsible for post event misinformation effects. It also has some use in attempting to explain the hindsight bias people have after being presented with after the fact information that distorts one’s initial estimation of an events cause or reasoning. The process of reconstruction is used by people trying to remember forgotten details of an events as evidenced when people fail to accurately recall the correct details consistently. Errors in retrieval and the chance of false recall are symptomatic of the process of giving a probable account of an event rather than the actual reiteration of it. The theory that an event is not simply stored in one place but instead groups fragments or features of the event all over the brain gives some plausibility to the faults inherent in reconstruction. Source monitoring is another way whereby the reconstructive nature of memory retrieval can affect the accuracy of the recollection. The experience of not knowing whether we dreamed or actually experienced an event is an example of confusion of the source which can lead to misattribution of information that came from an internal imagining to a real life event or happening. It involves clarifying the detail, our familiarity, the vividness of the event and its context to determine its origin. Examples of a failure to adequately monitor sources are false memories. The work of Elizabeth Loftus holds great importance, beyond a mere fascination with the working of memory it affects the society we live in directly. Like Bartlett's her work highlights the impact of suggestibility, and inference in determining how a memory is reconstructed. This carries serious implications in relation to eyewitness testimonies and examination by lawyers. Loftus developed several studies that investigated the reliability of memory, most famously the false memory experiment and the reconstruction of automobile destruction experiment. The automobile destruction experiment was designed to investigate the implications of the wording of certain questions, having particular importance in relation to leading questions in the courtroom. After being shown a video of two cars crashing participants were then asked a set of questions, the importance being placed on the speed the vehicles were travelling at. As evidenced in figure 3 the more provocative or aggressive the verb used, the higher the estimated impact speed. This shows how wording can influence the reconstruction of a memory and the judgements made of it. It is evident that memory does not accurately record events like a tape recorder.

There are many factors that influence our memories, some of which we do not fully understand. We must remember that our memories are not concrete; they are impressionable and open to personal bias. Not only does our perception play a dramatic role in memory but the fact that very few people can recall every single action or occurrence in an event accurately shows how much schemas contribute to fill the gaps in memory, often without our conscious knowledge.

In: Psychology

INFS 2400 – Challenge Assignment 6 Read ALL of the instructions carefully before starting the exercise!...

INFS 2400 – Challenge Assignment 6

Read ALL of the instructions carefully before starting the exercise!

Dear Colleague,

Earlier today I built my fifth website using HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap4. Bootstrap seems amazing, but it never did what it should do – make my website look better. Also, my page should have a blue theme that was provided in the CSS folder. This also didn’t work.

My website is supposed to look like what is shown in Figures 1 (see below). Someone told me that there are exactly 12 errors in the HTML and 4 errors in the CSS. Yes, 16 errors total! Can you help me find all of the errors?

Oh yeah, and I want the cards used in the ‘My friends’ section to stack in the mobile version (e.g. anything smaller than a small (sm) screen size (see figure two). I think Bootstrap can do a media query using columns – but I’m lost.

Hint: You should not add ANY LINES to the code. There will never be more than one error per line number.

Update both the ca6.html and ca6.css files. Also create a MS Word file describing the errors. More specifically, create a bulleted list describing your improvements and be sure to include the line numbers. Save the MS Word file as ca6_notes_LastName.docx into the ca6-broken folder, rename the folder ca6-fixed, then compress (ZIP) and submit to the Challenge Assignment #6 drop box in D2L.

Code HTML...

<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Class Assignment 5: Get ready to be amazed!</title>

   <script rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/css/bootstrap.min.css">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/bluethemm.css">
   <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
   <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/popper.js/1.12.9/umd/popper.min.js"></script>
   <script src="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.0.0/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

</head>

<body>

<div class="contain pb-1">
<div class="jumbotron">
<h1 class="display-2">Get ready to be amazed!</h1>
<p class="lead">Here is where I will show the world how great my HTML, CSS and Bootstrap skills are. Unfortunately, I am still learning so there are a few errors. =(</p>
</div>
<div>
<h3>About me</h3>
<img align="right" height="200px" width="200px" class="img-rounded" src="img/picture_of_me.jpg" alt="Me in a white room" />
<p>Nulla congue mollis lorem nec convallis. Ut sodales a dolor quis eleifend. Vestibulum non tempus tellus. Morbi non neque sit amet turpis vestibulum euismod et porta erat. Morbi maximus est sit amet rutrum luctus. In varius neque non elementum scelerisque. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Pellentesque luctus sagittis maximus. Pellentesque blandit porttitor purus, eget tincidunt augue elementum vel.
Nulla congue mollis lorem nec convallis. Ut sodales a dolor quis eleifend. Vestibulum non tempus tellus. Morbi non neque sit amet turpis vestibulum euismod et porta erat. Morbi maximus est sit amet rutrum luctus. In varius neque non elementum scelerisque. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Pellentesque luctus sagittis maximus. Pellentesque blandit porttitor purus, eget tincidunt augue elementum vel.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue semper urna et blandit. Morbi et arcu dui. Phasellus vel mauris mi. Phasellus eu placerat velit, sit amet ultrices tellus. Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra.</p>
</div>

<h3>My friends</h3>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue semper urna et blandit. Morbi et arcu dui. Phasellus vel mauris mi. Phasellus eu placerat velit, sit amet ultrices tellus. Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra.</p>

<div class="rows">
<div class="col-sm-12">
   <div class="card">
<div class="card-header">Jamie W.</div>
<div class="card-body">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue semper urna et blandit. Morbi et arcu dui. Phasellus vel mauris mi. Phasellus eu placerat velit, sit amet ultrices tellus. Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra. </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12">
<div class="card">
<div class="card-header">Dietmar N.</div>
<div class="card-body">Phasellus vel mauris mi. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue semper urna et blandit. Morbi et arcu dui. Phasellus eu placerat velit, sit amet ultrices tellus. Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra. </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12">
<div class="card">
   <div class="card-header">Hossein K.</div>
<div class="card-body">Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis congue semper urna et blandit. Morbi et arcu dui. Phasellus vel mauris mi. Phasellus eu placerat velit, sit amet ultrices tellus. Integer at quam viverra dui aliquet pharetra. </div></div>
   </div>
</div>

<h3>My five favorite things:</h3>

       <ul>
        <li>Camping in the midst of the Sossusvlei dunes</li>
        <li>Snorkeling between tectonic plates at Thingvellir</li>
       <li>Kayaking on the Bay of Fundy</li>
       <li>Wandering the streets of Thamel</li>
       <li>Learning HTML, CSS and the Bootstrap framework</li>
        </ul>

<h3>My three favorite MTSU classes (so far):</h3>

<div class="tab-content card mb-5" id="pills-tab-content">

   <div class="tab-pane bg-warning card-body fade show active" role="tabpanel" id="2400">
       <h4>INFS 2400: Web Development</h4>
       <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec iaculis, nisl ut pharetra vehicula, magna mi venenatis nisl, vel pulvinar magna augue in justo. Nunc tempus sodales tortor. Sed auctor lorem nec convallis molestie. Cras tincidunt, urna ac tincidunt ultricies, lacus diam luctus purus, nec fermentum elit leo semper felis.</p>
   </div>

       <div class="tab-pane card-body fade" role="tabpanel" id="2600">
       <h4>INFS 2600: Programming Logic</h4>
       <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec iaculis, nisl ut pharetra vehicula, magna mi venenatis nisl, vel pulvinar magna augue in justo. Nunc tempus sodales tortor. Sed auctor lorem nec convallis molestie. Cras tincidunt, urna ac tincidunt ultricies, lacus diam luctus purus, nec fermentum elit leo semper felis.</p>
   </div>

       <div class="tab-pane card-body fade" role="tabpanel" id="3200">
       <h4>INFS 3200: Business Application Development</h4>
       <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Donec iaculis, nisl ut pharetra vehicula, magna mi venenatis nisl, vel pulvinar magna augue in justo. Nunc tempus sodales tortor. Sed auctor lorem nec convallis molestie. Cras tincidunt, urna ac tincidunt ultricies, lacus diam luctus purus, nec fermentum elit leo semper felis.</p>
   </div>

</div>

</div>

<div class="footer fixed-top" align="center">The best site of the InterWeb, created by me!</div>



</body>
</html>

Code CSS...

@charset "UTF-8";
/* CSS Document for IC5 */

.body {
background-color: #D1EDFF;
}

.container {
bg-color:aliceblue;
}

jumbotron {
background-color: skyblue;
}

.footer {
background-color:skyblue
}

PLEASE MARK ALL #16 ERRORS AND THE LINES THEY ARE FOUND IN THE CODE, and CORRECT THEM, a

In: Computer Science

this what the professor ask to do. Choose one of the poets that we have covered...

this what the professor ask to do. Choose one of the poets that we have covered this semester. Then, choose 3 or 4 poems from that poet. You may choose any poems that you want, whether in our eText or from another source, but be sure to use proper citations for each of them. In a full literary analysis, complete one of the following options: A) Discuss how the poet’s life has influenced his or her poetry. You may find context from his or her childhood, personal experiences, etc. and link them to poems of your choice. Be careful not to give me five pages of biography! B) Discuss a common thread that links multiple poems from the same author (themes, symbolism, settings, etc.). C) Integrate choices A and B into a fully developed thesis.

This is my essay and I chose to Discuss a common thread that links multiple poems from the same author (themes, symbolism, settings)

Pablo Neruda is one of the poet who has revolutionize the world by his works, his poems and his action. He was a man of character, a leader who will stand and defend the cause of his people. As a poet, he has expressed his feelings, his thoughts by writing. As a politician, he has spoke for the people who were not able to defend their right and had the great opportunity to perform his duty as a citizen. He was a leader of great imagination who get to involved in important decisions of his country, a charismatic leader who has used his powerful word to make a difference to people’s life. Born in born July 12, 1904, Parral Chile, Pablo Neruda who the real name was Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto was the son of José del Carmen Reyes, a railway worker, and Rosa Basoalto. His mother died within a month of Neruda’s birth, and two years later the family moved to Temuco, a small town farther south in Chile, where his father remarried. He started to write poems when he was only 10 years old but he father was not agree with his passion to pursue the literature field and never encourage him to proceed in the field of poetry, which is why as a young poet, he published his works under the pseudonym Pablo Neruda, which he was legally to adopt in 1946. The political and poetic ceremony were the two events that has occupied mostly the life of Pablo Neruda. Many of the poems in is collection were about sorrow, heartbreaking or suffering. May be, he was just reflecting the experience of his life. The poet knew that publishing poems under his name will be a bi trouble for him since his father was opposed to that field. He has used a false name to publish a lot of wonderful and powerful poems. Poems with strong word, poems that gives hope to his fellow citizens also poems that speak his feelings. Throughout his collections of poems, three of them have really catch my attention, Keeping Quiet, Leaning into the Afternoons and the Body of a Woman which we going to have a full literary analysis. Poetry must be useful, it must change the world, says Neruda, these three poems when being analyzed have great life lesson that people can follow in order to make a positive change in their lives. Pablo Neruda’s poems were very well known among people as his poems were about emotions, romance with eroticism and the belongingness among people. Poetry was a form that Pablo Neruda has used to explain what was going wrong in his life and in the society in the literature form which got him in many troubles. I like Keeping Quiet this is a wonderful poem where the poet speaks about the power that we find in quietness. The poet mention: For once on the face of the earth, let’s not speak in any language; let’s stop for one second, and not move our arms so much If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive. Now I’ll count up to twelve and you keep quiet and I will go. In this poem, the poet points out the importance of keeping Quiet. In this trouble world, we need sometimes to take the time to keep quiet and think well about our moves. I believe that the poet is trying to tell his readers that quiet they can think properly, discover their weakness, their strength. We live in a world of many languages, a world of confusion, Keeping Quiet is the only way for us to have a clear mind and think properly. Discover our abilities to accomplish thing that we will never think about to achieve when there is no Quietness. Keeping Quiet is the opportunity that we have to open deeply our mind and analyze our lives and the things that we have done. I can say that this is a state of clean up, where we throw all the stress, the anxieties, the depression and pick up our strength to face life. Pablo Neruda in this poem has clearly indicate to his readers the benefits of keeping Quiet. Leaning into the afternoons is another important poem where the poet sadly pours out his heart throughout his writing. The poet, Pablo Neruda sadly describes his feelings of being separated with the love of his life through magnificent oceanic and natural imagery when he has written: " Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad nets towards your oceanic eyes. I send out red signals across your absent eyes that smell like the sea or the beach by a lighthouse. " Again, in this poem, the poet tries to get our attention concerning Quietness. Leaning into the afternoon when the sun goes down close to the ocean and listening the waves of the sea going back and front is a type of meditation where people can meditate clearly. He is far away from the noise, from the turbulence of the world and find a place of Reflection and meditations on the past in order to fix our future. “the Body of a Woman” a poem that Pablo Neruda has used to describes the body of a woman that he loved. He used these words in the poem by saying: Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs, you look like a world, lying in surrender Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk. Oh, the goblets of the breast! Oh, the eyes of absence! Oh, the roses of the pubis! Oh, your voice, slow and sad! Body of a woman, I will persist in your grace. My thirst, my boundless desire, my shifting road! Even though this poem celebrates the ‘body of a woman’, it also carries an undertone of infinite longing – an existential awareness of the distance between lovers, as well as the ways in which we use love, sex, and ‘connection’ as a method of survival in this world. (genius.com). In the poem the Body of Woman, Pablo Neruda compare the Earth to woman and woman is the earth. This poem describes deeply Pablo Neruda's intense need to love, as he compares this milky white lover of his as important as the earth upon which we all live and the preservation of her and of love are causes worth fighting for. (collegelisted.com) Pablo Neruda has always used poems in order to express his feelings. The Body of a Woman was not excluded from the list. The poet, Pablo Neruda has used the body of a woman as a metaphor for the earth. He is saying that the woman is the earth - Mother Earth, giver of live. for this woman, that he loves. These three poems “Keeping Quiet”, “Leaning into the Afternoons” and “the Body of a Woman” have something in common, a connection within them. The poet throughout his writing always point out love and nature. These two things have been referred a lot by the poet in these three poems. Even though each of them has touch a different aspect of life, in which are relatable to everyone. we can gather from Pablo’s literature works the experienced he has with both good and bad things that happened in his life and which was reflected in his poetry. We had learned many significant things about Pablo from his poem’s, we had learned that Pablo had experienced a connection with love nature and politics. These emotions and feelings are intertwined with Pablo’s Poems “Keeping Quiet”, “Leaning into the afternoons” and “The body of a woman “are three wonderful poems that are interconnected and at the same time they have different view which make the readers very anxious to read them. The difference within them make their beauty, each poem is special in his own way.

This is the teacher correction. Overall, this essay has two major issues: focus and development. With respect to focus, my concern is that in many places it is unclear whether you are addressing any of the prompts (A, B, C) from the assignment description. You do touch on a few items from A and B, but shift between the two throughout the essay, with no clear map of what will happen laid out in the introduction. With respect to development, a potentially bigger concern is that the actual analysis carried out in the essay is extremely vague, making sweeping or shallow statements without any explanation of what in the poems leads you to believe what you argue about them and the poet. Answering the questions I pose in the comments should help on both of these fronts.

Can you please help me with the essay?

In: Psychology

From the article "An Introduction to Ancient (Classical) History". Answer the following question; According to the...

From the article "An Introduction to Ancient (Classical) History".

Answer the following question;

According to the article, how does writing influence history?

Answer in full sentences. Do not attach files. Answer in your own words utilizing what you have read.

One brief (but complete) paragraph is good.

the article:

by N.S. Gill

Updated October 11, 2017

While the definition of "ancient" is subject to interpretation, ThoughtCo uses specific criteria when discussing ancient history, a period of time distinct from:

Prehistory: The period of human life that came before (i.e., prehistory [a term coined, in English, by Daniel Wilson (1816-92), according to Barry Cunliffe

Late Antiquity/Medieval: The period that came at the end of our period and lasted into the Middle Ages

Meaning of "History"

The word "history" may seem obvious, referring to anything in the past, but there are some nuances to keep in mind.

Pre-history: Like most abstract terms, pre-history means different things to different people. For some, it means the time before civilization. That's fine, but it does not get at an essential difference between pre-history and ancient history.

Writing: For a civilization to have a history, it must have left written records, according to a very literal definition of the word 'history.' "History" comes from the Greek for 'inquiry' and it came to mean a written account of events.

Although Herodotus, the Father of History, wrote about societies other than his own, in general, a society has a history if it provides its own written record. This requires the culture to have a system of writing and people schooled in the written language. In early ancient cultures, few people had the ability to write.

It wasn't a question of learning to manipulate a pen to form 26 squiggles with consistency—at least until the invention of the alphabet. Even today, some languages use scripts that take years to learn to write well. The needs of feeding and defending a population require training in areas other than penmanship.

Although there were certainly Greek and Roman soldiers who could write and fight, earlier on, those ancients who could write tended to be connected with a priestly class. It follows that much ancient writing is connected with that which was religious or holy.

Hieroglyphs

People can devote their entire lives to serving their god(s) or their god(s) in human form. The Egyptian pharaoh was the reincarnation of the god Horus, and the term we use for their picture writing, hieroglyphs, means holy writing (lit. 'carving'). Kings also employed scribes to record their deeds, especially ones that redounded to their glory—like military conquests. Such writing can be seen on monuments, like stele inscribed with cuneiform.

Archaeology & Prehistory

Those people (and plants and animals) who lived before the invention of writing are, by this definition, prehistoric.

Prehistory goes back to the beginning of life or time or the Earth.

The area of pre-history is the domain of academic fields with the Greek form arche-'beginning' or paleo-'old' attached. Thus, there are fields like archaeology, paleobotany, and paleontology (dealing with the time before people) that look at the world from before the development of writing.

As an adjective, prehistoric tends to mean before urban civilization, or simply, uncivilized.

Again, prehistoric civilizations tend to be those without written records.

Archaeology & Ancient History

Classicist Paul MacKendrick published The Mute Stones Speak (a history of the Italian peninsula) in 1960. In this and its follow-up two years later, The Greek Stones Speak(archaeological excavations of Troy conducted by Heinrich Schliemann, provide a basis for his history of the Hellenic world), he used the non-written findings of archaeologists to help write history.

Archaeologists of the early civilizations often rely on the same materials as historians:

Both take note of artifacts that survive the elements, like ones made from metal or pottery (but unlike most clothing and wooden products that decay in most environments).

Underground burial sites may contain and protect objects that would have been used in life.

Housing and those structures deemed ceremonial fill in more gaps.

All these can corroborate the written information, should it exist at the time.

Different Cultures, Different Timelines

The dividing line between pre-history and ancient history also varies across the globe. The ancient historic period of Egypt and Sumer started about 3100 B.C.E.; perhaps a couple of hundred years later writing began in the Indus Valley. Somewhat later (c. 1650 B.C.E.) were the Minoans whose Linear A has not yet been deciphered. Earlier, in 2200, there was a hieroglyphic language in Crete. String writing in Mesoamericabegan about 2600 B.C.

That we may not be able to translate and make use of the writing is a problem of historians, and would be a worse one if they refused to avail themselves of the non-written evidence. However, by using the pre-literate material, and contributions from other disciplines, especially archaeology, the boundary between prehistory and history is now fluid.

Ancient, Modern, and the Middle Ages

Generally, ancient history refers to the study of life and events in the distant past. How distant is determined by convention.

The Ancient World Evolves Into the Middle Ages

One way to define ancient history is to explain the opposite of ancient (history). The obvious opposite of "ancient" is "modern", but ancient didn't become modern overnight. It didn't even turn into the Middle Ages overnight.

The Ancient World Makes a Transition in Late Antiquity

One of the transitional labels for a time period that crosses over from the ancient classical world is "Late Antiquity."

This period covers the period from 3rd or 4th through 6th or 7th centuries (formerly, roughly the period known as the "Dark Ages").

This period was the one in which the Roman Empire became Christian, and

Constantinople (later, Istanbul), rather than Italy, came to dominate the empire.

At the end of this period, Mohammad and Islam started to become defining forces, which makes

Islam a firm terminus ante quem (a term to learn, it means 'point before which') the period of ancient history ended.

The Middle Ages

Late Antiquity overlaps the period known as the Middle Ages or Medieval (from Latin medi(um) 'middle' + aev(um) 'age') period.

The Middle Ages were a period of great change, bringing Europe from the Classical age to the Renaissance.

As a transitional period, there is not a single, clear breaking point with the ancient world.

Christianity is important to the Middle Ages and polytheistic worship is important to the ancient period, but the change was more evolutionary than revolutionary.

There were various events along the path to a Christian Roman Empire within the ancient period, from the acts of toleration permitting Christians to worship within the Empire to the elimination of imperial and pagan cults, including the Olympics.

Edict of Milan

Origin of the Olympics

Emperor Theodosius who ended the Olympics

The Last Roman

In terms of labels affixed to people of Late Antiquity, 6th-century figures Boethius and Justinian are two of the "last of the Roman..." whatevers.

Boethius (c. 475-524) is called the last of the Roman philosophers, writing a treatise in Latin, De consolatione philosophiae 'On the Consolation of Philosophy,' and translating Aristotle on logic, with the result that Aristotle was one of the Greek philosophers available to scholars in the Middle Ages.

Justinian (483 - 565) is called the last Roman emperor. He was the last emperor to expand the empire and he wrote a law code that summarized the Roman legal tradition.

End of Roman Empire in A.D. 476
Gibbon's Date

Another date for the end of the period of ancient history -- with a substantial following -- is a century earlier. Historian Edward Gibbon established A.D. 476 as the end point of the Roman Empire because it was the end of the reign of the last western Roman emperor. It was in 476 that a so-called barbarian, the Germanic Odoacer sacked Rome, deposingRomulus Augustulus.

Fall of Rome

Sack of Rome in 410

Veientine Wars and the Gallic Sack of Rome in 390 B.C.

The Last Roman Emperor
Romulus Augustulus

Romulus Augustulus is called the "last Roman emperor in the West" because the Roman Empire had been split into sections at the end of the 3rd century, under Emperor Diocletian. With one capital of the Roman Empire at Byzantium/Constantinople, as well as the one in Italy, the removal of one of the leaders is nottantamount to destroying the empire. Since the emperor in the east, in Constantinople, continued for another millennium, many say that the Roman Empire only fell when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453.

Taking Gibbon's A.D. 476 date as the end of the Roman Empire, however, is as good an arbitrary point as any. The power in the west had shifted before Odoacer, non-Italians had been on the throne for centuries, the empire had been in decline, and the symbolic act put paid to the account.

The Rest of the World

The Middle Ages is a term applied to the European heirs of the Roman Empire and generally wrapped up in the term "feudal." There is not a universal, comparable set of events and conditions elsewhere in the world at this time, the end of Classical Antiquity, but "Medieval" is sometimes applied to other parts of the world to refer to the times before their era of conquest or feudal periods.

For more details, please see Europe's Kingdoms From the Ashes of the Roman Empire.

Major Events in Ancient History

Ancient/Classical History Glossary

Terms Contrasting Ancient History with the Medieval Period

Ancient History	Medieval
Many Gods	Christianity & Islam
Vandals, Huns, Goths	Genghis Khan and the Mongols, Vikings
Emperors / Empires	Kings / Countries
Roman	Italian
Citizens, foreigners, slaves	Peasants (serfs), nobles
The Immortals	The Hashshashin (Assassins)
Roman Legions	Crusades

In: Psychology

ACT 5140 – Accounting for Decision Makers HW #1 Directions: Answer all the questions. Please submit...

ACT 5140 – Accounting for Decision Makers HW #1 Directions: Answer all the questions. Please submit your work in Word or PDF formats only. You can submit an Excel file to support calculations, but please “cut and paste” your solutions into the Word or PDF file. Be sure to show how you did your calculations. Also, please be sure to include your name at the top of the first page of your file. Question #1 • Using the accompanying financial statements (Excel Workbook), assess The Home Depot concerning liquidity, solvency, profitability, and stock performance. For each area, you should calculate the ratios from the “Ratios for Home Depot file “ and provide a brief analysis of the ratios calculated. You do not need to perform vertical analysis for this assignment. I include historical stock price information and outstanding common share information below. You do not need to look beyond the financial statements to complete this assignment. Fiscal Year Ended 2/1/2015 2/2/2014 2/3/2013 1/29/2012 Adjusted Closing Price $103.34 $74.44 $63.87 $41.67 Common Shares Outstanding (millions) 1,307 1,380 1,486 1,523 HOME DEPOT INC $ in millions Year Ending 2/1/2015 2/2/2014 2/3/2013 1/29/2012 OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net earnings $6,345 $5,385 $4,535 $3,883 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 1,786 1,757 1,684 1,682 Stock-based compensation expense 225 228 218 215 Goodwill impairment (323) 0 97 0 Changes in Assets and Liabilities, net of the effects of acquisition and disposition Receivables, net (81) (15) (143) (170) Merchandise inventories (124) (455) (350) 256 Other current assets (199) (5) 93 159 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 244 605 698 422 Deferred revenue 146 75 121 (29) Income taxes payable 168 119 87 14 Deferred income taxes 159 (31) 107 170 Other long-term liabilities (152) 13 (180) (2) Other 48 (48) 8 51 Net cash provided by operating activities $8,242 $7,628 $6,975 $6,651 INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Capital expenditures (1,442) (1,389) (1,312) (1,221) Proceeds from sales of investments 323 0 0 0 Proceeds from sale of business 0 0 0 101 Payments for business acquired (200) (206) (170) (65) Proceeds from sales of property & equipment 48 88 50 56 Net cash used by investing activities ($1,271) ($1,507) ($1,432) ($1,129) FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from short-term borrowings, net 290 0 0 0 Proceeds from long-term borrowings, net of discount 1,981 5,222 0 1,994 Repayments of long-term debt (39) (1,289) (32) (1,028) Repurchases of common stock (7,000) (8,546) (3,984) (3,470) Proceeds from sales of common stock 252 241 784 306 Cash dividends paid to stockholders (2,530) (2,243) (1,743) (1,632) Other financing activities (25) (37) (59) (218) Net cash used by financing activities ($7,071) ($6,652) ($5,034) ($4,048) Change in Cash and Cash Equivalents ($100) ($531) $509 $1,474 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (106) (34) (2) (32) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 1,929 2,494 1,987 545 Cash and cash equivalents at end of year $1,723 $1,929 $2,494 $1,987 SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF CASH PAYMENTS MADE FOR Interest, net of capitalized interest $782 $639 $617 $580 Income taxes $3,435 $2,839 $2,482 $1,865 HOME DEPOT INC $ in millions Year Ending 2/1/2015 2/2/2014 2/3/2013 1/29/2012 OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net earnings $6,345 $5,385 $4,535 $3,883 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 1,786 1,757 1,684 1,682 Stock-based compensation expense 225 228 218 215 Goodwill impairment (323) 0 97 0 Changes in Assets and Liabilities, net of the effects of acquisition and disposition Receivables, net (81) (15) (143) (170) Merchandise inventories (124) (455) (350) 256 Other current assets (199) (5) 93 159 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 244 605 698 422 Deferred revenue 146 75 121 (29) Income taxes payable 168 119 87 14 Deferred income taxes 159 (31) 107 170 Other long-term liabilities (152) 13 (180) (2) Other 48 (48) 8 51 Net cash provided by operating activities $8,242 $7,628 $6,975 $6,651 INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Capital expenditures (1,442) (1,389) (1,312) (1,221) Proceeds from sales of investments 323 0 0 0 Proceeds from sale of business 0 0 0 101 Payments for business acquired (200) (206) (170) (65) Proceeds from sales of property & equipment 48 88 50 56 Net cash used by investing activities ($1,271) ($1,507) ($1,432) ($1,129) FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from short-term borrowings, net 290 0 0 0 Proceeds from long-term borrowings, net of discount 1,981 5,222 0 1,994 Repayments of long-term debt (39) (1,289) (32) (1,028) Repurchases of common stock (7,000) (8,546) (3,984) (3,470) Proceeds from sales of common stock 252 241 784 306 Cash dividends paid to stockholders (2,530) (2,243) (1,743) (1,632) Other financing activities (25) (37) (59) (218) Net cash used by financing activities ($7,071) ($6,652) ($5,034) ($4,048) Change in Cash and Cash Equivalents ($100) ($531) $509 $1,474 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (106) (34) (2) (32) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 1,929 2,494 1,987 545 Cash and cash equivalents at end of year $1,723 $1,929 $2,494 $1,987 SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF CASH PAYMENTS MADE FOR Interest, net of capitalized interest $782 $639 $617 $580 Income taxes $3,435 $2,839 $2,482 $1,865 HOME DEPOT INC $ in millions Year Ending 2/1/2015 2/2/2014 2/3/2013 1/29/2012 OPERATING ACTIVITIES: Net earnings $6,345 $5,385 $4,535 $3,883 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to net cash provided by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 1,786 1,757 1,684 1,682 Stock-based compensation expense 225 228 218 215 Goodwill impairment (323) 0 97 0 Changes in Assets and Liabilities, net of the effects of acquisition and disposition Receivables, net (81) (15) (143) (170) Merchandise inventories (124) (455) (350) 256 Other current assets (199) (5) 93 159 Accounts payable and accrued expenses 244 605 698 422 Deferred revenue 146 75 121 (29) Income taxes payable 168 119 87 14 Deferred income taxes 159 (31) 107 170 Other long-term liabilities (152) 13 (180) (2) Other 48 (48) 8 51 Net cash provided by operating activities $8,242 $7,628 $6,975 $6,651 INVESTING ACTIVITIES: Capital expenditures (1,442) (1,389) (1,312) (1,221) Proceeds from sales of investments 323 0 0 0 Proceeds from sale of business 0 0 0 101 Payments for business acquired (200) (206) (170) (65) Proceeds from sales of property & equipment 48 88 50 56 Net cash used by investing activities ($1,271) ($1,507) ($1,432) ($1,129) FINANCING ACTIVITIES: Proceeds from short-term borrowings, net 290 0 0 0 Proceeds from long-term borrowings, net of discount 1,981 5,222 0 1,994 Repayments of long-term debt (39) (1,289) (32) (1,028) Repurchases of common stock (7,000) (8,546) (3,984) (3,470) Proceeds from sales of common stock 252 241 784 306 Cash dividends paid to stockholders (2,530) (2,243) (1,743) (1,632) Other financing activities (25) (37) (59) (218) Net cash used by financing activities ($7,071) ($6,652) ($5,034) ($4,048) Change in Cash and Cash Equivalents ($100) ($531) $509 $1,474 Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents (106) (34) (2) (32) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year 1,929 2,494 1,987 545 Cash and cash equivalents at end of year $1,723 $1,929 $2,494 $1,987 SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURE OF CASH PAYMENTS MADE FOR Interest, net of capitalized interest $782 $639 $617 $580 Income taxes $3,435 $2,839 $2,482 $1,865

In: Accounting

Please read the article and answear about questions. The Need for Promotion You’ve experienced your business...

Please read the article and answear about questions.

The Need for Promotion

You’ve experienced your business “light bulb” idea for a terrific new product or service. You’ve organized an office complete with desk, phone, and computer, and you may possibly even have a small storefront or service vehicle. By all accounts, you are in business. Now ask yourself this: Does your target market know you exist?

In order for customers to purchase your goods and services, you must first go to them. You need to advertise and actively promote your business before you can expect inquiries into what you have to offer. While there are a handful of promotional means that are standard for all business ventures, entrepreneurs’ limit to promotions is their own creativity.

Unless you know enough customers to keep you in business from the day you open up, you need to gain customers. To some extent, that is a game of numbers. To get people to buy what you are offering, you first need to make an impression on them, letting them know who you are and what you are offering. Those who have some interest become your sales leads and the most interested ones become your prospects for a sale. So at a fundamental level, promotion drives sales. How many prospects? Marketers talk about the marketing funnel, a rule of thumb about how many prospective customers it takes to find one who will actually make a purchase. For mass market and Internet advertising, the typical ratio is 1000 to 1.

Promotion is essential to gaining the attention of people in the general audience, and any- thing you can do to improve your marketing will improve your chances of making a sale. The funnel provides some insights into recognizing what is truly important in the marketing process. For this funnel, every customer you keep saves you from having to contact 1,000 new people in the general audience to find a replacement customer—so improving customer loyalty is tremendously important. We will talk about loyalty and other postsale issues later in this chapter.

The funnel illustrates selling to the general public, but what if you could target people you al- ready know have a reason to be interested in your goods or services? Maybe one or two people in a thousand would buy a baseball glove, but what if you could target people playing baseball? Instead of two sales per thousand, with qualified leads like people already playing baseball, you might be able to sell 10 times as many gloves, or more.

Following Figure 10.1, in this chapter we will talk about defining your target market and deter- mining how to identify segments like those already playing baseball. We then discuss the methods of promotion including social media, public relations, and press relations. We conclude the chapter with a discussion of personal selling, and managing postsale relations in order to retain as many customers as you can. But first, as is true in so much of entrepreneurship, it all starts with you, your ideas for your business, and its goods or services. Because all promotion is about the value you can provide your customer.

The Basics: Crafting Your Value Proposition

Chapter 7 introduced the idea of value and cost benefit. This was further developed by talking about your total product in Chapter 9. As you recall, your total product is not just the bare bones object or service you provide, but what it means to your customers. You don’t just do a great job cleaning houses; you provide free time to your customers. You don’t just sell desks; you handcraft beautiful and functional desks in exotic woods. You can talk about your competitive edge—what you do bet- ter than your competition—or your distinctive competency—what you do that no one else does, but what it all boils down to is your value proposition.2

Youcanthinkofdefiningyourvaluepropositionalongthesamecategoriesofvalueandcostben- efits of quality, style, delivery, service, technology, shopping ease, place, and scale and scope. For eachofthecategoriesmentionedinChapter7,thinkabouthowyourcompany,product,orserviceis differentfromanyoneelse’s.Undereachcategory,answerafewquestionsasobjectivelyasyoucan:

? Why would someone want your product or service? What need does it fill? List the benefits and the problems it solves. In what way does it improve the life of the user?

? Would you personally buy this product? Why or why not? The “why nots” may give you an insight into potential weaknesses or categories of differentiation that you need to work on.

From there, you can then start to determine who will most benefit from your product or service. Begin with these questions:

? Who, in your opinion, is most likely to buy it? Be as specific as you can. How old are they? Male or female? Where do they live? Where do they work? These people are your primary target market. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have second-or third-tier markets.

? How does your primary target market currently go about buying existing products or services of this type? What are its sources of information? Word-of-mouth? Trade publications? Yellow Pages? The Internet?3

By answering these questions, you can start to further develop the value of your product and ways you can find and communicate with your customers. Once you know who needs your product or service, you can begin to craft your value and message directly to where your market would look to find information related to your small business. Skill Module 10.1 will help you develop a value proposition.

Segmenting Your Market

Many entrepreneurs have trouble answering the question, “Who is your target market?” Most en- trepreneurs assume that everyone is their target market. Why should an entrepreneur care who buys their product, as long as it’s sold? If pressed, the entrepreneurs can usually tell you who is most likely to buy their product or service and why. When they can tell you this, they have targeted their market. Although targeting and market segmentation are more fully discussed in Chapter 12, there are some concepts that are important to know in order to understand promotion.

Segmentation is the process of dividing the market into smaller portions of people who have certain common characteristics. Your target market is the segment or segments you select on which to concentrate your marketing efforts. A marketer can chose more than one target market, but it is customary for a smaller business to concentrate its efforts on one target market at the beginning and consider secondary ones later. Marketers use information on the target market’s wants and needs in order to tailor the product or service, as well as its price, distribution, and promotion.4

Dividing the market into different segments can be done in a number of ways. Some of the more typical ways include geographically (in a certain city or neighborhood), demographically (income, age, religion, ethnicity, and many others), or by the benefits sought (clothing that is practical, styl- ish, for a particular sport, etc.). Most companies will use several ways of segmenting to come up with their final target market. For example, the Beacon Street Girls products were segmented by gender (girls) and age (9–13). In addition, the fact that they were into values and community service would be a form of benefit segmentation. Beacon Street Girls also had primary and secondary target markets—the girls and their parents and other gift givers.

Let’s start with an example: you run a day care center. Who is your market? For starters, it is small children, or at least, the parents of small children. You have segmented by life cycle position; that is, you have eliminated children, teenagers, senior citizens, and parents of older children. But this really does not eliminate very many potential customers. How else could you limit your poten- tial customers? Driving distance, say 15 miles, is a popular limit since parents are unlikely to want to drive too far. Income, or disposable income, is also a key segmentation device. Families need to be rich enough to afford your service but not so rich as to hire nannies. Other segmentation ideas include schedule (parents who work evenings and nights) or children’s hobbies (e.g., offering soccer or music lessons). The more accurately you define your segment, the closer you come to defining your target market.

Using our example from above, let’s say that you are located in a town with a large Hispanic population (Phoenix) and all of your day care workers are fluent in Spanish. Your day care center is located in a middle-class, Hispanic area where most households are dual income parents with several children. Your research has shown only a couple of nearby competitors and none of them have the bilingual staff that you have. This opens up the opportunity for the business approach you have in mind, targeting a bilingual day care center for the Hispanic parents needing day care. A potential secondary market might be non-Hispanic families who desire their children to be fluent in Spanish—a market that could be considered at another time.

With the target market defined, it becomes easier to determine what information customers need in order to make a decision to buy your service. The Juarez family (as we imagine our typical cus- tomer) needs to find a day care center for little Tomas, who speaks a mix of English and Spanish. Good news! At your center he is not likely to be misunderstood. Other benefits include being able to leave instructions in English or Spanish or having children get a mix of both cultures, such as holi- day and birthday celebrations, stories that are read, decorating colors, the day care center’s name, and such. These are things that an entrepreneur could use to make this day care center “perfect” for a bilingual clientele.

Promotion includes getting the message out to the target market so that they can make decisions about your product or service. When advertising, your day care center will want to mention the lan- guage abilities and other benefits likely to be important to the target market. In order to catch the eye of the audience, the advertising might make use of Hispanic music, a Hispanic model/spokesperson, or symbols that will resonate with the Hispanic culture. (In the Phoenix area, perhaps a Mexican flag would work well.) It is likely to run ads in Spanish or at least partially in Spanish. It is also likely useful to use local Spanish television, radio, or newspapers depending on its budget and the ability of these media to reach the target market. Your day care center may send out mailers in the local area and other predominately Hispanic neighborhoods.5 Parents who visit the day care center would likely hear a sales pitch that was directed to cares and concerns of this target market.

Consider, for a moment, promotion for the secondary market mentioned earlier: the non-Hispanic parents that wanted their children to be fluent in Spanish. Now the ads are likely to be in English. They are likely to run in different media. Mailings would go out to other areas. The sales pitch that the prospective parents would hear would likely be much different.

So how do you do this for your particular product or service? First of all, consider where your target market gets the information they need to make purchasing decisions. Is it the Internet? From their friends? From magazines such as Consumer Reports? From television or radio ads? From talking to the clerks at the stores? Or is your product something they will buy without much prior thought processes—an impulse purchase. These all have implications on where you will put your message in order to make sure they see it.6

Secondly, what features about your product or service are important to your target market? That is, what is it they are looking for when considering buying this product or service? Is it cost? Reli- ability? Technology? Appearance? Fitting in with their peer group? Convenient location? How do what the customers deem important fit in with your product or service? (If your customers are motivated by price and your product’s distinction is style, technology, or other factors that increase price, maybe you have the wrong target market—or the wrong product for that market.) Knowing what the customer wants will help you determine what to say about your product or service. If you really aren’t sure about where they get their information or what they want, try checking out your competitors’ ads—your successful competitors, that is. While you’ll want to be different in your message content, you can get a lot of hints from what is already working.7

Next, what will get your target market to pay attention to your message? Are you going to use rap music or classical music? Will the people in your message be wearing grunge or high fashion, business professional or jeans and a T-shirt? Will you use bold colors and exotic fonts, or will you use understated elegance? One of the major mistakes an entrepreneur can make is to choose an ap- pealing (to them) message or media, instead of picking one which matches the demographics—and tastes—of the target market.8

The answers to these questions are determined by a person’s age, gender, ethnicity, education, income level, profession, geographic region, personality, and a myriad of other factors. This is what makes defining your target market accurately so important. While many entrepreneurs have dif- ficulty selecting only one target market, it is nearly impossible to design a message that will appeal universally or to find media that will reach all consumers. These rather generic messages often end up appealing to nearly no one and can be a considerable waste of marketing dollars.

A word of caution: unless you are particularly artistic, do not create your own promotional pieces. It is quite acceptable to sketch out concepts, suggest colors, symbols, and other features and to retain final approval, but expect to spend a little money getting professional artistic help. A graphic artist is well worth the investment. If you have an exceptionally tight budget, consider asking a graphic design department at a local university to use you as a class project or for a student who is willing to do the work for minimal cost and a chance to include the results in his or her portfolio.9

Once you have a clear idea of who your target customer is, a world of data is available to help you think about their habits. Many of the large marketing firms offer information on predetermined market segments based on their own unique approaches. Nielsen, a company you probably recall is famous for television ratings, has several types of segmentation analyses. The one that fits for most consumer-oriented firms is called Prizm (www.MyBestSegments.com). For nearly any zip code in the United States, Prizm can tell you the predominant groups in it.

For the day care center, our entrepreneur defined the target market based on personal contacts, discussions, and first-hand research. With the target market defined and the likely areas (specifically zip codes) identified, it is possible to supplement the personal work with information on predeter- mined market segments. Prizm, for example, will identify the five largest market segments within a specific zip code for free. For each segment, Prizm provides a free, detailed, rundown about the buying habits and demographics of this group. For the day care center, one of the likely zip codes is 85008. In that zip code the Prizm segment “New Beginnings” is one of the top five. The information on the segment is shown on this page.

The information in these predetermined market segments can help you identify the financial and shopping characteristics of the group, which can be difficult questions to ask people face to face. These segments can also be a useful check on your own analyses of your target market.

Competitors to Prizm include Esri’s Tapestry model (www.esri.com/data/esri_data/tapestry .html) and Strategic Business Insights’ VALS survey (www.strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals/). Each provides descriptions of their segments, as well as the opportunity to see some data for free by

zip code. Additional data requires a fee. If you want to know the general characteristics of particu- lar zip codes without the addition segmentation analysis, you can use any of the new crop of free zip code data sites, like www.zipwho.com, www.censusscope.org, www.zipskinny.com, or www .city-data.com, the use of which are shown in Skill Module 11.2. There is also a mountain of free data available at www.census.gov for areas, businesses, and households.

Why don’t we recommend using these carefully crafted segments first? Because the essential strength of small business owners is that they are close to their customers. Good entrepreneurs under- stand their customers and their needs at a personal level. It actually hurts your ability to define your own target market if you first rely on some other group’s or firm’s idea of who the target audiences are. The only certain way for you to know your customers is to start looking for them personally, finding out what they are like personally, and hearing what they have to say personally. Then you have a basis for deciding if and how these predetermined market segments fit any of your real cus- tomers. If they do, then these commercial products can help you know more about your customers, but they can never really replace the knowledge you first build about your customers on your own.

Crafting Your Message

American consumers are bombarded by messages all day, for example, a Yankelovich Advertising Agency study reported the average person was exposed to 5,000 ad messages a day.10 However, many of us screen out most of the commercials we see or hear. Even when an advertisement catches our eye, we are likely to spend only a few seconds at most considering it unless it is of special importance to us. For example, if you are in the new car market, the car advertisements suddenly become more visible to you, but even when you are interested and move down the marketing funnel from having an impres- sion to becoming a sales lead, you may have a poor recall of any ads you’ve seen. Was it the funny ad or the one with the special effects? Ad recall is a major problem for all advertisers.

The bottom line consists of two questions: How can you get the attention of your potential cus- tomer? If a potential customer sees or hears your message and walks away with only one thought about your firm, your product, or your service, what do you want that to be?

The how has been addressed somewhat by thoroughly investigating your target market and find- ing out what they like. This will give us a good idea of where they are likely to be exposed to our messages. This will also give us a good idea of how our messages should be designed.11 So if you did a good job on the target market analysis introduced earlier, you should know where they look and what they want. That leaves crafting a message that fits their needs.

Figure your goal is to craft one message for your target market. It should be specific to them and appealing to them. You should plan to repeat it, because a message repeated is more often the message recalled. You should also make sure the message is clear. There have been famous com- mercials (like one for Rozerem sleeping pill) where people remembered the commercial (with Abe Lincoln and a talking beaver), but had little recall about the product.

The message you craft should combine the elements of your product or service’s value proposi- tion with the needs of your target customer. If they want speed, you should stress speed in your message. Once you have that key element, what can you do in the message to reinforce, repeat, or otherwise support it? Red is the color of speed, for example, and a fast-paced radio, television, or web ad can also support the impression of speed.

In general, you can structure messages to be similar to the target customers or distinctive. Ads with a similar approach use average-looking people. Ads seeking to be distinctive may opt for mod- els. This is where understanding what your target audience likes is important.

Along the same lines, you need to decide the voice or tone of your message. Tones or voices include humor, fear, patriotism, collegiality, sex, romance, love, and nearly every other emotion. Some, of course, will work better than others, often depending on your product. Humor may de- grade into slapstick (okay for some audiences, but not all); romance or love may become sappy. Medications, insurance, safe cars, security products, mouthwashes, and breath mints may be fine for fear appeals, but they may be tough for other products. Be careful of being too strong. A fear appeal that is too strong may cause the audience to react negatively.

Will your ad show a real-life situation (think ads for paper towels) or will you exaggerate (the less- than-average guy with the super-model girlfriend), use fantasy or cartoons? Will you demonstrate

your product or compare it to competition? If you compare, will it be overt (We are better than Company A) or not (We are the best)? Will you use rational arguments about the size and speed?

The answers to these questions vary based on product/service and target market; there are not al- ways hard and fast rules. Car commercials, for example, range from the excitement of the speeding car on the curving road to rational appeals about miles per gallon and other features of the automo- bile. They use comparisons to others, humor, sex, fear (safety), and feel-good family themes.

Effective messages are succinct messages that will make your business clear to potential clients and customers. You will use more general messages to convey your firm’s overall image.

A great example is Mary Kay’s slogan “Enriching women’s lives.” If used consistently, these mes- sages will ensure the development of a solid business identity.

To start initially, you can use your value propositions for each identified market to help you develop your overall message or slogan. Try to think of three to five key words that would describe your business to anyone. What words capture the essence of what you do and why you exist?

Specific marketing messages use the same principle: What is the key idea I want the potential consumer to leave with? Sometimes these messages are pretty straightforward like “We are having a sale on May 24 through May 26.” Others may take more time to craft your value proposition or other distinct features of your product in a form that will resonate with your target audience. Start out with a strong first mental image—the first thing your client will see in his or her mind when exposed to your message. Avoid overworked verbs; use action wherever you can but pick unexpected words. Saying “We beat the competition” is fine, but how much more interesting is “We wallop the competition”—and even adds a bit of alliteration as well.12

Conveying Your Message

The challenge of conveying your message is knowing that your intended customer has actually heard or seen it. If you are selling face to face, you can be more sure that you and your message are connecting, but when you send out a press kit or have an ad printed in a newspaper, it is harder to know. One of the interesting aspects of Internet advertising is that it provides a somewhat more detailed understanding of who looked at a page, and if a viewer clicks on an ad, you can learn a lot about the potential customer. However, away from the Internet, it is hard to be as sure.

Traditionally marketers think in terms of five types of avenues for getting your message out: advertising, sales promotions, public/press relations, and personal selling that will be covered in this chapter, while direct marketing, will be covered in Chapter 11 as part of distribution. The promotional mix essentially describes how much of each of these five approaches you will use. The key to promotion for you as the entrepreneur is deciding on the promotional mix that works best to meet your needs and your budget.

Advertising

Advertising is the major way most businesses convey their message to potential customers. Adver- tising is the presentation of your company’s image, products, and services to potential customers and the general public. It can be done in print outlets, or electronically via mass media or the Inter- net, or via signs from business cards to billboards to aerial banners. The goal for any advertising is to give customers and the general public a positive impression that they will associate with you, your firm, and its products. If the impression is positive but they don’t recall who you are, the advertising did not work. If they recall who you are, but the ads didn’t make the viewer feel more positive about you, the ad didn’t work.

Because of the Internet, today’s entrepreneurs have never had so many ways to promote their businesses. Traditional media like advertisements in magazines and on billboards can now appear all over web pages. Commercials on TV can also appear on the web. Door hangers with your coupon can be supplemented with local campaigns on Groupon or with Google Local to focus on particular cities or even neighborhoods. There are more places to put the name of your firm or product than ever before—from every square inch of a NASCAR racer’s uniform, to the poles of turnstiles at the amusement park, to pop-ups inside of your YouTube video. Table 10.1 gives you an overview of the many forms of promotion available to you.

As you can imagine, given the enormous number of ways to advertise, it is impossible to give you detailed information on the ins and outs of each type of advertising technique. In fact there are semester-long courses in advertising in most business programs, with whole textbooks going through the many forms. You can get a lot of information online from reputable sources such as www.entrepreneur.com, www.inc.com, www.itsyourbiz.com, www.mashable.com, and www .ducttapemarketing.com. What we can do here is help get you started in advertising your busi- ness. So we will talk about the first steps you take—those you need to pay for and those you can do for free.

Paid Advertising

The first thing you need to do when starting your business is to establish your company identity. While some elements are free, others will take some money up front. Exhibit 10.1 gives you a list- ing of the key elements of creating your corporate identity. Central to the identity is picking your company name, which we discussed in Chapter 9.

You will want a name for which you can get a matching domain name. That domain name is necessary to get your own website, and most websites with domain names also give you the ability to get an e-mail address with your company’s domain name. You can check if prospective names are available at any online firm selling hosting packages or domain names, but if you find that a name

you like is available, plan to buy it that day. There are firms paying each day to see what names were looked for, and they buy the names up for the purpose of reselling them. Search for cheap domains to find low-cost vendors. Many web-hosting companies will give you the domain name free with a web-hosting package. Unless you’re planning to do e-commerce from day one, you can open up a “starter” type website (usually around five pages) for a low fee and upgrade as you get an idea of what your business really needs.

Armed with these you can start making business cards, and then websites and brochures (the print equivalent of your website). If you think a professional-looking logo would help, there are free do-it-yourself sites like www.logomaker.com or www.logosnap.com, or you can post for proposed logos on a site like www.elance.com and offer a price ($25 is typical) for the logo you select. Most marketing and web design firms can help you in this area as well.

Although regular phone service is not free, you need it, and you need the number to include on your business card and website. Think about getting a number that reflects your business—one tile company snagged a phone number they could display as 555-868-TILE (8453). One free service to consider is Google Voice, which will let you program one number to ring in multiple places or across multiple phones. With these basics in place, you can get down to the serious business of ad- vertising your product and service offerings.

From your prior workups of value proposition, target market, and market segmentation, you should have a clear idea of your intended audience. You should have some idea of where they get their information—from TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct advertising like mail, or the Internet—and how much they use and trust each of these vehicles. From this, you can begin to think about how to structure your mix as soon as you add one more item—price!

Advertising costs are usually based on cost per thousand (CPM—the M is the Latin mille or thousand). Figure 10.2 shows you CPMs for a number of different forms of paid advertising. What the chart doesn’t show, but you need to keep in mind, is that one ad impression is unlikely to do the job. Marketers talk about needing 15 to 20 impressions for people in the general audience to notice and remember who you are. This is why you will notice that commercials are repeated so often on TV and radio. The companies are trying to get enough impressions to you so that you recall their product. Taking a look at the graphic; knowing the underlying need for ad repetitions, you can quickly see that major advertising campaigns using traditional media are problematic for small businesses— they are just too costly for most start-ups. How can you build an advertising campaign on a limited budget?

For companies whose products have a regional, national, or global audience, there is no real competition to the Internet. Ads bought on the major services like Google, Bing, and Yahoo can be seen by millions around the world every hour. But because Internet ads depend on how often they get shown, you will want to limit who sees the ad to people in particular localities, or people who have searched for a term linked to your product, or people online on certain days or times of day. You will be able to check how many people react to the ad by their click-through rate, the frequency with which they click your ad for more information or to buy the product. You can also test multiple forms of the ad in a day, and adjust the ad as you learn what works best with your target audience.

But as great as web-based advertising is, it is only worthwhile if your intended target audience is on the Internet on sites where you can advertise to them. The story of AO Rafting in the Small Business Insight box shows a powerful way to leverage the web. For our day care center in Phoenix, we could limit online ads to people in Phoenix who search for terms like day care. Services like Google Adwords Express let you focus your paid ads in a relatively small geographic area. Ser- vices like Valpak and competing local coupon mailing or door-hanging services offer a similar service using traditional print media. For our day care center, we could use Google Adwords for people searching for “day care” or “child care” in the local area and supplement that with mailed coupons in areas of town we know have families with children. We could then supplement these with the free techniques discussed below. We also could check locally for neighborhood newspa- pers where we might place ads, as well as church and school newsletters, which tend to be very low cost.

When you think about spending money to buy advertising space, especially when we are talking about traditional media like TV, radio, and print, it can make a lot of sense to also allocate some money to have advertising professionals prepare your ads. There are small advertising and market- ing agencies virtually everywhere (and if you are comfortable working with an online ad agency, they literally could be virtually everywhere). Most good ones will show you a portfolio of their work, and hopefully you can check them out with their other clients. Most will also give you a cost estimate to help you determine quickly if you can afford them.

This can also apply to your Internet ads, especially if you are planning to develop videos or want interactive websites with state-of-the art graphics, or if having a styl- ish site is central to the image you want your firm to project. Otherwise, many people using the Internet seem to prefer the less professional ads that give you the sense of a personal connection to the entrepreneur at some other computer on the World Wide Web. On the other hand, you may want to hire some professional help in order to make your website appear high up on search results, through the techniques of search engine optimization (SEO). Identifying the best keywords and descrip- tion tags to your web pages can be extremely useful, especially if you are new to the intricacies of the World Wide Web.

Free Advertising

There has always been free advertising. It probably started with entrepreneurs telling their friends about the business while working their “day jobs,” or people calling out what they had available in the marketplace, or putting up a self-made sign showing what they were selling. Every one of those forms of free advertising remains very much in force and they still work! But today there is more—a lot more.

For our Phoenix day care center, we already have talked about paid advertis- ing. There are several free ways to get the word out. Posting brochures or business cards on the bulletin boards of supermarkets and pharmacies or other stores in the targeted neighborhoods is one way. Passing out brochures or flyers in local areas or at meetings (e.g., PTO) is very inexpensive, but make sure you get permission first! Think about places families might go and pass out cards and brochures there—think

of parks and playgrounds on weekends, for example. The idea is to think, “Where does my target market go?” and be there to advertise your business. We could look for local bloggers on family topics and send materials about our new day care center to them in hope of getting a mention on the blog. In other words, wherever we can get the word out, we do it. This kind of thinking will be used when building press and public relations programs later in the chapter.

We can make free websites for our business on Facebook (useful if you sell to consumers), LinkedIn.com (useful if you sell primarily to businesses), and Twitter (popular with both groups). These sites give you ways to get involved with customers and with groups as part of an online social exchange, making them feel more connected to your firm. On all three websites, there are groups of people with shared interests, and there is also sharing with the members’ network connections. So if a customer of yours “Likes” your Facebook page, all of their Facebook connections will see that, which can explosively add to your growth. Typically these social networking websites are linked back to our main website, so that customers can easily use all your web resources.

While these sites are free and interactive, giving you a way to exchange ideas and opinions with one another, if you are going to be serious about using these free networks, you need to be consistent about living up to your social obligations. Checking Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter every 24 to 48 hours is necessary, and you need to not only check what is happening, but to keep the site’s content fresh, with new postings at least a couple of times a week. A dormant Facebook or Twitter account actually hurts your business reputation because it seems like you don’t care.

The other opportunity that opens up with these social network driven sites is the possibility of buzz or viral marketing. You or one of your customers on your Facebook or Twitter account may post a message, upload a picture or a video that people start sharing, and the sharing becomes explosive, withthousandsorevenmillionsofpeopleseeingandsharingthematerial.Havingsomething“go viral” is not easily done. Some say that it can only occur naturally. But you could get a small-scale virus going. For example, imagine our day care center owner posts on her Facebook page a short video on “How to get your child ready for his or her first day at day care.” The customers on the Facebook page like it enough to pass it on to their friends, who pass it on, and suddenly a reporter at the local TV station sees it and asks the owner for an interview. In the interview, the reporter men- tions the video and links to it from the TV station’s website. Suddenly the owner is the top day care expert in Phoenix. Think about that when you see the local news. There are stories like this happening every few days. The two major sources for these are viral marketing and press relation efforts.

Getting other people to talk about you and your business is one of the best ways to get potential customers’ attention. Since the days of newspapers, this has been called free ink because getting the local gossip columnist to mention your restaurant got your name in ink but didn’t cost you hard dollars (although it might have meant the gossip columnist got a free meal from you). Today there are more ways than ever to get free ink, and it goes far beyond newspapers.

Again the Internet is a major player. For example, NM Incite reported the existence more than 186 million blogs worldwide at the end of 2011.15 There are even blogs like Squidoo (www.squidoo .com/sumbit-startup) or KillerStartups.com that are focused on spotlighting new start-ups.16 With that many blogs, there are bloggers focused on every topic, locality, and industry. There are even directories of blogs, search for blog directory on Google or Bing to help narrow your search.

Whether you are seeking free ink from traditional media or the Internet, you have to do your part, mainly providing them with information ready to be used. For example, Internet marketer Kipp Bodnar17 suggests blog-ready materials might include answering customers questions, aggregating an interpreting industry statistics, or making lists or charts the blogger can quickly incorporate in their next posting. We’ll get more into the details of press releases in the section on press relations later in the chapter.

If you can get the bloggers to like your product or service, they are more likely to mention it. Sending them your press release might work if it is relevant, but a sample of your product might be better. Do some research on the sites to decide which to target. For example, there is Coolhunting for urban living products, Kevin Kelly’s CoolTools for tools and gizmos of all sorts, DailyCandy for fashionable clothing, Gizmodo for electronics, Luxist for luxury items, MoCoLoco for modern furniture, and Treehugger for environmentally friendly products.18

The whole idea of connecting businesses to blogs has itself spawned entrepreneurship oppor- tunities. PayPerPost—which is blog focused but not free—is a firm that connects firms hoping to be featured on blogs with bloggers who don’t mind some extra cash for mentioning their products. The company’s founder counters implications that this is unethical by stating that the firm doesn’t specify whether the content needs to be positive or not; in other words, you can even get paid for complaining about a product or service.19

Another of the original forms of free advertising is word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising because it is passed when one person speaks to another about a product or service they like, or when the entrepreneur makes a personal pitch about their business to someone they just met.

When it comes to promoting a small business that is just starting out, spreading the news by word-of-mouth remains one of the surest ways to build a client base. Whether a potential customer meets the owner directly or hears of the business secondhand, a connectedness is established that cannot be matched by advertising or other marketing methods. Entrepreneurs should make use of every opportunity to meet potential clients and expose them to their products or services.

Network advertising includes referrals as discussed in Chapter 9, but also the information you spread through your own network of family, friends, and business associates, who are described in the social networking discussion of Chapter 3. Ask those clients you’ve satisfied to pass your name along. If possible, give them an incentive—a discount on their next purchase, for example—to do so. Another example is by passing out your business card at every opportunity. (You may even want to print special ones offering the carrier to some token gift—an advertising novelty, perhaps—a free estimate, sample, or discount when they visit your business.)

While a business card goes a long way, prepare yourself to sell your business at every oppor- tunity. Join local groups such as Rotary or Toastmasters. Get involved with trade associations, chambers of commerce, or even local government. If you are able, offer to speak at organizations; perhaps you can share some of your funniest start-up stories and the lessons you learned.21

If you ask most service providers how they get business, the answer is usually referrals or word- of-mouth.22 Carter Prescott, head of New York-based Carter Communications, which provides high-level writing and speaking services for Fortune 500 clients, doesn’t even have a listed phone number. “I’ve never needed one,” she says. “It’s better to have people call you on their own, rather than soliciting calls anyway. You get a better client that way.” She only gets calls when a current client gives her number to a potential client.

One cold call to a dealer can start word-of-mouth advertising23 and get your product into stores. Lynn Gordon, proprietor of French Meadow Bakery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, started her bread- making business in her kitchen, producing 40 loaves a week for local co-ops. One day she made a cold call to a local gourmet shop, which started a word-of-mouth snowball. As luck would have it, the buyer was on a special diet, and Gordon’s bread was just what she was looking for. Soon other grocery stores signed up. Meanwhile, customers sent loaves to friends around the country, who called to order more.

Under pressure from stores, distributors started asking for French Meadow bread. Next, Diane Sawyer and the 60 Minutes crew showed up to do a story about the Women’s Economic Development Corp., a program for women entrepreneurs in which Gordon was involved. Saw- yer highlighted Gordon and her gourmet bread on the show. Then the state helped subsidize a trip to the International Fancy Food & Confection Show in Chicago, where 300 stores placed orders. Will Steger, the tundra explorer, ordered Gordon’s bread for the international trip he was leading across the Antarctic. Even Neiman Marcus bought French Meadow bread to in- clude in a $5,000 Ultimate Cocktail Buffet. As a result of that first cold call, Gordon moved her operation into a 13,500-square-foot storefront bakery in Minneapolis, where she eventually employed 15 people.

Another effective way to create word-of-mouth marketing is to give your product away. Yes, you read that sentence correctly: give your product away. You start by making a list of the top people you would like to have as your customers. Who is your target market? Who do these people listen to when trying to make product decisions? What if these influential people had your product—and didn’t have to pay for it? If your product is as great as you think, won’t these influencers be excited about it and tell everyone else they know?24

Sales Promotions

Sales promotion is a form of communication that encourages the customer to take immediate ac- tion. Good examples of sales promotions include coupons, sales, contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, samples, “buy one get one free,” and other gimmicks. They range from inexpensive—sales fly- ers photocopied—to expensive—all-expenses-paid vacation. They are relatively easy to manage— sales and coupons—to much more complex—contests and sweepstakes. Frequent buyer programs (as described in Chapter 9) are also examples of sales promotion. When using contests and coupons, it is a good idea to check into local and state laws, since there are some places that prohibit or limit

how these are used. For example, if you use a sweepstakes in Florida or New York, you need to post a bond equal to the amount of the prizes.

Building a Press Relations Program

Press relations are those activities you do to influence or increase media coverage of your busi- ness. Media include newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, radio, and television. These can be targeted to the general public or for specific groups like industry or trade associations, professions, neighborhoods, or lines of business (e.g., gas stations, restaurants, etc.). In this section we talk about how to target media outlets that can do your firm the most good, how to develop the keys to any media strategy—your press release and press kit—and even how to determine what a media outlet might find newsworthy.

Targeting Media Outlets

Building a press relations program is a lot like planning any other aspect of marketing. It starts with your target. In public relations, determining your target is determining which media are likely to reach your customer. This may include radio, newspapers, magazine, television, and newsletters. Since you are a small firm and perhaps local in scope, national media are probably not for you (un- less you have invented the next Google, YouTube, or other breakthrough technology). Most com- munities have local publications promoting local businesses. Local television stations won’t offer you 60 Minutes slots, but like to feature stories as fillers in their newscasts—especially if the story is newsworthy, of human interest, humorous, or generally “feel-good.”

As with personal selling, make a list of these media and then determine which ones are most likely to carry the sorts of news you offer. Treat them as if they are your customers. Find out the main contact people, their phone numbers, and do a Google search to see what stories they cover and find out more about them. Ask if they have any preferences as to how they like the information delivered. Send them your press kit and ask for theirs.25 Some will prefer that you write the story and let them edit. Others will prefer to send out their own reporters.

Additionally, the press release can be used on your website, as handouts to clients, or included in direct mail. If you are a presenter at a meeting or conference, pass it out as background information. Frame it and hang it in your place of business. (Many restaurants hang favorable reviews where

clients can see them as they wait for their table.) And, as with personal selling, continue to build your relationship with the media. Include a link to the article as part of your signature.26 Now, you need to determine which story you will send out and write the press release.

The Basics of a Press Release27

The press release (see Skill Module 10.2), like the one seen in Exhibit 10.2, is the key method for telling your business story. Entrepreneurs can use the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, and action) formula to write press releases well.

? Attention: Get their attention with a catchy headline. Something clever or a play on words may do the trick. It needs to be short—no longer than ten words and preferably less. Some- times a subtitle may be used, especially if the attention-getting title may not give enough in- formation. For example, “Udderly Delicious: Dairy Marketing in Venezuela”28 is the example of a clever title—a pun—and a subtitle to explain what the article is really about. Try to strike an emotional chord with your readers. Empathize or address a problem they have and you may draw their attention further.29

? Interest: While the title should start to pique their interest, the opening paragraph should really capture them. This first paragraph should include the who, what, when, where, why, and how of the story. If you are really good, you can get all that in the opening sentence. The idea is to “hook” them and get them to read further.

? Desire: Now provide the meat of the press release—details that tell us more about the open- ing information and increase our interest. Depending on what your press release is about, this could include features of your new products, or some biographical information on the new person you hired. Start with the most important information in the story because editors frequently delete ending materials to fit space. Quotes from key people from outside the com- pany can imply third-party endorsements.

? Action: At the end you put contact information. Where can they find out more about your wonderful new product, your exciting new vice president, or this fantastic company that just won an award? The goal is to get them to be potential clients; kind of hard if they don’t know where to find you!

Resources for E-Mailing Press Releases31

Once you have developed your press release, there are a plethora of websites that can assist you in sending or e-mailing your press release to the appropriate media. These include:

? ABYZ News Links—contains links to more than 17,200 newspapers and other news sources from around the world: www.abyznewslinks.com

? Gebbie Press—where you will find a wealth of media information: www.gebbieinc.com ? American Journalism Review—a great link to media sources that are on the Internet: www

.ajr.org

The press release is often included as part of a press kit. Press kits are a variation of the sales kit mentioned earlier. Press kits include brochures, business cards, product information, and other materials that can provide background material for a reporter. They should include a letter of in- troduction and may include a brief history of the firm and information about the owner and other key managers. Include other press releases, articles, and other newspaper clippings about the firm and other such material. Consider including a “frequently asked questions” page, information about awards, audio and videos of television, or radio interviews. Financial statements, if you are publicly traded, are a must. If appropriate, include samples of your products, camera-ready logo art, statistics specific to your industry or target market, photos, and even an order form—they could be your next customer!32 Whenever you run across a new media outlet appropriate to your clientele, add it to your media list.

What Is Newsworthy?33

Press releases are meant to draw the attention of the public to something that’s new and newsworthy which could be a range of things, from products and people to services and solutions. To further garner serious attention from the media and the public, a news story needs to deliver certain essen- tials that will hold readers’ attention, and keep your news in their thoughts. It should have public recognition, public importance, or public interest.

Public recognition includes issue recognition (Have you solved a problem that is an at- large issue? If your problem is not familiar to the public, people need to be familiarized with it before they understand your news), trendiness (Is your news a low-carb diet or a Cabbage Patch Kid? That is, will you be able to ride the wave of fashion or will you be just another in a long and dated line of related stories?), famous faces (If the news is connected to one or more recognizable people or organizations, the public will already feel a connection to the story.), and proximity (News is sure to attract attention if it can potentially affect a number of people. The more people it will affect, the further your story will spread.). Public importance includes power (Does your news represent a power struggle or shift? Power affects the community, and the farther its potential reaches, the more newsworthy the event.) and currency (Your event will have its greatest importance while the issues are current. Will your news be connected to other recent events?). Finally, public interest includes a good story (Does your news present a good conflict and resolution? Nothing grabs attention and memory better than a good story.), human interest (A character with whom the public can relate helps generate interest and attention. Can you pull human interest into your news? The human interest story line helps connect the news to the audience with emotion.), visuals (graphics—action, photography, and so on—draw atten- tion to the piece, making another connection between viewer and the news. Are there interest- ing visuals in the piece?), and cultural resonance (Broad cultural themes expose the event or

news to a wider audience. Does the event or campaign speak to a wide demographic range? Is it meant to?).

Even though something is “new,” it might not have enough of the three “essentials” above to grab the attention you had hoped. For example, hiring nonexecutives doesn’t hold importance for the media. Even new products aren’t newsworthy unless they are something new and innovative on the market.

Leveraging the Press and Generating Publicity

How do you further leverage the press to grow your business? The press can be extremely valu- able in helping businesses of all sizes succeed and gain market share by generating a high level of exposure to a wide audience. As discussed above, the first challenge is to develop that unique story or angle, but once that is done the next task is to find the appropriate person at specific press outlets that would be interested in this news. All reporters or editors have their own beat, so it’s imperative that you do your research before approaching them to find out what kinds of stories they typically write, what trends might be interesting to the audiences they write for, and whether or not they just did a similar story last week.

For a small business, mentions in the “corporate notes” sections of the daily and local business papers are a good way to start. These are great places to list new client acquisitions, project comple- tions with substantial results, and new hires—all reflective of a solid, growing company. Consumers and companies want to buy goods and services from a company that has demonstrated it’s going to be around in a few years, not one that has an interesting idea but can’t properly articulate why the idea is good.

Building a Public Relations Program34

Public relations include publicity and other forms of communication to the public in general in order to promote a favorable opinion by the public about your firm. For example, corporations send out shareholders’ reports in order to provide information and create a favorable impression about the firm with the shareholders who may never be one of their customers. Other publics that are rou- tinely the target of these messages include government, education systems, special interest groups, neighbors to the firm, competition, other business in general, employees and potential employees, investors, and, of course, potential clients.

Public relations have some weaknesses as a tool. Many people regard public relations stories skeptically: “Of course they will tell us only the good things and not the bad.” Some feel that these stories are a thinly veiled advertisement. Also, these are very difficult to control. A firm may spend many hours and resources developing and submitting press releases or other publicity and the news media may never use them. Or, often worse yet, the news media will edit the press release to the point that the original intent is totally distorted.

Public relations are those things you do to help create a favorable opinion of your firm in the mind of people in general. For most businesses, the more people who know about your business the better, but this only works if people have a positive opinion about your firm. Often it is easy to do things which help get you a favorable opinion from others. Activities you undertake which show your willingness to help others, through pitching in or sharing time or expertise, can do a lot to build favorable public opinion.

To show your expertise, consider writing articles for magazines35—not press releases, but an article addressing a problem you can solve, a human interest story, or something about which you are an expert. If it relates to your business, this will help establish you as an expert in your field.36 (College professors do this all the time.) This gets your name out among potential clients, generates referrals and strengthens your competitive advantage. You can also offer different media to consider you as an expert opinion on related news articles. Include the articles in your press kit or use them as you would other public relations materials.37

To show your good will, consider sponsorships or donations. For example sponsorships can be a good way to get the word out about your firm. Your budget will not cover renaming a local major league baseball stadium, but it might put your name on the back of a T-ball team’s uniforms

in a neighborhood where your target market lives and plays. This spreads good will among the local community and might even be picked up in the press. If a community group has a program which would attract your target market, approach the group about sponsorship. Unexpected money is often the most persuasive to sponsored organizations.

Donations are the other paying forward approach, and do not need to be millions of dollars. Products that are nearing expiration, returns, or slightly out of specification may be donated to shelters or other nonprofits. Time maybe donated to read books for the blind; small cash or product donations to local theaters will get your name in the program. Some of these will not result in instant publicity, but can be worked into company history or biographical information.39 In addition, dona- tions can have tax benefits for your business.

There is another approach for building positive public awareness of your business—creating a publicity event. This works best if it is tied into what you sell. Additionally, it is likely to get more press if the idea is not seen as self-promotion. For example, Immaculate Baking Company baked the world’s largest cookie—100 feet in diameter and 40,000 pounds. This put it in the Guinness Book of World Records but also generated publicity. What made it even better was that Immaculate Baking tied this into a fundraiser for the construction of a local folk art museum. Sales went from about $500,000 to over 7 million and the museum gained $20,000 in dona- tions.40 Even simple approaches can pay handsome dividends. Hold an open house or a tour. Have a booth at a local street fair. Celebrate Grover Cleveland’s birthday with special activities throughout the day. You can even hold seminars or programs on issues of immediate interest when your firm has topical expertise, or you can give your site to the media as a place to film outside of the studio, but if you do, make sure your signs are visible. These approaches are not the only ones possible. Others can be found in The Thoughtful Entrepreneur: Tips for Generating Publicity.

Two Ways to Generate Publicity41

Even though it may be the latest innovation on the market, a newsworthy product, event, or service always benefits from well-planned publicity. Aside from advertising, there are several tools that can help your news gather a piece of the limelight.

1. Write or provide materials:

? Offer exclusive articles, photos, or columns to publications that are read by your target audience.

? Offer (through a national service) ready-to-reproduce, typeset feature stories to smaller news- papers (mat releases, color pages).

? Not-for-profit organizations can produce public service announcements for broadcast, print, and other media.

? Produce and distribute video or audio news releases for the broadcast media. ? Produce your own program or short feature for the broadcast media. Depending on distribu-

tion rights, this might also be used as a video brochure or for other groups. ? Include your products as props for films and TV shows (consider whether the show’s message

would help or hinder your product’s image). 2. Conduct interviews:

? Appear on local TV talk shows or radio call-in shows. ? Hire a professional spokesperson to make appearances and talk about your product or service. ? Take your message to the media on a multicity media tour.

Having a great product or service does not do you or your business any good if potential customers do not know about it. Getting the word out about your business and its offerings is the purpose of promotion in small business. The avenues for getting the word out are fairly well known—current or potential customers, the press, and these days the Internet—but because everyone knows those avenues, crafting and distributing a message that people will notice and respond to amid all the ads they face is an ever-increasing challenge. This chapter focuses on preparing you with the basic skills of press and public relations, as well as advice on what makes promotion efforts pay off. Armed with these ideas, you can make your business stand out and be noticed. The other key role of this chapter is to discuss the specifics of selling—how to get started and how to close sales. In the end, sales are everything, because everything in business depends on sales. If you can master promotion and selling, your business will have gone much of the way toward eventual success.

1. According to this chapter, what five elements of the “promotional mix” are included in the typical message conveyance?

2. According to this chapter, what are the 5 elements of the general formula for generating interest in your product or service (and getting sales)?

3. What are the categories of tips given by Cord Cooper of Investor’s Business Daily listed in this chapter?

In: Operations Management

Assignment- Collecting Payments Use the information provided in Chapter 19 "Patient Accounts and Practice Management" of...

Assignment- Collecting Payments

Use the information provided in Chapter 19 "Patient Accounts and Practice Management" of the text and/or any other sources you have if necessary. Copy and Paste your assignment on a separate MS word document or compatible file, and submit your completed assignment electronically via Moodle prior to due date.

Collecting Payments

When insurance companies and patients pay for medical services, the medical biller is responsible for collecting and maintaining all payments. The medical biller must also contact the insurance company or the patient regarding late payments. Since medical billers are responsible for handling the revenue for a health care facility, they must process all payments received. They use math to keep track of the amount of payments received and outstanding payments.

Medical billers are responsible for resolving payment errors. For example, if a patient sees an error regarding a payment, medical billers must use math to recalculate the charges and send a new invoice to the patient or insurance company. Medical billers also act as the link between patients and insurance companies by answering various payment questions. They inform patients about any treatments not covered by their health insurers and use math to calculate charges.

Professional Fees, Billing and Collecting

Determine the following balances. Please highlight your answers.

1. Paula Bailey paid $50 on her balance of $450. If insurance pays $122 and Paula makes another $50 payment,what is her balance?

2. Sandra Cox had a balance of $329. She wrote a check for $100, but the bank returned the check marked NSF. The NSF fee is $30. What is Sandra's new balance?

3. Judy Rogers paid $45 on her balance of $191. What is her new balance?

4. Arnold Matthews had a previous balance of $465. He has paid $45 each week for 5 weeks. What is his current balance?

5. Ed Streep had a previous balance of $752. He has made nine payments of $25. After he makes six more payments of the same amount, what will his balance be?

6. Mr. Angle comes in for an office visit and is charged $120. He pays his co-pay of $15, and his insurance pays $89. How much does he owe?

7. Amy Moore pays $200 on her account, which had a previous balance of $652. What does she owe on the account?

8. Cassandra Lee has a previous balance of $86. She paid $5, and her insurance paid $71. What is her balance?

9. Ms. Jackson paid $25 on her account, which had a balance of $248; $66 is written off the account. What is the remaining balance?

10. Angela made a payment of $16 on her account. The next day an insurance check arrived for $88. Her previous balance was $92. What is her balance now?

11. Janeen has a previous balance of $157 for an office visit. She wants to pay her part of the bill, which is 20%. What should her insurance pay?

12. Joe Britton is a new patient, and his first office visit was $258. He paid his co-pay of $25, but his insurance denied the claim. What does he owe?

13. Ann Cuzack has a previous balance of $44, and today's office visit is $78. She pays her co-pay of $30. How much does she still owe?

14. Jonathan Sidwell paid $80 on his balance of $417. What is his new balance?

15. Tammy Watson had surgery 3 weeks ago, and her charge was $7,200, which covers the procedure and 6 weeks of follow-up. What will her charge be for her visit today if the normal limited office visit is $110? She is an established patient.

16. Thomas Mayhorn paid $60 on his son's account, which has a balance of $100. Thomas's ex-wife is to pay 40% of the son's medical bills. What does she owe on this account?

17. Alex Howe had a previous balance of $234. She paid $40, and her insurance paid $198. What does she owe?

18. Marcia Arden paid $50 on her previous balance of $294. What is her current balance?

19. John Esters agreed to pay his balance of $201 in three equal payments. What will his balance be after the first payment?

20. Annie Underwood paid $75 on her balance of $275, the amount left after insurance paid. What is her remaining balance?

In: Nursing

THE CASE: Kaizer Consulting Kaizer Consulting is an international management consulting firm that specializes in business...

THE CASE: Kaizer Consulting

Kaizer Consulting is an international management consulting firm that specializes in business strategy and serves as a key advisor to the world’s leading companies. It provides its clients with the unique insight to drive critical decision-making and solve their most pressing problems.

Every year, the majority of Kaizer’s business comes from clients with whom they have worked in the previous year – an indicator of Kaizer’s ability to achieve lasting results for its clients. Kaizer’s client relationships are enduring as many clients have remained customers for more than a decade and have become project partners.

The Client has a Problem

The manager of a product category at a Fortune 50 technology company (The Client) approached Kaizer to analyze the complete range of supply chain challenges his company would face when they entered Vietnam-- a new market in South-East Asia that was presently dominated by a large single competitor. Initially, it was agreed that The Client would benefit most from a set of detailed analyses of the market which would focus on a providing a deep understanding of the

market’s culture and business practices and
manufacturing, distribution, and retail operations required to execute their market development plans.

The Client was aware of some cultural differences in the new market, but was under the impression that it would be able to proceed as it normally did when entering a new market. Further, The Client believed that the competitor’s primary advantage was based on optimized management of the distribution network and aggressive retailing. The Client thought it could proceed on that basis with its usual market entry strategy, but wanted to obtain Kaizer’s opinions on this before proceeding.

Kaizer’s Approach

Based on extensive research about the market generally, but specifically with individuals, focus groups, cultural experts, CSR and legal experts, suppliers, industry experts, vendors, and employees of companies in similar situations, Kaizer realized that:

The Client’s competitor had committed a number of culturally-based mistakes, primarily with respect to age and gender issues and local social taboos. Although these were not disastrous, the mistakes were covered in the media and had created the general impression that the competitor didn’t really care about the target market’s traditional cultural values, beliefs, customs, and norms.
The Client’s competitor had selected the target market in part because of lax enforcement of environmental protection laws and government corruption. Social media and the mass media soon discovered how the competitor was conducting business in the target market. Subsequently, the competitor had to perform substantial damage control to protect its international reputation of being socially-responsible. The competitor is currently facing legal action in Canada and the US for its alleged corrupt business practices.
The Client’s competitor’s key business advantage was actually based on long-term production contracts; in effect, the competitor had become partners with its suppliers. By doing so, the competitor had leveraged its foreign investment in a number of ways: it had created a supply chain that achieved a number of cost savings on commodities, equipment, machines, and technologies; helped improve the local economy by providing relatively high-paying jobs to local people; and contributed to social and political stability in the country.

Kaizer’s Findings

With the new knowledge provided by Kaizer, The Client:

Refocused its market entry and distribution strategies from enhancing warehousing and retail systems to more innovative production plans that incorporated local benefits and added a plan to use Vietnam as a base for expansion into other countries in the region particularly India, and the Philippines.
Challenged its managers and employees to develop highly ethical Codes of Conduct and CSR strategies that supported its long-term operations in the target market.
Most importantly, was able to develop an overall approach that was culturally sensitive and appropriate, even humorous. This approach was reflected in all the client’s negotiation and partnership development activities and clearly demonstrated its respect for the target market’s culture.

Next Steps

Kaizer has recognized that this work could become a model for future work with this client and others in similar situations. They’ve asked you to provide comments and a framework to analyze these situations more efficiently.

Questions

1. Cultural understanding is a key element of this situation. Comment on the importance of this aspect of market entry and development, being sure to discuss the key elements of understanding and working effectively in Vietnam.

2. Using the Hofstede Framework, analyze the Vietnamese culture with reference to concepts covered in the course materials.

3. CSR and business practices are another set of critical issues in this case. Describe four CSR issues and explain how these issues can impact a company's international business activities.

4. The Client, in order to develop its Market Entry Strategy fully, will be required to make an investment in Vietnam. Explain each of the four means of incorporating risk into market entry strategies if The Client wanted to use an Adaptation Strategy.

5. The Client will benefit from trading with other countries in the region. Briefly describe the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of regional integration.

please do it in the form or word and not on notebook or image

In: Economics

1. Please list and discuss the roles played by the concept of new technology as it...

1. Please list and discuss the roles played by the concept of new technology as it relates to the decision to build factory #5: Even if sales volume is flat, profits are low, and interest rates are high, why would a firm desire to build factory #5, at least in theory?

2. What is residential construction and sales volume, exactly? How many housing units are built, and sold, in this country in a typical year (before March, 2020)?

3. What are six of the occupations that are involved in this sector of the economy? That is, when there is a 20% drop in this activity, residential construction and sales volume, which workers lose their jobs? Why?

4. What could our government do to help cause a rise in residential construction and sales volume in our economy? Please list and discuss three actions that our government could take, at least in theory. What are the forces that may cause a rise or a drop in this area of the economy in the next 12 to 24 months?

New Plant and Equipment Construction, Residential Construction and Sales Volume: One of the greatest factors influencing the volume of factory (new plant and equipment) construction is the R&D (research and development) of new technology. Of course, WE HAVE TO BUILD THE NEW FACTORY! In our factory #5 example, the R&D AND CONSTRUCTION of Factory #5 may result in a. a dramatic drop in the cost per unit (the cost per pair of shoes, in our hypothetical) and/or b. The introduction of a product that is..... NEW! And IMPROVED!, thus causing a rise in Demand, where, if it captures the imagination of the consumer, we may RAISE THE PRICE and increase profits by a great amount. Let’s say that our price per pair currently is $30 per pair, and our cost per pair currently is $27, for a profit of $3 per pair. If a new method of mass producing shoes that saves on labor costs is “invented”, for lack of a better word, we will want and need to build this new factory. Let’s say that Factory #5 lowers the cost per pair to $21 by using less than half of the workers used by Factory #4. We will build this new factory! $30 per pair minus $21 per pair yields a profit of $9 per pair!!!! BUT WE MUST SELL THOSE NEW SHOES!!! If our rivals are building this factory, and we do not.... We will die. (We have rivals) - VERY few firms are true monopolies. Factory #5 may mass produce TWO million pairs of shoes compared to #4 with one million pairs in yearly output. We may build factory #5, then shut down factory #1... thus resulting in FEWER WORKERS ON OUR PAYROLL... SAD BUT TRUE.....Our sales could be dropping along with our profits. Interest rates may rise. We will still need to build that factory. Especially if the product mass produced by this new factory causes a rise in Demand. YET THERE IS A FINITE SUPPLY OF LOANABLE FUNDS AND EQUITY FINANCING available, thus, we have a tragedy: some firms are doing so well that they wish to expand---but are denied financing. What is the proper role of the government? The Obama Admin. lent money directly to Tesla in order for them to expand in Fremont. This may be called ‘industrial policy’. It worked out well. If not, Obama may have been a one term President, even though he was an excellent leader by any metric. Yet the government could be criticized for ‘playing favorites’ since THERE IS A FINITE SUPPLY OF FUNDING that the government may access. If the ‘new’ Mercedes Benz assembly plant built in Alabama (yes, this is on U.S. soil) represented a new and improved SUV, then why did this German firm build the plant here? On U.S. soil? Cheaper labor (the U.S. workers make less and have fewer benefits than their German counterparts),---incredible, but true...the firm will enjoy lower distribution costs (all those rich people on the east coast of the U.S. will buy our cars), and it is easier to ship them from Alabama than from Germany, while avoiding any possible hikes in tariffs the Trump Admin may levy NOW OR LATER---- do you trust Trump? Are you feeling lucky today? How about the next 20 years? I mean, your buyers are here on the East Coast, and Alabama offered HUGE tax incentives to Daimler (Mercedes Benz) to build the plant in Alabama instead of South Carolina, home to a BMW plant. Alabama had to ‘outbid’ South Carolina for the new factory. Also, the German firm avoids any and all possible labor disruptions by dockworkers in the U.S.---now, and for the next 20 years. We do not care if the firm’s headquarters are in Germany. If they build the factory on U.S. soil, then the expenditure is part of the Total Spending on U.S. goods and services = C+ I+ G+(X-M) equation. More on this later!

In: Economics