Human Behavior and Biology: Fear and the Amygdala Essay

The definition of psychology is considered to very limited, as specialists from other fields try to prove. The usual notion about psychology is that it exists as a channel of understanding and making some measurements in behavior of humans and other species (Eysenck, 2004). The study of human behavior has been very interesting to many fields of expertise due to its complexity and difficulty. Fields other than psychology: biology, psychiatry, sociology, and many other medical applications are just few of the fields in which discussions regarding the aforementioned topic have been very well explored. In this regard, the experts combined in their efforts to form more credible results in the explanation of the basis of human behavior. Ethically, socially, and legally, behavior is an important tool to understand and explain such those subject matters (Carson & Rothstein, 1999). Goldsmith (1991), on his book The Biological Roots of Human Nature: Forging Links Between Evolution and Behavior, mentions about the huge involvement of biology into studying the fields of the humanists, social scientists, philosophers, and historians; that they should also include biological principles in the analysis of human behavior. He emphasizes that there should be two considerations in studying humans’ social behavior, that is, there should be integration of physiology, biochemistry, and the mechanism of behavior in the social aspect. He stressed about the evolution of human behavior to be dissected in biological terms. Anderson (2006) still improves this claim by saying that a criminal behavior for example, maybe is because of the impaired hormonal secretions of the specific body organs. Motives and the bodily processes should be taken into consideration to understand the individual differences with respect to personality and intellectual differentiation (Eysenck, 2004). A more interesting theory was formulated by Cesare Lombroso, about the facial types, and the way that a criminal can be identified. He based most of his explanations in a biological sense in the same way that the Germans suspected genetics to be effective in identification of people with criminal tendencies at the top of the Nazi’s rulership. It was then that several psychological explanations about criminal behavior have been accepted (Anderson, 2006). Plato also mentioned that criminality is the effect of the mind being imprisoned by an obscurity of thought which he connected brain being the biological component. It was studied by theorists and researchers in evolutionary biology the patterns regarding the kind of thinking depending on the life stage, whether young or adolescent: including parameters such as their problem-solving capacities and their academic competencies. Other cognitive domains were also associated to this behavioral study: the spatial abilities, mathematical abilities, verbal communication etc. (Lisi & Lisi, 2001). To be included in this paper are the dissection of the two parts suspected to be working in one direction of behavioral and of biological nature: the explanation of fear and its relation with the amygdala. A Brief background on Fear Fear is the emotion related to the feeling being in a dangerous state, which are actually tangible and realistic. Another definition is given to anxiety, which is often named as fear, because anxiety is the feeling of being in danger but there is no actuality. Watson and Ekman mentioned that fear is no other special feeling. It is just at the same level as joy and anger. Fear is described as a mechanism of survival, which arrives from exposure to negative things, or the negative stimulus. Fear is usually connected to the disagreement to feel pain (Coan & Allen, 2007). Personal fear can be classified as caution, phobia and paranoia. Fear is manifested when someone feels anxious, worried, frightened, in terror, paranoid and many other negative feelings. Paranoia is achieved when fear is so much heightened. When someone is observed to be in extreme change in behavior, and his attitude has gone extremely changed, one is said to be paranoid. Caution on the other hand is an interpersonal experience that makes a person feel that he could not trust anyone who is a strange to him. The person feels very different in the presence of the person whom he distrusts and only calms down when that person has gone distance away from his comfortable zone. Terror is a very pronounced classification of fear, which arises from a horrific experience. The person in a state of terror feels always in the vicinity of an immediate danger. The non-typical behavior of the person arises, making him irrational at some point. The subconscious feeling of fear can be extended nightmares. There are other effects on the person whenever he fears something. Physiologically, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. The person may be observed to, or feel in himself being hindered from physical movement. Perspiration may also occur as the blood in the body is being forced from the viscera to other peripheral parts of the body. This blood at the periphery carries oxygen, nutrients and heat, which causes the body to feel warm or hot, therefore the body’s mechanism is to perspire, to release the excess heat to cool down the body. Along with this, the body will experience fast heart rate. Phobia A very interesting topic which deals with the concept of fear is called phobia. Phobia is fear of something. It may be because of a very unwanted experience towards that something that someone fears, or just a transferred rumor that something negative might happen when that object is encountered. Different types of phobia exist depending on the object of fear. In the context of classical conditioning, phobias come from a mixture of internal dispositions and external factors (Lewis & Haviland-Jones, 2000). The experiments of Seligman resulted to his conclusion of objects being feared are genetically predispositioned. He also mentions that for many cases, traumatic experience triggers phobia. Biology, together with life experiences, can be well explained A malfunctioning amygdale can cause psychological disorders. Patients are not able to classify neutral faces, identifying them as threat. Hyperactivity in the amygdala was observed by researchers when patients are shown frightening situations. Other patients with severe cases of phobia showed a corresponding increase in the amygdale activity. The left amygdala manifested hyperactivity when excitation like fear happened. The book Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals emerged in the 19th century. Charles Darwin emphasized here that the evolution of species has a counterpart cross culturally and universally. A research conducted by Paul Ekman involved facial expression experiment. Using neuroimaging differences in their evolutionary ancient brain parts were observed for changes, with corresponding changes in potential which was an increase (Doux, 2004). Theories about Emotion and Behavior The Somatic Behaviors William James started the study of emotions and largely argued about that emotional experience is mainly an effect of changes in the body (James, 2007). James, together with Carl Lange created James-Lange theory. This theory has a biological perspective of viewing the change in emotion as being accompanied next by bodily changes. They emphasize that the change in the state of the body is manifested through the change in emotion. The bodily reactions are considered to be the cause for the change in emotion as felt by a person (Barrett, Niedenthal, & Winkielman, 2005). This theory simply says that we tend to react first in a situation, for example is running because of an event that could make us run, then the emotional manifestation is then felt or executed. In short, we react first before we get to feel the emotion. Another somatic theory where James-Lane also falls is the Perceptual theory which is known to be a neo-Jamesian theory. The Cognitive Behaviors with Biological Perspective On the other hand, the Cannon-Bard theory nullifies the claims of James-Lange theory and still believes on the previous pattern. This is a cognitive theory that contradicts a somatic theory of emotions. The Two Factor theory, also known as the Singer –Schachter theory rests on the hypothesis that respondents can have different emotional reactions as affected by adrenaline, considering that they have the same initial physiological state. The respondents were monitored for the emotion they are going to feel, whether happiness or anger, when a person on the same situation felt anger or happiness. The determination of the responses was based on the cognitive aspect or when the situation undergoes appraisal, or the physiological or biological aspect as adrenaline was injected to them. In connection to this, Klaus Scherer made a recent cognitive theory that stresses the connection on different bodily functions in combination to the cognitive components. The Amygdala Emotionality was discovered because of the bilateral ablation of the temporal lobe responses in the brain (Weiner, 2003). The part of the brain that is responsible for the feeling of fear is the amygdala. It is a tonsil shaped group of neurons situated at the inside portion of the temporal lobe of humans, including other species under the phylum vertebrata. The emotional reaction is being executed by this part of the brain which is also responsible for emotional stimulation (Kadish, 1994; Lewis & Haviland-Jones, 2000; Phelps, O’Connor, Gatenby, Gore, & Davis, 2001). In the process of fear conditioning, a part of the amygdala, the basolateral complexes help in the mediation of stimuli to the memory. These are brought to the synapses and later on passed to the central nucleus of the nerve, which is involved in the generation of many fear responses that includes immobilization of the body, increased respiration, and release of stress hormones. The type of conditioning called the Pavlovian conditioning may be caused by the damage in this part of the brain. The functions of the amygdala were looked at to account for the emotional and motivational properties it dictates in the brain. The amygdala is a small structure at the cortex which lies deep within the brain’s temporal lobe. Even small, it possesses a complicated neuroanatomy. It receives a large amount of neural inputs to the many parts of the brain, both the minor and major parts of the cortex. The heterogeneity of the structure of amygdala is due to the evolutionary reason that it comes from different parts of the brain which separated from a common point. The heterogeneous description is due to the differences in the structures of the neurons as already explained in the previous statement. There were so many description proposed to amygdale regarding its function, and it was by (Johnson, 1923) that the introduction of the description of the amygdale commonly used today. The nuclei of the amygdala should be described as divided into two groups, the primitive group and the recent group (Moore & Oaksford, 2002). A third part was suggested to be occupying the ventricular floor of the cortex (Alheid & Heimer, 1988). The amygdala is said to be well placed in that position because it is able to gather signals from almost every part of the brain, integrates them all, and is responsible for the processing to arrive at what kind of emotion shall be executed by humans and other species. Research in emotions has been exploiting the amygdala in experimentations. The different types of emotions, fear as example, have different mechanisms in the brain but actually goes to the same pathway which is trying to escape, or of which implies behavioral inhibition (Lewis & Haviland-Jones, 2000). The impulses sent by the amygdala can have two general effects: first is the modulation of the memory’s retention time for long term responses; second is the influence on attention and perception. The retention of the episodic events is crucial in the emotional response so that the event is not forgotten. In this way we are more likely to be aware of the emotional events compared to the neutral events. Experiments dealing with the delay of fear responses were done to account for the effect of amygdala. Respondents were instructed to use an active emotion regulation strategy to lower conditioned fear responses. It was found out that doing this lowers the physiological expression of the CR and CS activation of the amygdala. It was deduced from the experiment that cognitive strategies and control mechanisms during fear conditioning and by just viewing negative scenes can disrupt or alter the responses of the amygdala. The studies presented regarding the instructed fear implies that conditioned fear is not necessarily affected by the awareness in cognition and understanding of the emotional properties. It was also found out that there are many things that can affect the amygdala aside from these two. Dependent responses such as the aversive properties, symbolic communication can also affect the function of the amygdala. Cognitive control mechanisms can be tapped also in the execution of different emotion regulation strategies which can diminish the amygdala responses to strong emotions such as fear. Another study conducted by Phillips and Le Doux (1992) was concerned not just with the contribution of amygdala on the procurement of the conditioned fear responses using a cue, but with the participation of another part of the brain which is the hippocampus. It was found out that for rats, under the unoperated conditions, faster responses were more susceptible to extinction than those with the responses from conditional stimuli. Lesion experiment on rats’ amygdala reflected an interference on the conditioning of the fear responses to both the cues and the context. On the other hand, hippocampus lesions only affected with the conditioning of the responses, but was found out to be irresponsible for the cues (Phillips & Doux, 1992). An almost similar experiment was carried out by McKittrick and his colleagues (1996) and Blachard together with this co-researchers (1998) using remodeling of the dendrites and it was found out that this kind of treatment which involves different stress applications to the hippocampus, specifically repeated restraint stress affects the hippocampus the same way with the previous experiment. It was mentioned that amygdala behaved the same (Gazzaniga & Bizzi, 2004). Moore (2002) mentioned a study in his Emotional Cognition: From Brain to Behaviour, which puts a borderline between the functionality of the hippocampus and amygdala. Le Doux’s theory is often discussed in debates due to its relevance in explaining whether cognitive processes always precede an emotional experience. He said in Moore’s writing that the activation of amygdala by impulses from the neocortex is somewhat consistent with the notion that emotional processing is post cognitive. The hypothesis that emotional processing can be preconscious and precognitive is consistent with the experiment dealing with the thalamic inputs as the amygdale is activated. The two hemispheres of the brain are somewhat different in function with respect to its emotional role. The emotional stimuli perceived by the brain, together with its processing of emotional expressions are usually processed by the right hemisphere. They were able to prove this as they sent signals only to the right hemisphere of the brain, and it was found out that it produced faster heart rates compared to that of the impulses produced by just showing signals to the left hemisphere (Alheid & Heimer, 1988; Cheng, Knight, Smith, Stein, & Helmstetter, 2003; Davidson, 1998). This was also confirmed this hypothesis to those patients suffering from split-brain disorder. The corpus callosum, being the bridge between the two hemispheres, is severed during the operation for those who suffer from epileptic disorders. As a result of this experiment, they were able to know that the two hemispheres function independently of each other. Accurate identification or merely detection of the emotional stimuli happens only when the signal flows to the right side of the cortex. It is pointed out that whatever the hemisphere to function depends on the type of emotion that is felt during that time. The left frontal cortex is more likely to function for pleasant emotions. The right lobe on the other hand functions in the presence of unpleasant emotions. There are people whose only one side of the brain dominates, as proven by Tomarke et al. (1992). People who are dominant in left brain functions are more likely to show positive responses to stimuli, comparing to the other part which remains opposite or negative in reaction. It was further explained by the movement of the muscles of the face which kind of response occurred at the moment of stimulation. It was explained that a left facial muscle contraction is due to a positive response, whereas the right facial muscle reaction is due to a negative response. Bilateral neurotoxic amygdala lesions in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): Consistent pattern of behavior across different social contexts – an Example Case Amygdala has always been associated with the behavior of humans, more generally on the primates. Their social behaviors have always been connected to the cases brought about by lesions caused to the amygdala, wherein their behaviors are subjected to studies. The rhesus monkeys were the non-human primates that are of large importance to the study, since somehow these monkeys represent humans in a more dramatic way than other primates might have. The environments were different for each and every sample monkey, and their physiological characteristics were also different, one is a lesioned or lacerated monkeys and the other monkeys were just normal or unoperated monkeys. In 32 days they were subjected to a 4-monkey group interaction. They were first assessed in pairs (N. J. Emery et al. , 2001), and were already popular or familiar with each other’s presence to avoid intimidation and possible aggression and depression. As observed, the operated or lesioned monkeys manifested a common or consistent behavior. Obstruction in the amygdala was suspected to be the reason. The operated monkeys were seen to be more sociable; they had better affiliation with other monkeys than with that of the non-operated monkeys. The operated monkeys showed a faster adaptation with their new partners, because of the immediate decrease in their nervous and fearful behavior relative to the controls. Other possible behaviors such as sexual behavior were not observed among the samples, both the operated and the unoperated, making the authors conclude of that the amygdala may inhibit this the sexual drive of the monkeys, and that there are still other factors that must be considered in looking at other behavioral patterns. References Alheid, G. F. , & Heimer, L. (1988). New perspectives in basal forebrain organization of special relevance for neuropsychiatric disorders: The striatopallidal, amygdaloid, and corticopetal components of substantia innominata. Neuroscience, 27, 1-39. Anderson, G. S. (2006). Biological Influences on Criminal Behavior. FL: CRC Press. Barrett, L. F. , Niedenthal, P. M. , & Winkielman, P. (2005). Emotion and Consciousness: Insights from studies of the Human Amygdala. CA: Guilford Press. Carson, R. A. , & Rothstein, M. A. (1999). Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology: John Hopkins University Press. Cheng, D. T. , Knight, D. C. , Smith, C. N. , Stein, E. A. , & Helmstetter, F. J. (2003). Functional MRI of Human Amygdala Activity During Pavlovian Fear Conditioning: Stimulus Processing Versus Response Expression. Behavioral Neuroscience, 117(1), 3-10. Coan, J. A. , & Allen, J. J. B. (2007). Handbook of Emotion Elicitation and Assessment. CA: Oxford University Press. Davidson, R. J. (1998). Neuropsychological perspectives on affective and anxiety disorders: A. VT: Psychology Press. Doux, J. L. (2004). The Emotional Brain, Fear, and the Amygdala. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, 23(4), 727-738. Eysenck, M. W. (2004). Psychology: An International Perspective. VT: Psychology/Textbooks. Gazzaniga, M. S. , & Bizzi, E. (2004). The Cognitive Neurosciences. MA: MIT Press. James, W. (2007). The Principles of Psychology. New York: Cosimo, Inc. Johnson, J. B. (1923). Further contributions to the study of the evolution of the forebrain. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 25(337-481). Kadish, M. R. (1994). The Ophelia Paradox: An Inquiry Into the Conduct of Our Lives NJ: Transaction Publishers. Lewis, M. , & Haviland-Jones, J. M. (2000). Handbook of Emotions. CA: Guilford Press. Lisi, A. M. -D. , & Lisi, R. D. (2001). Biology, Society, and Behavior: The Development of Sex Differences in Cognition. CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Moore, S. C. , & Oaksford, M. (2002). Emotional Cognition: From Brain to Behaviour. PA: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Phelps, E. A. , O’Connor, K. J. , Gatenby, J. C., Gore, J. C. , & Davis, C. G. (2001). Activation of the left amygdala to a cognitive representation of fear. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 437-441. Phillips, R. G. , & Doux, J. E. L. (1992). Differential contribution of amygdala and hippocampus to cued and contextual fear conditioning. Behavioral Neuroscience, 106(2), 274-285. Weiner, I. B. e. a. (2003). Handbook of Psychology. NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

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XBUS San - Assignment Example A shared factor is lowly working settings. This is more prevalent in factories where the employer places a major emphasis on getting a product and hardly cares for how his employees needs. Their working conditions are more often than not despicable and therefore a conflict between the two cannot be averted. Poor communication between the employer and employee is also a common source of misunderstanding between an employer and employee. In most cases, the way a person communicates is actually the source of conflict. Many would believe that a certain message has been passed across when it is the inverse. This could be due to a person’s way of expressing themselves, where one is comfortable and the other struggles to express their ideas. This is a major pointer that leads to conflict in the work place. Increased workload albeit is a major source of conflict. This is mostly by the employers where they fail to respect the agreement that the employees have signed. More workload without an increase in the amount of money one is paid definitely leads to a misunderstanding. It is only rational that a person is paid for what they have signed up for, and that the employees respect the initial terms that their employees had signed against. This makes one avoid petty issues and conflict that could have otherwise been avoided. The law has come a long way in trying to tame the current otherwise hostile working environment. With the inclusion of laws such as the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin. This has helped to level the playing ground and reduce the level of prejudice between an employer and employee. The U.S Code 158 also states the rights, dos and don’ts in relation to labor practices by an employer. This code helps to ensure that the employees are well protected and that their lives are in no way at a risk at

Aging and Addiction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Aging and Addiction - Essay Example ccording to Hasin & Grant (1997), the impact which consumption of drugs or alcohol can have on the mental and physical well being of a person, especially the older one includes mental problems, liver and kidney diseases, and wounds from falls. Dependence on drugs or alcohol in the older people also takes place even if they have never had an addiction problem before. If used appropriately, drugs and other chemical substances can be very helpful for one’s mental and physical well being. For instance, if consumed moderately, alcohol possess the substance which may provide cardiac benefits, moreover, it can also be used for the purpose of providing mental and physical relaxation and also for the purpose of diminishing nervousness.  The issue in this regard is that the abuse of drugs and medications, whether illegal and legal, including tobacco and alcohol, has become an extensively grave issue in the older population (Hubbard & Racholl, 1989). Many older ones consume various kinds of medications on daily basis, however, by consuming these drugs, they can cause harm to their mental and physical health, and for instance, when consumed with alcohol, drugs can cause some severe health issues. Often it happens that the older ones consider the adverse impacts of drugs abuse as usual symptoms of aging, which in actual are not.   There are various kinds of drugs, which require the body to consume higher doses of that particular drug for the [purpose of realizing the original effect of that particular drug, and once the effect of such drugs are vanished then the consumer may feel withdrawal symptoms. This drug phenomenon is known as drug tolerance, which indicates that the drug forces your body to experience change in these ways. There are some kinds of drugs, which if consumed even in small doses, can generate a hazardous desire for more. Moreover, often it happens that a drug when prescribed, initially was a beneficial drug, b ut becomes a dangerous drug when consumed with

Riordan Manufacturing Recommendations Essay Example for Free

Riordan Manufacturing Recommendations Essay Riordan Manufacturer is a global producer of plastics. They operate in four locations, three in the United States and one plant in the People’s Republic of China. Riordan’s United States’ plastic products include beverage containers produced in Atlanta, Georgia, and custom plastic parts in Pontiac, Michigan. The Hangzhou, China plant produces plastic fan parts and corporate headquarters is in San Jose, California, (Apollo Group, 2006). Riordan Manufacturing is looking to update their human resources department with the newest and latest software recommendations. The following is a summary of the history, current set up of the department and a recommendation of the upgrade. Human Resources Information Systems Riordan’s HRIS system was set up in 1992, part of the financial systems that keep track of employee information, rate of pay, exemptions, date of hire, seniority based on date of hire, which is difficult and different from the hire date, manager’s name, department information, and non-exempt vacation time. Managers submit a form for changes to the employee information and then entered by the payroll clerk into the system. Microsoft Excel is used to keep records on training and development. Recruiters maintain information for each open position within Riordan. All resumes filed in a central location and Excel is used to track application status. A third-party manages the Worker’s compensation and keeps records at that location, not Riordan. Each manager keeps employee information for that department, which there is no central location for keeping these files. Managers are responsible for tracking all FMLA absences and any ADA recommendations. Excel spreadsheets are used for the compensation manager for job analysis, surveys on salary, and compensation decisions on individuals. Specialists in the employee relation department keep track of complaints, harassment complaints, grievances, all other employee relation information, and are then filed and locked in the employee relation department. Recommendations for Human Resources Information Systems Riordan has a diverse set of needs over four locations, one of which is an international factory located in China. This will require the software to be flexible to handle different culture and regulatory environments. Also the system will capture information form a diverse set of archival media. This is not limited to digital information but vast amounts of paper files will need to be integrated into the system. Systems complex will have specialized technical skills to deploy, customize, and maintain its operations as well as experts to provide training for personal. Ultimately careful consideration must be given to the existing processes and the results of the project. Because services are provided company-wide careful consideration about the capabilities of the program to adapt to different culture mores and holidays is a must. Also the services provided to employees need to be available in the local languages of the countries they reside. To accomplish this provider of the software must be fluent in both countries of operation. They should also have an established presence in both countries to provide service in and by local professionals. Riordan has a long history of data for its operations many of the records are stored in paper files and legacy office products rapidly nearing their production life. As such to pull historical data for strategic planning the system will need to collect data form a wide range of active and archival sources. Providers, who have a long history, will often have experience with these both with their own products and that of their competitors. As a manufacturing company of plastic parts and bottles there is a fair chance that the company will not have the skills required for such an undertaking. So the provider must be established in the market to have spawned a large pool of expert professionals using this solution. This will help in negotiating service and training contracts. The current project proposal The current HRIS project is projected to 180 days from start to the implementation of the project. The initial project will begin with a meeting with Hugh McCauley, . Questions specified to gathering information from human resources, about the current system, what he expects from the new developed system, and expectations will be of the meeting. A follow-up e-mail will also ask the same questions to aid in the answers and also give a general idea of the project guidelines, requirements, and expectations. The next step is meeting with Yvonne McMillan, Director of Human Resources. She will also have some of the same questions for the project as Mr. McCauley did during his meeting. Yvonne will be part of the initial team composed of other managers within the company and from other locations. A follow-up e-mail will also have the questions for general idea purposes. Therefore, we recommend a team comprised of management from Yvonne McMillan, Maria Trihn, Dale Edgel, Donald Bryson, Mari Carillo, Patricia Miller, Dirk Kort, Stacey Jones, and the Chinese National. Each member is from a different location within the company, from human resources, training and development, the IT department from each location including the Chinese location, finance department, and accounting and finance/controller department. Most of the initial meetings will be over an Internet setting to keep the initial cost down for the project and within the constraints inside the budget. This team will recover information from the current human resources department at Riordan to help developers to a system. This system will can be used in each location. During this stage weekly meetings will be held to discuss progress, ideas, problems, and budget matters. After information is gathered and the next step can move forward, the team will meet with developers with their presentation. Once the developers have gathered the initial information, developed a preliminary design, and prepared a presentation, they will meet with McCauley to present the general idea for the system. The development team will work on this project for the next 110 days. Once a month meetings will be scheduled between developers and the team members to discuss progress, problems, budget constraints, and hours to date. During this time, developers will check in with Yvonne with issues, concerns, and suggestions not discussed in the monthly meetings. Developers set up a trial run on Riordan’s current system. The developers will have 14 days to set up and check for compatibility issues. At which time, suggestions can be made for updates or upgrades to the current system. Once this phase of the project is successfully completed, the implementation phase will begin. Managers in the IT department will then begin the implementation phase of the project for their location. This phase should take 14 days to complete. Each location will have four days to complete and implement changes, upgrades, and updates to the system before training and in-service meetings will begin. Members of the training and development department will schedule and hold training and in-service for all departments in each location. This final stage will take eight days to complete. Each IT department for each location will be ready and available for any glitches or problems, which may arise.

Social Media in China Essay Example for Free

Social Media in China Essay Introduction: According to Webster’s dictionary Social Media are â€Å"forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.† The main purpose of social media as a marketing tool is to engage with consumers. Social media allows businesses to engage with consumers in ways that were never possible before. For most companies, creating a social media campaign is not the challenge. The challenge for most companies is their ability to measure effectiveness of their social media efforts. Measuring how a social media campaign translates into profits for a company is no easy feat. But there are some things companies can do to not only make their campaigns successful, but to measure the benefits of this success. The objective of this research paper is to explore how businesses can use social media as a successful marketing tool. Specifically, this paper will address how Chinese businesses can use social media as an effective marking tool. It will also explore the differences between social media in the United States and China. Social Media Platforms in the USA There are several types of social media which are used in the United States. The most commonly known are those which are considered to be â€Å"social networks.† These sites allow for individuals to make their own personal profile and connect with other individuals. Communications on these platforms come as video, messages and pictures. Facebook and MySpace are commonly used to keep in touch with friends and family. LinkedIn is a different type of social network whose primary focus is to connect business professionals with one another. Many businesses use these types of social media to share important information about the company activities with consumers. They can also use these types of tools to entice consumers to purchase products or visit their stores. These types of networks can also be used to target customers or to create a buzz about some new product or promotion going on with a specific company. Pepsi is a great example of how a company used Facebook to increase sales. â€Å"Pepsi used social networks, specifically Facebook, to gather custo mer insights about their DEWmocracy promotions. Their efforts lead to the creation of various varieties of their Mountain Dew brand.† By allowing the customer to decide what flavors they would like to see created, Pepsi gained great insight about the people who buy their product. Another type of social platform is what is known as a microblog. A microblog is a shorter condensed version of an actual blog. These platforms limited their users to 140 characters as opposed to regular blogs that allow users unlimited amount of characters. They are used for immediate and constant updating when things happen or even when they are happening. The purpose of the microblog is to get small bits of information to your â€Å"followers† as quickly as possible. Twitter is the most commonly known and most popular microblog in use today. With Twitter, a user can create their own account and then can elect to â€Å"follow† other users on the platform. They can choose to â€Å"follow† friends, family and even celebrities. Bu t from a business standpoint, there is more value in Twitter than just tweeting and retweeting. According to Schmidt, â€Å"Twitter can be used as a monitoring tool to get data that marketers need to make decisions. Companies now have ability to monitor what consumers think and feel about their specific product. One tweet from a company has the potential of reaching all 140 million Twitter users† (Schmidt.6). Though the microblog is a newer type of social media platform, Twitter has seen huge success since its birth in 2006. Marketers can capitalize on this platforms’ success by utilizing it in their business’s everyday marketing strategy. Blogs are also considered to be a type of social media, though less popular than the ones previously mentioned. A blog is similar to an online journal or diary but is used by several different people for different reasons. They are not limited in length and can be very informative or just for fun, depending on the author. The entries can also be short or long as well. Schmidt explains that, â€Å"the blog has a solid pla ce in social media because of it flexibility and capacity for interactivity. A blog reaches people in different ways than other mediums do so it is a good idea for companies to use this together with other social media outlets, not instead of them† (Schmidt.4). It is important to note, however, that if a company uses a blog, they must make sure they invest the time and energy to keep the information current and the posting frequent. Social Media in China Social media in China takes on a unique form compared to the rest of the world. Unlike other countries, the use of such social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are banned and blocked in China. â€Å"Rather than eliminate social media all together, these restrictions have resulted in a flourishing home-grown, state approved ecosystem in which Chinese-owned properties thrive† (Crampton.1). Social media has become integrated in the lives of Chinese people. Most internet users in Chinese experience the internet solely through social media. The Chinese platforms created are similar to those platforms used across the world. Like their US counterpart, the Chinese have developed numerous types of social media platforms. While other counties use Facebook, China has developed a platform called Renren. This â€Å"social network† has similar features to that of Facebook in which users create their own personal profile and connect with friends and family. This platform is commonly used to keep in touch with such people. This platform attracts college students and users can also upload video and personal information. However, unlike many other countries, China also has several other platforms which attract unique segments of the population. For example, Douban is a social media site that specifically attracts art students. You are likely to find individuals who are passionate about reading , culture and music. Another type of â€Å"social network†, KaixinOO1, is similar to Renren in that it allows users to create profiles. Unlike Renren, this site is utilized mostly by white collared professionals and is used to share more broad information as opposed to personal content. The Chinese have also utilized the microblog through there platform known as Sina Weibo. Again, this platform has similarities to that of Twitter. The interface works just like Twitter. Users elect to follow certain people and in turn other people can follow them. This platform has about 100 million registered users which consist of a board range of China’s internet population. Some of the people who utilize this type of social media include youth, celebrities, business professionals, and media personalities (Nooruddin.2). But what sets this country’s social media apart is not those platforms that are similar to those of other countries, but those interfaces uniquely utilized in China. An example is the utilization of Chinese bulletin board systems (BBS). These are â€Å"online forums where individuals can post questions and engage in discussions on any range of topics. More the 96% of Chinese online users have spent an hour or more a day on BBS sites. These users tend to be between the ages of 20 to 40 years old from various professional backgrounds. More than 80% of BBS users search for product information and of these users about 61.7% ask other BBS users for their opinion before making a purchase themselves†(Geng.6). These systems allow for users to post anonymously which encourages users to be honest in their reviews of certain products and services. As you can see, different social media platforms in china attract a distinct audience, making it easier for Chinese businesses to target specific consumers. However, while there are many different social media outlets in China, after having a chance to speak with Chinese natives, it seems that Webio is the most highly used by Chinese citizens. We will explore further how businesses in China use these different platforms to successfully use social media as part of their marketing mix. Social Media Differences between the Two Countries Upon reviewing the different platforms in both countries, one might conclude that there is no difference among those types of social media used in both countries. Though at first glance, this may be the case, there is much more to social media in China than simply the platforms which Chinese internet users utilize. Social media has been so deeply intenerated into the lives of the Chinese. In china, the social media is the internet; there is no real distinction. â€Å"Social media platforms and online behaviors vary in important ways from those that may be considered their international equivalents and this difference is not due to censorship,† (Crampton.2). The variations in usage are driven by language, culture and economical development. The platforms which individuals of different countries focus on can vary widely. This variation can occur not only between countries, but within a single country as well. One way to understand the differences between the uses in China verses The United States is by analyzing the differences among the platforms in both countries. Twitter and Sina Weibo are both microblogs used to have short quick communications with users. The differences between these two platforms are rooted mainly in language. Sina Weibo is the fastest growing microblog in China. Though it is similar to Twitter in that it allows users to post 140 characters, Weibo actually allows its users to post videos and photos. It also allows users to comment on other peoples updates and to add comments when reposting a friends message; all things which twitter currently lacks. One of the biggest advantages however, which Weibo has over Twitter is the â€Å"length of communications expressed via microblogs in Chinese verses English† (Crampton.4). Even though both platforms allow users to express 140 characters worth of information in a single post, those users communicated using Chinese have an upper hand. This is due to the fact that each Chinese character is a word. This allows users, but more importantly, companies which are utilizing this platform to engage with consumers, to share more information. The article, â€Å"Social Media in China: The Same, but Different,† shows how Dell utilized this language difference. For a promotion the company was running they posted this update on twitter: â€Å"Today’s deal: Get FREE Eco-Lite Sleeve with the purchase of any Dell Outlet Insprion Mini 10,† (Crampton.4). A similar message on a Chinese microblog for the same add read like this: â€Å"Dell’s National Day Sale runs from Se ptember 11 to October 8th. To celebrate the 60th anniversary with the motherland, Dell home computers is offering 6 cool gifts and deals on 20 computer models. These exciting offers will run nonstop for 4 weeks. Also, get a free upgrade to color casing and a 512MB independent graphics card, as well as other service upgrades. All offers are on a first com first serve bases† (Crampton.4). As one might notice, a 114 characters limit in Chinese translates into 434 characters in English. This turns microblogging in China into more of a blog-like platform. Though these two platforms are different in structure, as business promotion tools, they are one in the same. Businesses use both Webio and Twitter to create a dialog and to get information about what is going on with their company quickly to their users. According to Nielsen, brand information via social media in both China and the US spread through, â€Å"interactions with friends on social media platforms. They believe that their platforms can be used by business to achieve greater success than form traditional advertizing.† It is clear to businesses that these micro blogs are important not only to help create a dialog between the consumer and the business, but more importantly, these specific platforms are used to obtain higher immediate brand exposure, brand identity and brand awareness among consumers. While the social network site Facebook has become the default social network throughout most of the world, China has been able to establish similar platforms which are tailored to attract specific segments of people. Most of the social networks created in China have developed around the interests of people who belong to certain segments of the Chinese population. As mentioned before, Douban is focused on attracting those individuals who are art students. The website also allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, and recent events in Chinese cities. Unlike Facebook and Renren, it is opened to both registered and unregistered users. Not only can users connect according to their interests but the website also provides recommendations about books, music and more to its users. Based on this information, one can conclude that social media in China has been somewhat customized to meet the needs of several different segments of the population as well as to meet the interests of those people. Companies can benefit from these â€Å"targeted social networks.† Yet oddly, â€Å"many companies have failed to acknowledge the shifts in their marketing strategy. Social media has grown to become the shared commons where Chinese consumers offer opinions, ask for advice and discuss their interests which include brands. Thus, while in the past the internet could have been considered a lost opportunity in China, today, ignoring social media is a business risk† (Crampton.6). The article entitled, â€Å"Social Media: The new Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix,† examines how the traditional marketing mix has been changed due to the rise of social media. Traditional Promotional Mix Verses New Promotional Mix Traditionally, marketing consists of the four â€Å"Ps,† product, price, placement and promotion. The promotional mix focuses on the promotion elements of marketing. Before social media, companies relied heavily on what is known as integrated marketing communications to interact with their consumers. These communications, â€Å"attempt to coordinate and control various elements of the promotional mix- advertising, personal selling, public relations, publicity, direct marketing, and sales promotion- to produce a unified consumer-focused message and therefore, achieve various organizational objectives as well† (Mangold and Faulds.1). Promotions are all about communication because promotions are the way a business makes its products known to both current consumers and potential ones as well. The goal of a promotion is to ensure that customers are aware of the existing products and it is also used to persuade customers that the product is better that the competing products on the market. It is a marketer’s job to remind customers’ why they want to buy their companies products. Traditionally, businesses spoke to their consumers through such mediums as TV ads, billboards and radio. It is also typical for a company to use sales promotions to influence consumers to buy. The rise of social media has flipped these traditional ideas of promotional marketing on its head. Due to the rise of social media, the â€Å"strategies for communicating with customers have changed significantly† (Mangold and Faulds.358). Mangold and Faulds suggest in their article, â€Å"Social Media: The new Hybrid Element of th e Promotion Mix,† that social media plays a hybrid role in the promotional mix. This is due in part to the fact that social media has changed the way which businesses can communicate with their consumers. Social media not only enables companies to speak directly to their consumers, but it also allows for consumers to communicate with one another on a large front. Companies can use such platforms as Facebook and Renren to communicate with their consumers. The company’s consumers can use these same platforms to give feedback about their experiences with that company’s product or service.â€Å"The second role of social media- enabling customers to talk to one another, is in away an extension of the traditional word-of-mouth communication† (Mangold and Faulds.359). What makes this word of mouth exchange unique is that it magnifies the communication. Before social media and with the traditional approach, individual consumers were only able to communicate their experience to a few friends. Consumers now have the ability to express their experience s to hundreds and thousands of people in the matter of a few keystrokes on a social media platform. This takes the control of what messages are sent to consumers away from the actual business and puts it into the hand of the consumer; it in turn limits the amount of control companies have over the content and dissemination of information (Mangold and Fauld.359). The question for businesses to explore: how can this power of social media be harnessed for the benefit of the organization? The best way to do this is by consistently engaging with the consumers by these platforms. Companies are in control when they are able to create a buzz about a specific product, when they are able to learn from customers and when they are able to successfully target customers. Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin explain how companies can use this control which social media gives them to create successful social marketing campaigns. Divol, Edelman and Sarrazin, authors of the McKinsey Quartly article entitled Demystifying social media believe that in order for businesses to be in control of social media conver sations, they must monitor consumer responses, respond to those responses, amplify their responses and make efforts to lead consumers to long term behavioral changes which will continue to keep them coming back to their company. They describe brand monitoring as â€Å"simply knowing and understanding what consumers are saying about the company’s product.† (Divol.4) They believe that even if a company does not engage in direct conversation with consumers on social media platforms, this information obtained by monitoring will allow them to gain insight on what their consumers want. It also provides advanced warning for negative publicity. But monitoring is just the start. Businesses also need to respond to consumers by pinpointing conversations for personal interaction with the consumer. This responding can be positive if it is done to provide customer service or to uncover certain leads or to deal with crisis management. Next, the authors believe that it is important to amplify their conversations with their consumers. They explain that â€Å"amplification involves designing your marketing activities to have an inherently social motivator that spurts broader engagement and sharing. This means that businesses should invite consumers to join into a conversation. They should also have ongoing programs and share new content. It is also important for businesses to provide opportunities for sharing back. Finally, businesses should focus on offering experiences that customers want to share to others† (Divol.6). An example of this amplification comes from Starbucks. â€Å"Starbucks wanted to increase awareness of its brand. To do this, the company launched a campaign which challenged their users to be the first to tweet a picture for one of the new advertising posters which the company had placed in six major cities providing the winners with $20 gift cards. This got millions of fans speaking about Starbucks and their current promotion. By giving consumers a reason to speak about a company’s brand, they are able to quickly and effortlessly create customer brand awareness and therefore, save millions of dollars in advertising† (Divol.7). Finally, the authors believe it is important to lead consumers along long term behavioral exchanges which will keep them coming back for more. Companies can influence behavioral changes by creating a buzz, asking for feedback from customers and creating promotions which actively involves consumers. In order to have successful marketing campaigns in the 21st century, mangers need to change their thin king and attitudes toward these new additions to the marketing mix. They need to realize, accept and understand that a large amount of information about their products and services are being talked about via social media outlets. They also need to understand that the communications occurring on these platforms are directly impacting all aspects of consumer behavior. Managers should be aware that â€Å"consumers are reducing their reliance on advertising and traditional elements of the promotional mix as a source of information to help make their purchasing decision,† (Mangold and Faulds.361). In order for marketing managers to drive a successful social media campaign, these managers need to learn to communicate with their consumers on the medium and not to speak at them as illustrated by the examples above. How can Social Media be used to Benefit Businesses? Though the social media platforms used in China and the US differ, the basic benefits of social media to businesses are the same. The main goal of social media in marketing campaigns is customer engagement. Just like with traditional marketing, social media can be utilized for customer engagement. As mentioned previously, social media allows the consumer to communicate on a massive scale to one another on their experiences with particular products. In order for a business to benefit from this, marketing managers need to focus their efforts on shaping the conversation. The following paragraphs explain ways in which businesses can take control of social media conversations. Consumers prefer to communicate with likeminded people. One way that organizations can control this is by providing platforms, which allow likeminded people to network. Organizations can create online communities which consumers with the same interests and values can come together to communicate about similar intere sts. These â€Å"networking opportunities do not have to take form in social media platforms to be effective. For example, movie premiers bring together die-hard fans who like to attend midnight showings so they can be the â€Å"first to know† about the movie. Similarly, Apple has effectively been able to drive iPhone fanatics together who wait in long lines to be the first to purchase the new product. Creating excitement through events and through online forums will benefit the organizations. As the authors state, â€Å" the experience of participating with likeminded individuals in highly anticipated events becomes memorable and is likely to e talked about for years to come† (Mangold and Faulds.361). This is the type of positive conversations organizations can benefit from. Consumers also feel most engaged when they are able to give feedback. This way they feel like they are being heard. Organizations can also use contests and free give a ways in order to engage with their consumers. However, it is important to remember that organizations want to have meaningful conversations with their consumers. If all their consumers are talking about is getting free stuff from them and not about the products and services that these organizations may offer, then that means that companies are not using social media effectively. A way in which organizations can effectively use contests for engagement is by having contests in which consumers are actively involved in promoting a certain product. â€Å"Enabling consumers to see others using the product can entertain and engage consumers while communicating product benefits† (Mangold and Faulds.362). Other ways in which organizations can utilize communication to consumers via social media is by providing information to consumers. Using social media platforms to introduce new products or to provide answers to questions are a few ways in which companies can insure that their consumers are being informed. Some companies have established special websites that allows consumers to connect to one another and gather more information about specific products or services which they are interested. For example, Procter and Gamble created portion of their website called â€Å"Ask Julia.† This section of the website provides detailed information on many subjects related to the products which PG provide to their consumers. The more informed you are, the more you will communicate it to others. At times, it is important for businesses to think outside of the box with their campaign. A way they can do this and attract attention to them is by doing something outrageous to get their consumers talking. For example, Burger King played a joke on it customers by telling them that the Whopper would no longer be sold. They then recorded their customer’s reactions to the news which they posted online for consumers enjoyment. These reactions got Burger King’s consumers talking. Sometimes it is important for businesses to have a little fun with their marketing techniques as Burger King did in this example. Consumers also enjoy exclusivity. People generally like to feel special. Businesses have the ability to control this type of special feelings. Feeling special can occur if businesses offer products, information and special deals which are only available to a specific subset of customers. These positive feelings will most likely translate into positive talk among consumers. Some other ways in which companies can get their consumers talking is by make people want to talk about them. When Apple launched their first iPhone, it changed the way people looked at phones forever. Companies should design products with talking points in mind. If companies provide exclusive offers to their consumers, it will also get them talking as well. It makes the consumer feel important to the company and thus should lea d to positive talks from consumers. Finally, companies can support causes that are important to consumers and utilize the power of stories to create meaningful conversations. By doing so, they can connect with those consumers which may be emotionally linked to a specific causes. Due to this linkage, these consumers may be more likely to purchase a company’s product. How can companies measure the effectiveness of social media? After doing a lot of research, I have found that both American and Chinese companies use the same or similar metrics to track their social media success. Since social media is fairly new in the marketing realm, most companies have struggled translating the effectiveness of their social media into actual numbers in term of return on investment for their companies. But companies can do themselves a favor by tracking specific metrics which can tell them how successful their campaigns are in terms of reach. In terms of social media, reach is defined as the number of people who see the conversations which occur between a specific business and other consumers or social media users in general. As stated before, the purpose of social media is to hold conversations with potential new customers on these platforms; it is all about engagement. In terms of conversation, it is important for a company to measure the number of conversations they have with their â€Å"fans† or â€Å"followers,† the speed of the responses they are getting from their fans or followers and the company’s ability to hold a single conversation. It is important to see what your fans are talking about. The conversations must be of quality and less so about what someone is getting from the company i.e. â€Å"free stuff.† But while social media thrives on conversation, the metrics that can be used to see the effectiveness of a social media campaign stretches much wider. The following lists some of the metrics that a company should look for in order to determine whether their social media campaign is really having an impact on their company: * Social Connections and Page Views: How much exposure is your site getting on social media platforms? It is important for any company to keep track of the number of followers they are obtaining through their social media platforms * Quality of Followers/Fans: According to â€Å"Thoughtful China,† it is important that companies realize that it is not just about the number of followers or fans that the company’s page has but also the number of followers or fans which each individual person who is following the company’s site has. This will drive the reach and the impact which the company is having over the whole social media platform. (Thoughtful China Video). * Engagement Rate: â€Å"A good social media marketer needs to know when he or she posts something that creates a reaction or follower engagement,† (Gold.1). It is important to keep track of positive and negative feedback gained from certain posts. It is also important for a company to keep track of what is known as the â€Å"retweet rate.† This is in essence is keeping track of the number of times you are retweeted every time you post a single tweet. This flows into the next metrics, reach. * The Reach of your Social Media Campaign: This includes a number of things. One of the main things to look for is your company’s â€Å"share of voice.† This simply refers to the number of people on social media which is talking about your company in comparison to your competitors. It is important for a company to think about reach in this manner; â€Å"Am I doing better than last week or last month and what did I do to improve or hurt my performance or reach?† (Gold.1). The more effort companies put into their social media campaigns, the higher the return. Studies show that if a company can convert â€Å"7% of fans or followers into customers this will translate into 40% of sales† (Thoughtful China Video). Since there are extremely high volumes of people using social media platforms, it is hard to say exactly how many people you engage with turn into buyers of your product. But since social media can be used all along the value chain, it is important for businesses to look at the ROI of social media in terms of its overall business impact, not just its impact on sales. Without impact measurements, it is extremely difficult for companies to justify investments in social media and to compare social media marketing with other marketing mediums. Key performance indicators are vital in making the case for social media. According to McKinsey Company, a comprehensive measurement rationale should consist of three levels of KPIs. Level one should consist of a basic KPI system that measures engagement and consumers feelings of the companies’ social media efforts on all different platforms. Metrics such as the ones mentioned above can be used to stratify this level measurement. The company also suggests that level two should consist of business case logic. McKinsey Company recommends that â€Å"companies should create business cases to assess the value of specific activates, like campaigns, or decisions, like platform choices† (McKinsey Company Buzz into Gold). An example could be tracking the value of a Facebook fan. A company should create a calculation that recognizes the average number of contacts created through one Facebook fan. The third and final level consists of gross rating points which will allow companies to make social media comparable across all platforms. McKinsey Company notes that â€Å"for traditional marketing, gross rating points (GRPs) measures advertising intensity of a campaign as a whole. This traditional rating can also be used as a metrics which is used specifically for social media. This measure would be based on the number and reach of the companies posting through multiple social media platforms and would be calculated as the number of people reached multiplied by the number of times these people are reached per day or week (which ever the company prefers). Based on the information above, it is clear that there are many ways in which companies can measure effectiveness of their social media campaigns. The question that needs to be answered now is are American and Chinese companies successfully measuring these metrics? The answer: some companies recognize the importance of these metrics more than others and are doing a better job of tracking this information than others. Here are just a few examples of Chinese and American companies who have used social media as a marketing tool successfully. AJ Bombers: An American Company who experienced social media success AJ Bombers is a burger joint located in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Joe Sorge, the owner of the restaurant changed the way he promoted his company and turned it strictly into social media marketing. He believes that successful social media marketing starts with a great product, something he believed his restaurant had; the best burger in town. Sorge decided to get rid of all forms of traditional marketing that he had previously used to promote his restaurant. Before making the switch to strictly social media, he relied on only using email marketing as a method of marketing his restaurants. Sorge started experimenting with Twitter. He first searched to see what people were saying about his restaurant and he eventually decided to create an account himself so that he could respond to what his customers where saying about his restaurant. By doing this, he was able to create meaningful relationships with his customers and began to see positive reactions from his customers whom he had communicated with via Twitter. The power of social media became evident when Sorge realized that his account had the ability to reach hundreds and thousands of people through his Twitter account. Even if he did not directly engage with some of his customers, they were able to see the conversations going on, and if they liked something they heard or saw, they were able to retweet it to friends and family. The restaurant was previously known for its events. When Sorge realized the benefits of social media, he quickly used this to help promote the events which occurred at his restaurants. He used social media platforms to drive sales for AJ Bombers. One example of an event that Sorge put on was the, â€Å"I’m on a boat badge party.† He partnered with foursquare to create a check in point for his restaurant. Then he used Twitter and Facebook to promote the event. This event allowed customers to earn an â€Å"I’m on a boat badge.† He also partnered with a local outdoors store to obtain boats which customers so that customers could earn their badge by taking part in challenges after checking in. During the event, more than 231 people checked in to the foursquare events page. The event resulted in the single best day of sales that the restaurant has ever seen and the employees had to turn away customers because they did not have enough room to accommodate everyone who showed up. Sorge believed that the word of mouth buzz created by this event through various social platforms and the speed at which the information traveled is what lead for this event to be one of the most successful events he has ever created. This example shows the how constant engagement with customers on social media platforms can be effective in attracting consumers to certain businesses. It also shows how fast communication happens via social media and how many people these conversations can potentially reach. This type of success is possible for all kinds of businesses if they know how to effectively engage with customers. IKEA China: Building a Loyal Following through Online Customer Engagement (Source: The China Observer) IKEA Group is the world’s largest furniture retail with over 280 stores in 26 countries. In 1998, IKEA chose Shanghai to penetrate the Chinese market. IKEA presently runs ten stores in nine cities in China and has achieved total sales of $755 million dollars with over 31 million customers visiting its stores in 2011. Since IKEA used a relatively conservative approach to opening new stores in China, IKEA location were limited, making it harder to reach the young generation of white collar consumers across China. The company found it challenging to build a distinctive brand and to influence Chinese consumers to purchase products since most people treated the IEKA stores as a place for entertainment and not to make purchases for new furniture. In October of 2010, IKEA decided to expand their emphasis on social media. The company started to organize events both real-world and virtual events to engage potential customers both online and offline. IKEA created its own profile on Douban, a Chinese social media platform which allows users to recommend, comment on and compare their favorite books, films and music. The company created a page which listed tips on decorating homes with IKEA products. In September 2011, the company launched on its page called â€Å"the dream home in films.† They encouraged users to upload screenshots of their favorite home furnishing styles from famous films and write a description of the scenes with each â€Å"episode† containing a different theme, focusing on different types of rooms in a virtual home. Participants could win gifts sponsored by IKEA. IKEA attracted a widespread and achieve engagement among Douban users; they are considered to be well-educated and creative urban Chinese. The online and offline event provided customers and potential customers with a way of expressing themselves which translated into a positive impression of the IKEA brand. IKEA’s profile page on Douban, increased to just over 30 thousand followers and 210 thousand visitors. IKEA was able to increase its sales by 20% in the 2012 fiscal year by investing in its brand in China through social media. Conclusion Businesses all over the world have switched gears and included social media as a part of their marketing efforts. With the ever evolving ways of the internet, it is important for businesses to realize how to use web platforms such as social media to help increase their bottom line. In order for companies to make sure they run a successful social media campaign, marketers need to educate themselves on the different ways to engage with their consumer on social media, and how to track these conversations in terms of ROI. Proper utilization of social media can lead to increased brand awareness, brand image but most importantly, the proper use of social media as a marketing tool can lead to increased sales. Works Cited Bodnar, Kipp. Generating Small Business Customers with Social Media.Hubspot.com. Web. Crampton, Thomas. Social Media in China: The Same but Different. China Business Review. ProQuest, 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Divol, Roxane, David Eldmen, and Hugo Sarrzin. Demystifying Social Media. Demystifying Social Media. McKinseyCompany, Apr. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Dove: Encouraging Female Consumers to Share Their Beauty Stories. The China Observer. N.p., 31 May 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. IKEA China: Build a Loyal Following Through Customer Engagement Online. The China Observer. N.p., 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Kuo, Kaiser. Blogs, Bulletin Boards and Business. China Business Review. ProQuest, Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Lipsman, Andrew, Graham Mudd, and Mike Rich. Power of Like: How Brands Rewach (and Influence) Fans Through Social-Media Marketing. Journal of Advertising and Research 52.1 (2012): 1-24. Web. Mangold, Glynn, and David Faulds. Social Media: The New Hybrid Element of the Promotion Mix. Harvard Business Review (n.d.): 1-9. Web. Nooruddin, Zaheer. 7 Steps to Weibo Success. China Buisness Review. ProQuest, July 2012. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. Schmidt, Stacey, and David Ralph. Social Media: More Available Marketing Tools. The Business Review. ProQuest, Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Turning Buzz into Gold. McKinseyCompany. McKinseyCompany, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. Gold, Harry. 14 Social Media ROI Metrics You Can Use Right Now! ClickZ. Click Z Marketing and News, 21 May 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2178428/14-social-media-roi-metrics. Social Media Metrics. Thoughtful Media Group. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. http://www.thoughtfulchina.com/en/social-media-metrics-en.html.

The Motorcycle Industry Is A Consolidated Industry Marketing Essay

The Motorcycle Industry Is A Consolidated Industry Marketing Essay Harleys first segment is the motorcycle and related products business. It included designing, manufacturing, and selling primarily heavyweight touring and custom motorcycles and offering a broad range of related products that included motorcycle parts and accessories and riding apparel. The custom products charge a higher price because of its features, styling, and high resale value. New competitors have entered the marketplace because demand for the motorcycles has exceeded production. The demand is prospected to grow in the future, and the switching cost is low. Their customers are mainly male, middle age, married, and have some degree of education. Most buyers hold a motorcycle for recreational purposes rather than for transportation purpose. These buyers are mostly experienced motorcycle riders. Recommendation The international touring market is growing and is significantly larger than the U.S. touring market. Europe has the largest motorcycle, even larger than US. There is high potential in expanding business in Europe. However, the company holds a smaller market shares in the European market. Therefore, continuing to develop the European market should be a major issue for the company over the next few years. The following recommendations could be used in the European market. Not only should they target heavyweight motorcycles market, they can also target sport motorcycles market. The reason is that the European sport/performance market is four times larger than U.S., and is expecting to grow even more in the future. The company could distribute the Buell Motorcycle Companys product to the European market in order to establish a sporty image and able to directly complete with other competitors. Also, the company can build a motorcycle plant in the European by using strategy alliance or joint venture. Building the plant in the European can reduce the transportation cost and increase the companys international experience. Strategy alliances is suitable in this case since the company can create value from transferring competencies or sharing resources between diversified businesses in order to realize economies of scope. Harleys motorcycles are priced slightly higher than competitors. In the U.S. market, since the customers are brand, quality, and style loyalty. Instead of focusing on the price leadership strategy, they should focus on differentiate strategy. Therefore, under the current financial availability, they should be able to generate certain funds to run the Product Development Center, which bring together employees and suppliers to design the fashion products. At the same time, the company should focus on product development and product proliferation strategy. They should concentrate on creating new products or improving existing products in order to attract existing and new customers. The company should continue to build their enterprise. Since the industry does not have significant economies of scale, growth-via-acquisition strategy could be used. Harley-Davidson can merge or acquire weaker rival or smaller players. Taking over the weaker and smaller players will increase the entry barriers. Terms- ideas Competitive advantage is what sets an organization apart, that is, its distinct edge. That distinct edge comes from the organizations core competencies, which might be in the form of organizational capabilities the organization does something that others cannot do or does it better than others can do it. For example, Dell has developed a competitive advantage based upon its ability to create a direct-selling channel thats highly responsive to customers. Southwest Airlines has a competitive advantage because it is skilled in giving passengers what they want quick, convenient, and fun service. Or those core competencies that lead to competitive advantage also can come from organizational assets or resources the organization has something that its competitors do not have. For instance, Wal-Marts state-of-the-art information systems allows it to monitor and control inventories and supplier relations more efficiently than its competitors, which Wal-Mart has turned into a price advantage. Strategy -A Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal as differential from tactics or immediate achieve a particular goal, as differential from tactics or immediate action with resources at hand. Strategic Management-It is the process of specifying an organizations objectives, developing policies plans to achieve these objectives, and allocating resources so as to implement the plans. It involves development of mission and strategic vision. It is long run in the nature and provides the organization with a road map Concept of Strategic Management: Strategic Management in the context of the construction industry comprises the following seven areas: Vision, mission and goals -The starting point for all organization endeavors; establishing a vision provides each members with a direction to follow in all business practices members with a direction to follow in all business practices. Core competencies -The Business boundaries for an organization does best and where its strength resides organization do the best and where its strength resides. Knowledge Resources -The Combination of human and technology resources that provide the backbone for completing organization projects. 3. What do I want to do after Graduation?   With todays economy like it is, I have to find ways to stick out from my competitors. Therefore, with a business management degree, also known as a general management degree, I have a lot of different areas I can go into after school. For example, finance, human resources, information technology, marketing, operations management, and strategic management. With this degree I will be prepared to assume a wide range of managerial positions in the business field. But the big question is do I want to start looking for a job, stay in school and change my major or go on to graduate school? But first I have to ask myself what I want to do/ what of my life. The questions I have to ask myself are?   Is there an industry that interests you? For example: Financial services, technology, real-estate, or health care?   What type of company would I like to work for?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example: Public or private, small or large, domestic or international   Then I need to develop a target list of firms that interest me?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example: Identify and research the top 10 firms that interest me and also areas that they are located.   What type of job motivates me? For example: Do I want to be an accountant, sales person, financial analyst or marketing research associate? What are unique strengths about me? For example: I need to develop a list of the skills I bring to a potential employer such as time management, communication skills, ability to multi-task, listening skills, ability to get things done. Where do I want to live now an in the future?   The actual job search can be time-consuming and frustrating. However, there are steps I can take to insure I spend my time wisely and efficiently. What do I need to know?    What industry is the target company in? How large is the company? Who are their competitors? What type of products does the company produce/provide? Who are the companys customers / prospects? Is the company an employer of choice? What criteria does the company look for when hiring? Are these companies located in your geographic preference? Where do they have offices? (International) What is their reputation in the market?   A company has competitive advantage whenever it can attract customers and defend against competitive forces better than its rivals.   Companies want to develop competitive advantages that have some sustainability (although the typical term sustainable competitive advantage is usually only true dynamically, as a firm works to continue it).   Successful competitive strategies usually involve building uniquely strong or distinctive competencies in one or several areas crucial to success and using them to maintain a competitive edge over rivals.   Some examples of distinctive competencies are superior technology and/or product features, better manufacturing technology and skills, superior sales and distribution capabilities, and better customer service and convenience.   5. A niche strategy can be competitively attractive because     The focusers specialized competencies and capabilities in serving the target market niche give it strength in countering challenges from larger multi-segment competitors (who may not be easily able to put the capabilities in place to meet the specialized needs of the target market niche and at the same time satisfy the expectations of their mainstream customers). Also targeting the market niche acts as an entry barrier and gives it some measure of protection from other firms wanting to horn in on the niche. Rivalry in the niche may be weaker than in the broader market if there are relatively few players competing in the niche. Difficulties in matching the focusers competitive capabilities in serving buyers in the target market niche present a hurdle that the sellers of substitute products must overcome in order to be a factor in the niche. Examples of Focus Strategies   eBay -Online auctions Jiffy Lube International -Maintenance for motor vehicles Bandag-Specialist in truck tire recapping Porsche -Sports cars What Makes a Niche Attractive for Focusing?   Big enough to be profitable and offers good growth potential Not crucial to success of industry leaders Costly or difficult for multi-segment competitors to meet specialized needs of niche members Focuser has resources and capabilities to effectively serve an attractive niche Few other rivals are specializing in same niche Focuser can defend against challengers via superior ability to serve niche members Risks of a Focus Strategy    Competitors find effective ways to match a focusers capabilities in serving niche Niche buyers preferences shift towards product attributes desired by majority of buyers niche becomes part of overall market Segment becomes so attractive it becomes crowded with rivals, causing segment profits to be splintered 6. The car industry is an ongoing growing market where the environmental issues become more and more crucial due to the apparition of new legislations to preserve nature and avoid Global Warming. Therefore, in this case more precisely work with the niche market of electric vehicles. Actually, carmakers have to face the problem of excess capacity. They are producing more than they are selling. One of the reasons can be the decreasing demand due to the economical regression and also to the fact that cars last longer. Another reason is that they want to produce in large volumes in order to make the production cost decreased. So, they can be competitive on the market. Now, scale economies are a critical issue for car manufacturers. The concerns for the economy and global warming have forced the automobile industry to start developing alternatives for fuel vehicles. At first, the automakers showed a little interest into this concern and they did not want to look into the development of alternative energy sources at all because of the high cost and the many risks involved. Nevertheless, due to new legislations, automakers do not have the choice anymore. They have to come up with new technologies to make fuel-efficient cars or find alternative to normal fuel engines. At the end of the 20th century, car manufacturers came up with new technology to produce internal combustion engines with an electric motor and the development is ongoing. In todays society people are judged on the type of car they choose to drive. Of course, car manufacturers know about that fact and they target their potential customers to market their products. For example, anyone who drives a nice car is perceived by others as being wealthy and no one wants to be seen driving an unattractive car. Consumers also tend to feel better when they are driving a nice or a new car. Another feature of the socio cultural aspect for car is that auto makers have to keep in mind the growing environmental concerns and the need of fuel efficient vehicles. Many environmentalists are worried about the impact that the gasoline cars have on the environment and therefore search for alternatives. The automotive market is characterized by a very low number of entrants. In order to compete in this market the newcomers must be able to achieve economies of scale by adopting a cost saving strategy. Therefore, the car manufacturers must mass-produce to be able to offer cars to the customer at a reasonable price. At the same time, it requires an extreme amount of capital not only to be able to manufacturer the product, but also to keep up with the research and development of new products. 8. There is a HUGE market for tablets.   Many have said this is like a living room computer, as well, as an e-book reader.   It would also be a great entertainment device, on airplanes (if were allowed to use them), on the bus, and around town. Also the iPad will be ideal for bringing to meetings without the intrusion, distraction, boot up or power cables of a laptop. In the future the laptop will be staying in the office. The people that will benefit from this product a lot are doctors and also nurses. I think when the iPad launches it will be a big competitive advantage to the company because of what they have done in the past. Honestly, the iPad, will give Apple more power in the companys product line and also move the company forward toward being the spoke in the wheel that is the world of media and technology. Making something that fits between a smartphone and a laptop has been a goal for the consumer technology industry for more than a decade. The most recent attempt has b een the Netbook. The iPad easily makes Netbooks seem boring and staid, and too close to the same old form factor, the computer. My prediction is that the iPad will really shake up the competitors and really hurt their netbook business in the long run. And, the competitors will really struggle this time to find a way to create tablets that are equally as unique and competitive with Apple. Sure, they will create similar designs, but Apples ability to deliver a complete eco system of hardware, software, apps and services tied to the iPad is their real advantage. And with iPads starting at $499, it will make it much easier for Apple to push a new mobile computing agenda that goes well beyond the interest of techies and will tap into the mobile computing interest of a large market of consumers.The iPad is taking a different tack: taking tasks that were too big for an iPhone and puts them on a device that isnt pocket-sized, but is more convenient to carry around than a 13- or 15-inch lapt op. The iPad poses a real problem to competitors on a couple of fronts. The big one is the fact that Apple uses their own processor to power the iPad. No Intel tax in the bill of materials. I suspect that even with bill of material costs for screen and memory being an issue, Apple is still able to get margins of over 20% for the entry version at $499 because of this vertical integration of Apple internet protocol.   On the other hand, any competitor doing a tablet will have the screen and memory component costs as well as the processor costs and at a competitive price of $499, they would have much smaller margins to work with. Also, Apple is able to tap into its rich eco system of easy to use multi-touch interface and 140,000 apps that give it additional functionality from the start. At the very least, it puts them two years ahead of competitors who will try and create competitive products in this same category with similar app ecosystems. The economy -rich peo young class Apple has created a new market, everyone will soon try to follow. 2. A business has to understand the dynamics of its industries and markets in order to compete effectively in the marketplace. The forces that drive competition, is contending that the competitive environment is created by the interaction of five different forces acting on a business. In addition to rivalry among existing firms and the threat of new entrants into the market, there are also the forces of supplier power, the power of the buyers, and the threat of substitute products or services. The intensity of rivalry, which is the most obvious of the five forces in an industry, helps determine the extent to which the value created by an industry will be dissipated through head-to-head competition. Another point is both potential and existing competitors influence average industry profitability. The threat of new entrants is usually based on the market entry barriers. They can take diverse forms and are used to prevent an influx of firms into an industry whenever profits, adjusted for the cost of capital, rise above zero. In contrast, entry barriers exist whenever it is difficult or not economically feasible for an outsider to replicate the incumbents position. The most common forms of entry barriers, except intrinsic physical or legal obstacles, are as follows: Economies of scale: for example, benefits associated with bulk purchasing. Cost of entry: for example, investment into technology. Distribution channels: for example, ease of access for competitors. Cost advantages not related to the size of the company: for example, contacts and expertise. Government legislations: for example, introduction of new laws might weaken companys competitive position. Differentiation: for example, certain brand that cannot be copied. The threat that substitute products pose to an industrys profitability depends on the relative price-to-performance ratios of the different types of products or services to which customers can turn to satisfy the same basic need. The threat of substitution is also affected by switching costs that is, the costs in areas such as retraining, retooling and redesigning that are incurred when a customer switches to a different type of product or service. Buyer power is one of the two horizontal forces that influence the appropriation of the value created by an industry (refer to the diagram). The most important determinants of buyer power are the size and the concentration of customers. Other factors are the extent to which the buyers are informed and the concentration or differentiation of the competitors. This force is relatively high where there a few, large players in the market, as it is the case with retailers and grocery stores; Present where there is a large number of undifferentiated, small suppliers, such as small farming businesses supplying large grocery companies; Low cost of switching between suppliers, such as from one fleet supplier of trucks to another. Supplier power is a mirror image of the buyer power. As a result, the analysis of supplier power typically focuses first on the relative size and concentration of suppliers relative to industry participants and second on the degree of differentiation in the inputs supplied. The ability to charge customers different prices in line with differences in the value created for each of those buyers usually indicates that the market is characterized by high supplier power and at the same time by low buyer power. Bargaining power of suppliers exists in the following situations: Where the switching costs are high (switching from one Internet provider to another); High power of brands (McDonalds, Coca Cola) Possibility of forward integration of suppliers (Brewers buying bars); The nature of competition in an industry is strongly affected by suggested five forces. The stronger the power of buyers and suppliers, and the stronger the threats of entry and substitution, the more intense competition is likely to be within the industry. However, these five factors are not the only ones that determine how firms in an industry will compete the structure of the industry itself may play an important role. 5 Forces analysis The Porters Five Forces model is a simple tool that supports strategic understanding where power lies in a business situation. It also helps to understand both the strength of a firms current competitive position, and the strength of a position a company is looking to move into. Despite the fact that the Five Force framework focuses on business concerns rather than public policy, it also emphasizes extended competition for value rather than just competition among existing rivals, and the simpleness of its application inspired numerous companies as well as business schools to adopt its use. With a clear understanding of where power lies, it will enable a company to take fair advantage of its strengths, improve weaknesses, and avoid taking wrong steps. Therefore, to apply this planning tool effectively, it is important to understand the situation and to look at each of the forces individually. After identifying favourable and unfavourable forces for the companys performance and industrys attractiveness, it is important to analyse the situation and examine the impacts of the forces. One of the critical comments made of the Five Forces framework is its static nature, whereas the competitive environment is changing turbulently. By thinking through how each force affects a company, and by identifying the strength and direction of each force, it provides with an opportunity to identify the strength of the position and the ability to make a sustained profit in the industry. It is important for a corporation strategists goal to find a position in the industry where his or her company can best defend itself against these forces or can influence them in its favour, or is the goal to become part of the ongoing commerce with the intention to produce innovative ideas that will expand the size of the industry? Is it true that the environment poses a threat to the organisation, leading to the consideration of suppliers and buyers as threats that need to be tackled, or does it offer the ground for a constitutive industry player co-operation? Limitations of Porters Five Force Model Porters model is a strategic tool used to identify whether new products, services or businesses have the potential to be profitable. However it can also be very illuminating when used to understand the balance of power in other situations. At the heart of industry are rivals and their competitive strategies linked to, for example, pricing or advertising; but, he contends, it is important to look beyond ones immediate competitors as there are other determines of profitability. Specifically, there might be competition from substitutes products or services. These alternatives may be perceived as substitutes by buyers even though they are part of a different industry. An example would be plastic bottles, cans and glass bottle for packaging soft drinks. There may also be potential threat of new entrants, although some competitors will see this as an opportunity to strengthen their position in the market by ensuring, as far as they can, customer loyalty. Finally, it is important to appreciate that companies purchase from suppliers and sell to buyers. If they are powerful they are in a position to bargain profits away through reduced margins, by forcing either cost increases or price decreases. This relates to the strategic o ption of vertical integration, when the company acquires, or mergers with, a supplier or customer and thereby gains greater control over the chain of activities which leads from basic materials through to final consumption. Examples of Golf Equipment 1. The threat of new entrants into the market is moderate, indicators point in mixed directions. Companies within the industry can be separated into two parts: golf and sporting goods. To take the largest golf company, for example, Callaway. For a company like Callaway to enter into this market would require significant amounts of investment. One could assume that other sporting goods companies could diversify into golf similar to Adidas and Nike, but there are no large manufactures that are not in the market already. Brand preferences are very important to consumers. Callaway lists brand preferences as one of the top five reasons why consumers buy their clubs, is because of technology, quality, customer service and price. Capital requirements are low the production of clubs are very labor intensive and very little animation is in the manufacturing process. Access to distribution channels are very important the quality of the club which is largely based on the material of the club ar e very expensive. To obtain carbon fiber and specific alloys that few manufactures make would be troubling for a small company to maintain and economies of scale in purchasing power would be most evident here. Essay