Welcome to Alabama Essay Example For Students

Welcome to Alabama Essay Ever since Montgomery tycoon William S. Blount wrote the largest single check ever given to an American theatre, the staff of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival has practiced an efficient routine for impressing those out-of-state visitors who seem to think that the title of the company is a charming oxymoron. If all goes as planned, the victims first glance of the elegant $26-million facility will be from the edge of the beautifully landscaped 250-acre park (designed by the late Russell Page) over which the theatre has presided since 1985. The hot Alabama sun will be reflecting in the large pond in front of the 100,000-square-foot, red-brick object of Blounts generosity. As all parking areas have been cleverly hidden in the trees at the side, there should be nothing to spoil the delightful head-on vista. Helpful P.R. people will point out the bronze Puck cavorting on the lawns, the swans imported for their connections to Stratford-on-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company flag fluttering above the only American theatre authorized to fly the emblem of the revered British classicists. We will write a custom essay on Welcome to Alabama specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Venturing indoors, the tour highlights the opulent lobby with its specially commissioned statuary, plush carpets and an elegant patrons lounge with telephone-equipped bathrooms. Should the guest be all too painfully aware of these lean, mean times for resident theatres, proudly quoted facts and figures make the theatres case for international respect with even greater incision. The annual budget (comfortably in the black) is now up to $6 million, with about $2.5 million coming from contributed funds, and about $700,000 in state tax dollars appropriated by the loyal Alabama legislature directly for the theatre. An annual audience of over 250,000 watches a resident company of 25 Equity actors during the theatres peak summer season of rotating repertory. Add massive backstage facilities, a full-time administrative and technical staff of more than 100 and two magnificent auditoria, and the green-with-envy visitor may well be transformed into an enthusiastic ambassador of this resourceful theatre in the middle of nowhere. And thats before any actors mouth has even opened. Such, at least, was the scenario throughout the late 1980s. In the past couple of years, though, the theatres bucolic traditions have come up against their own limitations. Montgomery, a city that cradled the Civil Rights Movement, has a population equally divided between whites and blacks, et the number of African-Americans present in the festivals lush lobbies has never been very high. In the 20 years since the festival was founded in a high school auditorium by Martin Platt (now artistic director of the New Mexico Repertory Theatre), the ASF has specialized in European and American classics, Victorian revivals and competently produced Shakespeare. A strong artistic reputation has been hard won, but the festival cannot claim an auspicious history of reflecting the experience of all of the people in the area it purports to serve. The festivals presence in the state of Alabama has always seemed more an accident of geography, personalities or finances than true stewardship. Such an observation could, of course, be made about most of the large American Shakespeare festivals, many of which play to vacationers from nearby urban areas. And most of these theatres would reasonably claim that their national mission of keeping classic drama alive is distinct from the urban resident theatres, with a necessarily more localized and comprehensive approach to play selection. Up to now, this theatre has never looked for writers in its own backyard. But at a time when many resident theatres are dismissing permanent companies and coping with perilously limited financial resources, the relatively rich Alabama Shakespeare Festival has decided it has new responsibilities to its community and its region. And that means changing the ways things are done. .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .postImageUrl , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:hover , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:visited , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:active { border:0!important; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:active , .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5 .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .ud71e4ae32dfa20906389c72d8332a8c5:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Anatoly Smeliansky EssayWhen Kent Thompson, the festivals 38-year-old artistic director, arrived in Montgomery in 1990, he found that you could not identify the theatre by its programming. American plays were rare, and pieces by southern authors other than Tennessee Williams virtually nonexistent. In an effort to give writers from the theatres region a more important role, Thompson quickly created the Southern Writers Project. Funded by a Special Projects Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Thompson and his committee commissioned three diverse scribes to create or adapt plays based on Alabama and its bi-cultural folk history, specifically with a family audience in mind. Playwrights Doug Cooney, Levi Frazier Jr. and Oni Faida Lampley are already hard at work. Thompson anxiously points out that the festivals new commitment to emerging writers with connections to the South goes beyond the typical resident theatre practice of contacting an agent and reading submitted scripts: I want the project to be a commissioning process, where we work with the writer to turn their existing material into a play. The resulting pieces will be workshopped at the theatre this month, and a regional tour is planned for next season with emphasis on communities with populations of fewer than 50,000. Thompson has also commissioned Dennis Covington, an Alabama novelist, to write a stage adaptation of his novel Lizard, about a boy with pinched features who runs away from a mental institution to join a couple of itinerant actors. This young adults story, which takes place in and around Birmingham, is set against the backdrop of a touring production of The Tempest. There are plans to tour Covingtons new play in tandem with its Shakespearean source around the South next year. The most ambitious of Thompsons slew of new projects is his commission of leading historical novelist (but presently minor dramatist) John Jakes to create a modern American history play. Jakes decided to take his cue from the Shakespearean histories and write a two-play opus about the life and times of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Johnson as the subject of a Shakespearean epic? He was a true tragic hero, says the undaunted Jakes with nary a twinkle of irony. His tragic flaw was that he wanted to have it all. Jakes is not planning on writing a quiet closet drama for the Festivals 1993-94 season. There arent enough big-scale plays, he says. And this is one theatre that can do them. If this sudden interest in new work was not sufficient to rattle the festivals loyal but conservative audiences, Thompson has also instigated a policy of nontraditional casting, a phenomenon the festival had never previously embraced. And plays about the African-American experience are suddenly appearing in Montgomery. Last years season included Miss Evers Boys, and David Feldshuhs play had particular resonance when performed within 30 minutes of its Tuskegee setting. That was the first time we have ever had a true mix of the community in this theatre. Local African-Americans were astonished that we were doing something about their lives, says Thompson. A Raisin in the Sun is on next years slate, as well as Dumas, a new play by John MacNichols about both playwrights, father and son. These attempts at bi-culturalism have been greatly boosted by a recently announced grant of $1 million from the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, earmarked specifically for diversifying the festivals audiences. Such innovations carry risks, and Thompson has already heard his share of negative comments from longtime subscribers unhappy with the new direction. But he argues that most of the audience is excited by the theatres new resolve to spend about half of its time on classical drama and the rest on more risky work with contemporary relevance: They recognize that this theatre has more potential than any other other institution in the state to change the perception of Alabama in the media.

Customer Journey Mapping How to Create One the Best Way (Template)

Customer Journey Mapping How to Create One the Best Way (Template) As a marketer, it would be helpful to be inside the heads of our customers for a little bit. Wouldn’t it be nice to know the answers to questions like: What are they feeling and thinking when they first start to search for a solution to their problem? What caused them to quit looking at a certain product before they purchased? What led them to choose one solution over another? While you can’t read minds, you can answer the questions above. Once you have that information you can create the right messages to send at the best time to capture your customer’s attention and encourage them to buy. How can you do all of this? With a customer journey map. Customer journey maps are detailed frameworks that give everyone (not just your marketing team) the information they need to put your customer at the forefront of what you do. In this post, we’ll walk you through how to gather the data you need. You’ll be able to see how your customers are moving while they shop for a product and how they feel about their experience. You’ll also be able to map high points and low points to see what portions of their journey are going well and ways your company can improve their overall shopping experience. At the end of this post, you’ll have a detailed journey map that will help guide your entire company to create the right content and experiences that leaves your customers loving your brand and coming back for more. How to Make an Effective Customer Journey Map The Best Way via @Download Your Free Customer Journey Mapping Template Before you continue reading download your customer journey mapping template. This spreadsheet will help you sort and organize the data that you’ve gathered about their experiences searching for a product. From there you can easily spot gaps in their experiences that your company can fill with the right information and attract the right customers to increase your conversions.Get Your Free Customer Journey Mapping Template Bundle via @What Is Customer Journey Mapping? Customer journey mapping is: An exercise that allows a brand to understand and improve a customer’s experience when they attempt to shop for their product. It tells the story of a person’s experience when they first start shopping for a product and continues through to the process of them purchasing a solution. What is customer journey mapping, and why do marketers need to understand it?6 Customer Journey Map Examples Each customer journey map is different depending on the organization or industry that creates it. Look at these seven industries and businesses and notice how different their maps are. Health Insurance Industry This health insurance customer journey map from Heart of the Customer  integrates goals that their customer wants to achieve during their shopping process. Preact Preact follows a more traditional path  for creating a customer journey map. Instead of focusing on a variety of different emotions, Preact focus on the frustrations their customers feel during their shopping experience. Online Travel Company This online travel company customer journey  is unique in the fact that it has broken down it’s stages into multiple parts instead of the standard four. Starbucks Starbucks’ customer journey map  follows a timeline style layout more than others. B2B Customer Journey This B2B customer journey map  is laid out like a designed infographic rather than a traditional customer journey map. Yahoo Yahoo’s customer journey map  is structured more like a flow chart, making it easy to track customer progress. Recommended Reading: How to Map Content to the Marketing Funnel to Boost Conversions By 69.77% 11 Steps To Properly Map Your Customer Journey The following eleven steps will help you gather the data you need to create a customer journey map that summarizes their experiences shopping for a product. Each phase of your map will follow the marketing funnel and help guide you in creating the right message at the right time to encourage conversions. As a quick review, the stages in your map (and your marketing funnel) are: Discovery:  Your customers are just beginning to understand what your brand is about. They are experiencing some pain point in their life, and they aren’t sure how to fix it. Consideration:  They are now aware that there are solutions to the problem they are facing and that your brand offers one. What they don’t know is that your brand provides the best solution to their problems. Purchase:  They know about your solution and think you are the best option, but they need one last little shove over the line to buy your product. Retention: Your product has been bought by your customer, and you give them additional information to ensure they continue to love their products. Here are the 11 steps you’ll need to take to complete your map: Here's how to create a customer journey map in 11 steps via @Step One: Gather Any Existing Data On Your Audience The ultimate goal for you is to attract customers like your existing best customers.Therefore the first step is to gather any existing data the organization has on your target market. This is important because existing data can give you the information you need for who you have been or are currently targeting. By knowing who you’re targeting you’ll be able to learn more about their personality and how they handle their shopping experience. However, if your target audience has changed, you need to be able to see if any of the old information you have is useful. Look for old audience personas, surveys, or collections of data that may have been gathered. You may need to check in with upper management to find where that data has been stored. As you read through old data answer the following: Does the persona here still reflect our current potential buyer? Is our product or service still helping solve the problems these people were experiencing? When was the data collected? Action Items: Talk to upper management and find places where older audience data and personas may be stored. Look through data to see if it still applies to the customers you want to focus on now. Keep what is applicable and file away the rest. Step Two: Gather Data From Your Website And Social Media Once you have gone through research that has already been collected by your organization, you can move on to gathering data from your website and your social media channels to see the types of people you are attracting to your website. Your website analytics can give you information about where your audience is coming from and what kind of roadblocks they are running into while they search for information on your site. Your social media can show you more about who is following your organization and who is interested in your product. Collecting Website Data Using Google Analytics, you can collect data points on: Age Gender Location Interests Language And even the device that they’re browsing your website from. To access this information go to Audience Overview: As you pull your data look for trends and patterns that may indicate that people belonging to a particular age group, job category, or location are consistently visiting your site. Another section of your Google Analytics that will provide useful information for your customer journey map is your User Flows. This section of your analytics will show you the first and second touchpoints that your users are reaching when they first enter your site. You can access this data by going to Audience User Flow. This information can be vital to show you where users are getting hung up and exiting your site. By locating those hang-ups and finding what information you need to include, you can patch the leak and potentially raise conversions. Now each of your social media channels will gather its internal demographics that you can collect and record. Here is where to find that information on every social media channel. Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest LinkedIn On each channel that your organization is active on, pull the demographic data and see where the data from your Google Analytics and the data from your social media pages overlap. Action Items: Run a Google Analytics audience report for the past six months. Note demographic data in a separate data sheet. Run a User Flow for the past six months. Note which paths your audience is taking and where they are dropping off and leaving your website. Record those flows. Gather demographic data from your social media sites and record them. Look for trends and overlapping patterns. Step Three: Talk To Co-Workers In Customer-Facing Operations You have a lot of data on your hands by now, but you’re not done yet. Creating a customer journey map means that you need to know every detail about your customer’s experience to tell their story accurately. Next, you need to talk with co-workers who interact with your customers daily. Why would something like this be relevant? Because your co-workers in these roles are in front of your audience all the time. They are the first ones to hear when something has gone well or when something is a disaster. They hear about their shopping experience first hand. Start with the following questions to help gather qualitative data on your audience: What are common problems that our customers experience? What experiences have impressed our customers? What roadblocks have our customers ran into in the past? What questions come up as they search for a solution to their problem? What feelings have they experienced as they search for a product? Remember, that this is an initial list and you can always expand or change questions based on the information you need to gather about their experiences. Action Items: Create the questions you’d like your co-workers to answer. Set up brief 15-minute interviews. Send them the questions in advance. Chat and record answers. Look for recurring patterns. Step Four: Set Up In Person Interviews It’s easy to send out a survey and have your target audience respond to questions. However, are your customers going to divulge their shopping experiences with you over a survey? Probably not. Which is why taking the time to sit down with your customers one on one is so important. You’re more likely to get the honest, in-depth answers that can help you shape the story of your customer’s journey. What questions should you include in those interviews to get the answers you’re looking for? Start with these: What was your first thought when you realized you needed [Product]? If you didn’t buy [Product] what made you decide to seek another solution? What problem did you hope this product would solve? What information did you have trouble finding? How easy was it for you to find options? What would have made your purchase process easier? What would have made your shopping experience easier? Set up five to ten interviews and remember, your meeting should be a conversation, not a dull question and answer session. Action Items: Create your interview questions. Choose 10 to 15 customers you believe would be good interview candidates. Confirm five to ten interviews. Send your interview questions in advance. Attend the interview with a recording device (it’s easier than trying to take notes). Transcribe your interview and look for data or patterns. Step Five: Create A Survey To Gather Qualitative And Quantitative Data The last data gathering step in this process is creating a survey to send to customers. You can’t be everywhere at once and talking to five to ten customers alone won’t give you enough data to accurately recreate their shopping experiences. How can you ensure you’ll get the answers you need? Try adding these questions: Qualitative Questions: What is it like using [Product]? What was your experience with buying [product]? What information could have been that would have made your purchasing process easier? What would make you reconsider buying a product? What has your shopping experience been like? Quantitative Questions: How likely are you to purchase [Product] again? How did you hear about [Product]? How frequently do you use [Product]? What gender do you identify as? What nationality are you? Once you have your questions figured out, you can upload them to tools like  Survey Monkey, Google Forms  or Polldaddy. After that share your survey link with your customers via email or social media. Set a goal for the number of responses you want to get. Action Items: Create your questions. Run your questions by co-workers. Upload your questions into a survey tool. Share the link via email or social media. Set a time frame to establish how long you'll collect answers. Record your data and look for patterns. Step Six: Use Your Data To Build An Update Audience Persona Now you need to sort through the data you collected to create your audience persona. What is an audience persona? At we define them as: Your marketing persona is a document that details your target audience’s who, what, when, where, and why, in addition to understanding general demographic information such as gender, job title, job function, business size, team size, needs, pain points, and challenges. As you go through your data, look for recurring themes, like a typical job type, age range, location, etc. Note which qualities are overlapping and add them to your audience persona. You should also look for overlapping interests and common problems that your target audience is experiencing that would cause them to need your product. Use the following template to help get your persona started: {Insert your company} creates content to attract {insert target audience} so they can {insert desired outcome} better. Action Items: Gather all of your data into one document. Highlight recurring trends and qualities. Use the template to start formatting your persona. Add in frequent problems your audience’s experiences that would cause them to want to buy your product. Step Seven: Map Out The Discovery Phase Of Your Customer Journey Map Now that you have your audience persona and your customer data you can begin to develop your customer journey map. The first phase is centered around discovery. This phase of your map should include: The reason they are searching for a product. Their motivation for wanting to buy a product. How they are getting their information. The actions they take. The initial touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. So how does this look in practice? Let’s say that you wanted to create a customer journey map for online clothing subscription boxes. Our persona, Lisa is a 25-year-old marketing manager, who has an upcoming wedding. What is Lisa’s story? You can also pull out the customer journey mapping template that you downloaded earlier and see how to fill it in. The Reason They Are Buying A Product First, establish the reason behind why someone wants to buy a product. They are searching for a solution to the problem they are experiencing and can no longer fix it themselves. In the case of our example, a reason could be that Lisa has a wedding coming up and she doesn’t have enough time to go to the mall and shop for an outfit. Record the reason why your customers would be interested in your product in your template: The Motivation Behind Buying A Product There is always a reason for buying a product. In this case, Lisa needs an outfit for the wedding. However, there is also a motivating factor which in the case of our clothing example could be that Lisa wants an outfit that will make her stand out and look good at this wedding. In your template, motivations can go into one section: How Are They Getting Their Information Depending on your customers, they may prefer to get their information in different ways. This could be through newspapers, advertisements, blogs, social media, etc. You need to identify how they prefer to get their information in this phase of their journey. In this case, because Lisa doesn’t have time to go to the mall she’ll be getting her information from the websites of clothing stores she visits. Record how they are getting their information in your template: The Actions They Take Next, is outlining the actions they’ll take to get the information they need. What does your customer need to do to find the solution they are looking for? Lisa decides that going to the mall is too much work. Then again so is online shopping, she doesn’t have time to scroll, through every website to find the right dress. So she types â€Å"personal shopper† into Google and sees an ad for a clothing subscription company. Lisa decides to click on the ad which takes her to the website. List all the actions that your customer could take in your template: What Are The Initial Touchpoints A Customer Has With Your Company? Your initial touchpoints in a customer journey map revolve around the first time they interact with an organization that sells the product or service they are looking for. (Remember this is a generalized experience, not just the experience they have with your brand.) In Lisa’s case her initial touchpoints will be: She sees the ad in her Google results. She clicks on the ad. She sees the homepage (or landing page) for the first time. List out your customer’s touchpoints in your template. Document How Your Customer Is Feeling Part of telling your story involves explaining how your customer feels. You can’t leave out that kind of information because how the customer feels affects their entire experience. And it doesn’t begin once they click an ad and learn about your organization. This starts before they even begin to search for your product. In Lisa’s case, she was feeling stressed because she needed a great outfit for an upcoming wedding and was worried she didn’t have enough time to shop. She thought about online shopping, but that just made her frustrated because she didn’t have time to scroll through pages of dresses. But, she feels defeated because she doesn’t have a choice. She starts her search and becomes intrigued with an ad that talks about someone who could do her shopping for her. Record those emotional highs and lows in your template: Their Experience Thus Far Next, you need to document their experience. How are things going? For Lisa, it’s going pretty well; there’s a chance that someone will do all of the shopping for her! The Pain Points They’re Having At this point, you need to address any pain points that your potential customer may be having. Lisa’s pain points revolve around the fact that: She has a wedding that she doesn’t have time to shop for. She has to resort to online shopping, but she hates scrolling through page after page of dresses. What Questions Do They Currently Have You need to identify any questions they might have at this phase in their journey. Why? Because by anticipating questions that occur during their shopping experience, your organization can be proactive and already have them answered. For Lisa the following questions might come up in this phase of her journey: Is there a better way to shop online? Can someone do this for me? What is this site? What Recommendations Do You Have? Now that the discovery phase of this customer journey map is over you can list any recommendations that would help improve the shopping experience for your potential customers. For this example, we might suggest adding additional ad copy that explains how a clothing subscription box can do all of the shopping for their customers. So what does this look like formatted into an actual map? Something like this: Step Eight: Map Out The Consideration Phase Of Your Customer Journey. Now that your potential customers know that your product exists they are going to start to consider if they want to buy your product. You’ll need to outline the following information in your template: Their motivation for wanting to learn more about a product. The actions they take. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. Remember to include your answers in your spreadsheet under the Consideration column. What Is Motivating Them To Learn More About Your Product At this point, your customer knows you might have the solution to their problem. You need to identify what message they need to hear that would entice them learn more. If we go back to our example, Lisa’s motivation to learn more would be to see if someone really would do her clothes shopping for her. What Actions Do They Take You’ve got your customer hooked in and motivated to learn more. Identify what actions they will take to do this. For example, those actions could look like this. She clicks the about us page and sees that it’s a personalized box of clothing delivered straight to her door. She reads more about how the process works and learns that she needs to take a quiz before they send her clothes. She clicks the quiz and sees she needs to create an account to continue. She creates an account and starts the quiz. After about 20 questions, she realizes it’s extensive. She sees that the company needs her measurements and has to google what size she is. She is asked about her price range and is curious about how cheap the cheapest option is. She leaves the quiz and searches online for reviews. She finds a few blogs that have positive reviews about the boxes. From the reviews, she sees that the clothes are spendy, but she can swing it. She wants to continue the quiz again. She can’t find the quiz. She looks in the help docs to find where the quiz is. She continues the quiz. She asked how often she wants a box delivered, so she leaves the page to see if she can do the box once. She scrolls through four help documents before seeing that she can schedule a one time box. Now she has to deal with the hassle of finding the quiz again. She is warned about a service fee. She wants to find what the service fee is for. She can’t find anything on the website, so she goes back to the reviews. She finds out what the service fee is. She finishes the quiz and is asked for payment. That list is extensive. However, when it comes to mapping out your customer journey, you need to lay out every possible action they could take while they are shopping. The Touchpoints Your Potential Customers Have At this phase in your customer’s journey, they are going to have multiple touchpoints with an organization. It’s up to you to list out point they could come into contact with. For our example, that list could be: The homepage The account creation page Their â€Å"my account† page The quiz they take The help center The frequently asked questions page Articles that review the products a customer is looking for. How Are They Feeling? For each action that your customer takes they’re probably experiencing some emotional shift. For example: Lisa is excited because she learns that someone can do her shopping for her. However, after finding out she needs to create an account to take the quiz, she’s a little annoyed but optimistic. She becomes frustrated with how long the quiz is. Then she’s confused because she doesn’t know her measurements. Now she’s a little nervous because how expensive are these clothes? She’s on a budget after all. After a few reviews, she’s confident she can afford a box. And now she’s flustered again because she can’t find the quiz and will be angry if she has to fill out all those questions again. She’s hesitant now because she only wants to order the box once to try it. So she goes back to the review to see if they said anything about only ordering a box once. She’s happy again because she can schedule one box. After the service fee is introduced, she’s annoyed because now they want her to spend more money? Now, she’s angry because she can’t find out what the service fee is for and has to go back to the reviews again. Once she’s read a little more, she sees it can be applied towards her total. She’s relieved that she’s finally finished the quiz and is brought to the payment screen. What Is Their Experience? Documenting your customer’s experience during this phase is essential because it can show you the gaps you need to fill. Filling those gaps allows you get ahead of a problem before it begins. In our example, you can see that Lisa had to spend a lot of time going off the website to find the information she was looking for. Not to mention she was already caught off guard by how long the quiz was and frustrated when she couldn’t find it again right away. What Pain Points Are They Having? It’s important to identify pain points in the consideration phase of your customer journey because these are incidences that could potentially cause your customers to choose one business over another. If you can eliminate those pain points for them why wouldn’t they choose you? In Lisa’s case, had the information she was looking for been easily found on the website, she may not have gotten so frustrated trying to get answers. What Questions Do They Have? In the consideration phase knowing the questions that your customers will have when learning about your product will save you time in the long run. Why? Because you can anticipate those questions and have them answered before they even come up. Some questions that might come up in our example are: How many boxes can I order? Do I have to order more than one box? How much is the service fee and what is it for? What are my actual measurements? How can I find the quiz again if I left it in progress? How long is this quiz? Remember to include recommendations for changes your company can make to improve your customer’s experience. In this case, you could suggest a widget that contains answers to frequently asked questions. Here is what the consideration phase of your customer journey looks like mapped out. Step Nine: Map Out The Purchase Phase Of Your Customer Journey The next part of your customer journey involves making a purchase (hopefully from you). Tracking their journey through this process is crucial because you want their experience to be as hassle-free as possible. Here’s what you’ll need to outline in your template: Their motivation for buying a product. The actions they take. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. The pain points they’re experiencing. Any questions they have. The Motivation To Buy A Product What caused your customer to take the plunge and buy a product? Was there a specific benefit that one choice provided over another? You need to identify what that final push was and see if you can create something better to compete with it. In our example, we could say that Lisa was motivated to choose Company A over Company B because they offered a free box for every five purchased. Recommended Reading: Why Should Startups Always Follow the Customer? The Actions They Take Now it may seem simple to track the actions they take during the purchase phase. They give their payment information, and they’re done. However, you want to ensure that this process is as smooth as possible, so they don’t leave the transaction halfway through. In our example, Lisa would take the following actions: Continue to the pricing page. Fill out her billing and shipping address. Enter her credit card information. Confirm the purchase. Receive an instant email with the estimated delivery time and tracking information. The Touchpoints They Have With The Company At this point, all the of the touchpoints are centered around one specific company. If you’re in the process of buying something it usually involves a touchpoint or two like: Proceeding to the billing page. Receiving an email with the invoice. Seeing the link to FAQ pages around product shipment. Their Experience Tracking how this process goes for your customers can let you see snags and get in front of them to make sure you don’t miss out. If other brands are missing out on customers, what is it about their process that is turning people away? How can you avoid that? In Lisa’s case, her experience was smooth because the website had code built in that automatically filled in her billing, shipping and payment information. If other brands are missing out on customers, what is it about their process that is turning people...The Pain Points They’re Experiencing At this phase in your customer’s journey, you need to make sure all the kinks are smoothed out. Does this process smoothly flow from point A to point B? If it doesn’t what can you do to make it easier? In our example, Lisa didn’t have too many problems in this step because the company she chose automatically filled in her forms, saving her time. Recommended Reading: How to Create Opt-In Forms: 5 Ways to Convert Traffic What Questions Do They Have? Once your customer is ready to convert, you should have all of their questions answered right? Wrong. They need to know when they’re getting their product and what to expect when it gets here. What if something goes wrong? How long do they have to return it? Anticipate those questions in advance and call them out in the purchasing process, so people don’t have to wonder. How do you know what questions they might have? By going through your customer interviews! Some example questions Lisa might have are: When will my box get here? Is shipping free? What if I don’t like what’s in the box? How do I pay for the items I like? How long do I have to return the items? Record your questions and your recommendations for improvement in your template. Your fully mapped out purchase phase should look like this. Step Ten: Map Out The Retention Phase Of Your Customer Journey The last phase of your journey is retention. This is how you create loyal customers and keep them coming back to buy your product. At this point, your customer has purchased your product, but you want to follow up to make sure their experience was as memorable as possible. And hopefully, convince them to buy from you again in the future. So what should be outlined in your customer journey map? Their motivation to order again. The actions they take after the product has been purchased. The touchpoints they have with a company. How they are feeling. Their experience. Any questions they have.

Case IH AFS percision Farming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Case IH AFS percision Farming - Essay Example The AFS is defined by a clear-cut product range illustrated by its business portfolio, which includes; planting, field performer and harvesting solutions. Mechanization and innovation in agriculture aimed at enhancing agricultural processes and output within the constraints of natural and human resources have reached their peak within the context of attention given by Case IH. Making a grand entry in to the market in the modern day competition and expansion of agricultural technologies makes it an important strategy for Case IH to protract commercial production and marketing of its products in order to ensure sustained growth and productivity. In this discourse, marketing strategies and processes at Case IH in making its AFS product range a market success is enumerated in a number of perspectives. Product development at Case IH has been going on since its inception in 1842 giving a long experience extending to over a century and a half. This implies that the marketing mix at the corporation is one of the most complete in the market today, having observed agricultural needs change to the levels that they are in currently. Perhaps what defines this experience is the perfect product mix that the farmer enjoys upon making purchases at its outlets worldwide. Several products designed for the enhanced production are made available in over 160 countries of distribution (Case IH, 2011). Product research mix as mentioned before offers the solution to making the marketing strategy at Case IH as responsive to agricultural needs as it is amid the witnessed climatic changes. Case IH has been able to create a unique market niche that accurately handles small scale and large scale farm needs. Among the features of this market, coverage is the wide array of farm equipment, machinery, implements, and computer software that enable the modern farmer at any level of operation to be in need of their products (CNH, 2009). Brand image is not an

Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Speech - Essay Example rnaments such as a silver ax, silver knife, silver pepper, silver flowers, and silver rings and silver knife is of paramount importance to the people of Korea. There are a variety of ornamental knives, such as ornamental silver knife, which illustrate the distinct culture of the nation. It was the practice for men to wear an enclosed ornamental knife hanging from their belt and it was of special meaning to the women belonging to this cultural background. There are also ceremonies in which foreign heads of party and state who visit Korea are presented with a sheathed ornamental silver knife as a sign of welcome, respect, friendship, and unity to the people of other cultures. The ornamental silver knife, which was an accessory for women, was also a symbol of their virginity and purity. In his book Seeds of the Willow Chong K. Lewe mentions this cultural ornament, when he talks about his mother. â€Å"My mother also always had on her an Embroidered Silk Pouch with strings, which was he r Purse, and a Pocket Knife about six inches long with about a quarter inch diameter cylindrical (oval) handle. The Case and the Handle were made of Silver with Silk strings tied around the Case. It also had Ornamental Carvings on the Handle and the Case. The Knife had a Blade about three inches long. I still have the Knife in my Desk Drawer. It was an old Korean Custom that elderly ladies always wear these Accessories with their Traditional Korean Dresses.† (Lewe, 261) Therefore, the ornamental silver knife illustrates one of the most striking aspects of Korean Culture which has been celebrated for the continuation of similar practices and customs. The encased ornamental knife in the culture of Korea is known as the Unjangdo which refers to a variety of ornamental knives made in Korea since the Choson dynasty and the prefix â€Å"un† refers to silver, which is used in the manufacture of this knife. â€Å"The name â€Å"Jangdo† appeared during the early Choson (1392 -1905) period.   During

Strategic Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Human Resource Management - Essay Example Strategic Human Resource Management works through providing a framework larded with strategies of how to support the business in the long term (Kramar, 2013). These strategies are also in accordance with the goals and outcomes of the businesses. It is also concerned with the issues of the employees in the long term and not only the short term ones. This therefore means that it deals with the macro concerns and macro structural issues of the business in general These are things concerning quality, values and culture as well as the necessary resources needed to achieve all these. Strategic Human Resource Management is a complex concept and process and needs time. It also needs to draw from all the departments of the businesses hence leading them to work together to achieve the strategized goals and outcomes and within the provided time frame. Lengnick-Hall, et al, (2009) pinpoints that customers are becoming more demanding and expect quality to be increased as well as being served on time and diligently. This is quite challenging to the employees who are already bundled up with other responsibilities of the strategies framework. With effective strategies in place, Strategic Human Resource Management meets will lead to increased customer expectation and values and also ensure long term sustainability. Strategic Human Resource Management is involved with a lot of changes all of which demand monetary attention to be fulfilled or upgraded. With the economic challenges of depression and with increased competition, finding enough capital to tackle all their projects is becoming a challenge to the organization and more so to the management who have to be answerable to the employees, shareholders and customers as well as to the delay in changes). There is however not enough literature on this part of capital as has been mentioned in the article

What Are The Factors Affecting The Employee Motivation Business Essay

What Are The Factors Affecting The Employee Motivation Business Essay This chapter gives general information and theories about motivation. The need to increase productivity and efficiency in the work place of any organization has led to increasing academic interest in the area of motivation over the years. The business environment is becoming more and more competitive all the time and managers feel pressured to find new ways to motivate their employees in order to keep them committed to the company and give their full performance. Writers have been keenly interested in knowing what factors are responsible for stimulating the ability to work. Many different theories and methods of employee motivation that range from monetary incentives to increased involvement and empowerment have come out over the years and some of these theories are introduced in this thesis. Background of the study Motivation relates to a range of psychological processes that guide an individual toward a goal and cause that person to keep pursuing that goal. Motivation often is described in terms of direction (the choice of one activity over another), intensity (how hard an employee tries) and persistence (how long an employee continues with a behavior, even in the face of obstacles or adverse circumstances). Motivated employees work harder, produce higher quality and greater quantities of work, are more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors, and are less likely to leave the organization in search of more fulfilling opportunities. Moreover, highly motivated employees strive to produce at the highest possible level and exert greater effort than employees who are not motivated (Schultz Bagraim, Potgieter, Viedge, and Werner ( 2003:53). Employees need a range of motivators in order to remain engaged in their work. In response to this demand, employers are looking at how to sati sfy their employees on both an extrinsic, financial level as well as an intrinsic, psychological level. There are plenty of motivational theories emphasizing what it is that motivates people, two of these theories included in this thesis, were Maslows need hierarchy and Hertzbergs two factor theory. Moreover, Maslow (1970) offered his need hierarchy according to which human beings have their needs arranged in a hierarchy such that they are motivated to seek satisfaction of the lower levels of need first. Once that level of need is satisfied it is no longer a motivator, and the person is motivated by the next level up the hierarchy. Referring to figure 1, the basic needs such as shelter, food and warmth are at the bottom level of Maslows hierarchy, which then progresses through physical well-being, social acceptance, self-esteem, to self-actualization (realizing ones own potential). http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwnr5m6L4u1qmjqdio1_500.jpg Figure : Maslows hierarchy of needs The first four levels are: Physiological: hunger, thirst, bodily comforts, shelter; Safety and security: out of danger; Belongingness and Love: affiliate with others, be accepted; Self-esteem: to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition. According to Maslow (1970), an individual is ready to act upon the growth needs if and only if the deficiency needs are met. Maslows initial conceptualization included only one growth need self-actualization. Self-actualized people are characterized by: Being problem-focused; Incorporating an ongoing freshness of appreciation of life; A concern about personal growth; and The ability to have peak experiences. Maslow and Lowery (1998) later differentiated the growth need of self-actualization, specifically identifying two of the first growth needs as part of the more general level of self-actualization and one beyond the general level that focused on growth beyond that oriented towards self. These needs are: Cognitive: to know, to understand, and explore; Aesthetic: symmetry, order, and beauty; Self-actualization: to find self-fulfillment and realize ones potential; and Self-transcendence: to connect to something beyond the ego or to help others find self-fulfillment and realize their potential. Maslows basic position is that as one becomes more self-actualized and self-transcendent, one becomes more wise (develops wisdom) and automatically knows what to do in a wide variety of situations. Daniels (2001) suggested that Maslows ultimate conclusion that the highest levels of self-actualization are transcendent in their nature may be one of his most important contributions to the study of human behavior and motivation. A second well-known theory in this category is Hertzbergs two-factor theory. According to Herzberg (1959), work motivation is dependent on hygiene factors (salary, prestige) and motivators (achievement, responsibility). A person is motivated if both kinds of needs are satisfied. Herzberg (1987) declared that real motivation is only reached when a person experiences self-growth, which can only be satisfied through work enrichment. http://mathehu.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/herzberg_2.jpg?w=550h=418 Figure : Herzberg ´s Two Factor Theory Herzbergs two-factor theory of job-satisfaction is not new, as a matter of fact; it dates back to 1959 and is the outgrowth of a research study project on job attitudes conducted by (Herzberg, Mausner Snyderman, 1969). Herzberg (1959) addresses the problem of job satisfaction in terms of those factors which cause satisfaction (motivators) and those which cause dissatisfaction (hygienes). Factors which bring about job satisfaction are commonly called satisfiers or motivators and were found from the study to be related to the nature of the work itself and the rewards that result from the performance of that work. The most significant of these involve characteristics that promote an individuals needs for self-actualization and self-realization in his work. These factors are essentially linked to job content, which means they are intrinsic to the job itself. Herzberg analyzed and classified the job content factors or satisfying experiences as follows: Satisfiers Achievement Recognition Work itself Responsibility Advancement Growth According to Herzberg (1959), these factors stand out as strong determiners of job satisfaction with three of them, a sense of performing interesting and important work (work itself), job responsibility and advancement being the most important relative to a lasting attitude charge. Achievement more so than recognition, was frequently associated with such long-range factors as responsibility and the nature of the work itself. Robbins, (2003) emphasized that employee recognition consists of personal attention, expressing interest, promotion, pay, approval and appreciation for a job well done. Recognition which produces good feelings about the job does not necessarily have to come from superiors; it may come from subordinates, peers, or customers. It is interesting to note that recognition based on achievement provides a more intense satisfaction than does recognition used solely as a human relations tool divorced from any accomplishment, the latter does not serve as a satisfier. Schult z, et al,(2003) stated that some ways to improve motivation include good remuneration, effective training and skills development, a proper recognition and reward system, and employee growth prospects. Compared with the satisfiers or motivators are the factors which cause low job attitude situations or job dissatisfaction. Such factors were found from the analysis of the study results to be associated primarily with an individuals relationship to the context or environment in which he does his work, These factors are extrinsic to the work itself and are referred to as dissatisfies or hygiene (or maintenance). Dissatisfiers Company policy and administration Supervision Working conditions Interpersonal relations (with peers, subordinates and superiors) Status Job security Salary Personal Life Details on the methods used by Herzberg and his colleagues to reduce and analyze their research data will not be discussed in this paper. The satisfiers and dissatisfiers that have been listed are referred to as first level factors. Bassett-Jones and Lloyd (2005) suggests that the content theorists led by Herzberg, assumed a more complex interaction between both internal and external factors, and explored the circumstances in which individuals respond to different internal and external stimuli. There has been an enormous increase in research into motivation. Many studies have implicated relation between motivation and other behavioral and organizational variable such as workable levers over work motivation such as comparing job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment (Moynihan Pandey, 2007). They find that managers have varying degrees of influence over these different aspects of work motivation, with greatest influence over job satisfaction and least influence over job involvement. A number of variables are important for work motivation, including public service motivation, advancement opportunities, role clarity, job routineness, and group culture. Testing an explicit and implicit measure of motivation ( Lawrence Jordan, 2009). Summarizing the result of the study they came to the conclusion that the distinction between two types of motives, is real and determined by different developmental histories, activation by different incentives, and prediction of different types of behavior. Langens, Schmalt and Sokolowski (2005) indicated that, recognizing the motive structure of a person can help us get to know which incentives cause positive emotions and influence the striving for a goal, and, on the other hand, we can predict which situations can cause fear and understand how they can be avoided. Schuler and Prochaska (2001), Zimmermann (2008) stressed that along with the cognitive abilities, general achievement motivation can be viewed as the second career relevant trait, important for both academic and career success. Schuler (2000), Frintrup, (2002) stated that abilities and skills are important prerequisites of successful work performance. But when employees lack job-related motivation, these qualities cannot be fully revealed. Then, high achievement motivation, along with intelligence, becomes relevant and plays an especially important role in situations when no external pressure exists and people have to make independent decisions. As previously mentioned there are many motivational theories, studies and findings about employee motivation, but this thesis will be limited to the use of some of these researches and or motivational theories. Research question and sub questions The research question that shall be answered by the present research is as follows: what motivates employee at their workplace? In order to answer this overarching question, several sub-questions shall be considered, namely: What are the factors affecting the employee motivation? How important are incentives for the employee? To what extend does the economy of Curaà §ao motivates or demotivates the employee? What are the personal factors that can motivate an employee to commit to their jobs? How significant are the companys standard and values to the employee? Also the differences in work motivation in different level of education, age groups and nationalities will be studied. This will be possible through analysis of information gathered from employees working at the three local airlines, using the method of a quantitative research. Local airlines count 3 airlines, namely Insel Air, Dutch Antilles Express and Divi Divi Air N.V. A brief introduction of the local airlines will follow. Insel Air is an IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certified airline, operating 16 international destinations in 11 countries within the Pan-American region. In South America InselAir operates on destinations Caracas, Valencia, Barquisimeto and Las Piedras in Venezuela, Medellin in Colombia and Suriname. Destinations within the USA include Miami, Charlotte and Puerto Rico. Other destinations in the Caribbean are Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Kingston, St. Maarten, St. Domingo and Haiti. Destinations Miami, Charlotte, St. Maarten Curacao and Aruba are used as hubs. Insel-Air s international destinations and hub service give it great strength in creating connectivity within the Pan-American region while focusing on safety, on-time performance and great customer service. Insel-Air offers a Comfort Class next to an Economy Class, free on-board food and beverages, first two checked bags for free and seats with a maximum of 34 inch legroom in Comfort Class. Insel-Air operates approximately 46 flights per day with a crew of 165 employees. Dutch Antilles Express has been providing cargo services since April 2005. With two Fokker 100s DAE operates out of the hub Curacao Hato International Airport to numerous locations across the Caribbean and South America. DAE Cargo has adopted the same principles as its on-time and quality passenger services. Parallel to their expanding flight network, DAE is providing effective and quality services to more and more new locations. With the support of 134 employees, DAE carries passengers and cargo to Aruba, Bonaire, St. Maarten, Sto. Domingo, Caracas, Valencia (Venezuela), Bogotà ¡, Cartagena (Colombia), Paramaribo (Suriname) and Panamà ¡ City. Divi Divi Air N.V., is a small efficient airline giving big services with a team 12 employees. Established in 2001 and based on Curaà §ao, with a ticket office in Curaà §ao as well as Bonaire. Divi Divi Air N.V., locally known as e Divi Divi (The Divi Divi) operates about 7 to 9 flights daily between the islands. They can also cater to your specific needs with charters on demand in the region. Divi Divi operates 3 twin-engine aircraft of which two are nine seat Britten-Norman Islanders. Purpose of the study The following are objectives of this research: To investigate the causes of low employee motivation at the workplace. To identify factors that could improve the level of motivation of employees at the workplace. To suggest strategies that could improve the quality of work-life of their workplace. There are many factors that motivate people intrinsically. The motivational factor of these matters is based on human ´s urge to fulfill certain needs. Not all of them can be applied in work motivation, but the ones that are executable for this purpose are introduced next. The inner motivation factors include; acceptance, the need for approval; curiosity, the need to learn; honor, the need to be loyal to the traditional values of ones clan/ethnic group; idealism, the need for social justice; independence, the need for individuality; order, the need for organized, stable, predictable environments; power, the need for influence of will; saving, the need to collect; social contact, the need for friends (peer relationships); status, the need for social standing/importance; tranquility, the need to be safe; and vengeance, the need to strike back/to win. Reiss (2004) said that these basic desires give people inner work motivation when they seek to fulfill some of these needs. Limitations and delimitations The limitation is being considered in relation to the natural explanation to which the researcher has limited the study and the active choices to limit the study area. This study is limited to existing theories and models, and their influence and limitation on motivation of the employee. The focus will be on independent variables that the airlines and or their employee in one or another way can influence, with exception of the external factors which one cannot control directly but monitor, delimitated in local airlines. Variables that will be used are personal needs, organizational structure and external factors. Of the individual factors, the most important factors will be chosen. For organizational factors it will be limited to study the organizational culture and the incentives, the external factors, the economy will be touched. Approximately 100 employees will be studied in different education levels, age groups and nationalities. Setup of the thesis In chapter 2, a motivation factors model is presented and explained. In this part, the definition of work motivation, factors that influences the work motivation, and different work motivation theories used in the thesis are discussed. Further, different work-related behaviors are introduced and some general information. Chapter 3, the methodology used is explained e.g. the research method, procedures, instruments and representativeness is presented. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. On the last page(s), a reference list of the journals used in this thesis is included.

Global Warming Essay -- Environment, Climate Change

How much global warming we are going to see from extra CO2 depends on how sensitive the climate system is. David C Frank, Jan Esper, Christoph C Raible, Ulf Bà ¼ntgen, Valerie Trouet and Benjamin Stocker have published a study to improve the estimations of the carbon cycle sensitivity to climate and climate projections for the future. The carbon cycle sensitivity-which is important for global warming projections-to climate is the increase or decrease of atmospheric CO2 concentrations which lead to an increase or decrease in temperature6. As we can observe from different estimations, the increase or decrease of carbon concentrations in the atmosphere have changed during the past millennium6.There were certain periods where the temperatures were low (Little Ice Age) and other periods where the temperatures were higher (Medieval Warm Period)6. The present geological period is the Holocene which began approximately 10000 years ago4. Even though the geological period is the same since mo re than 10000 years ago, many climatic variations have occurred. For example, the Little Ice Age is the period between 16th century and 19th century, being 1601-1630 the coldest of the past millennium6.In the opposite side we find that the warmest pre-instrumental period was during the Medieval Warm Period, and more precisely, between the years 1071-11006. Moreover the warmest instrumental period (with records back to 1850) was the period 1971-20006.There are many factors that influence the climate variability. These factors can be classified as internal or external to the climate system. Examples of external influence are anthropogenic activities and natural influences (e.g. volcanic activity) 11. Anthropogenic influence on CO2 variations in pre-industr... ...g Group I to the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Houghton, J.T., et al. (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 349–416. 15. Raupach, Michael R & Canadell, Josep G, 2010: Carbon and the Anthrpocene. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 2: 210-218. 16. Raupach, Michael R, Canadell, Josep G, Le Quà ©rà ©, Corinne. Anthropogenic and biophysical contributions to increasing atmospheric CO2 growth rate and airborne fraction. Biogeosciences 5: 1601-1613 (2008). 17. Richard Alley et al., 2007: Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 10th Session of Working Group I of the IPCC, Paris, February 2007. 18. Ruddiman W F (2003). The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago. Climatic Change 61: 261–293.

Coral Reef and Australia

The great outback! Hey mate! Ever wanted to take an adventurous trip somewhere, but you’re not sure where? Well Australia would be the perfect place to start! Three reasons why Australia should be the first place you visit are for starters, the amazing scenery and beauty of the country, Secondly the exquisite variety of food, and lastly, the unique culture. Australia has one of the most breath taking sceneries in the world, all the way from the Great Barrier Reef to the city of Melbourne.The Great Barrier Reef is known for being the largest coral reef in the world; it is so incredibly vast that it can even be seen all the way from outer space. It is also unbelievably beautiful. Other beautiful places to visit in Australia are the Sydney harbor, which was the first settlement in Australia and you can also find the iconic Sydney opera house there, the beautiful island of Tasmania which is the most mountainous region of Australia and is dotted with beautiful flowing rivers and wa terfalls, and also another iconic symbol of Australia the Uluru rock, this rock is famed for its amazing color changes as the sun sets and rises.Australia has so many beautiful sights to visit, which is one fantastic reason to visit Australia. Australian cuisine can vary from your common everyday food that we have here in America, to all kinds of interesting and exotic foods native to Australia. The term â€Å"bush tucker† is used to describe a certain type of cuisine in Australia, that is made up of the native foods in Australia, such as kangaroo, emu, or even crocodile. A lot of foods in Australia contain seafood, as Australia is the third largest fishing zone in the world.Some iconic foods of Australia are, for one, the Chiko roll, a deep-fried savory roll that is also similar to a spring roll. Other iconic foods are vegemite, macadamia nuts, violet crumble, cherry ripe Jaffa’s, and many other different foods. The food in Australia is often described as exotic and d elicious. This stimulating food variety is just another great reason why Australia should be at the top on your list of places to visit. The culture in Australia is very interesting and fun, especially if you’re into surfing and water sports, which are very big in Australia, along with other sports such as rugby, cricket, and soccer.Australia is also big into country music, which may come as a surprise to some people, but some great country singers have come from Australia such as Keith Urban. The common apparel in Australia is called surf wear or bush wear, and is very popular among many of the Australian people. As far as religion goes, Australia has no official one, but according to the Australian census, most people are either Christian or irreligious. Most of the Christian are either Roman Catholic, Anglican, or apart of the uniting church.As you now know, Australia has a very interesting and diverse culture, which is the last reason why you should make visiting Australi a a priority. In conclusion, Australia is stunningly gorgeous and has many captivating sights and historical scenery to visit while you’re there. It also has a very unique and beloved cuisine that is unlike any other in the world and accordingly very great tasting. Lastly, the variety of culture is just amazing and so fascinating. These are the three main reasons why your next vacation should be a trip to the great outback! See you ther!

The Sixties Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, Hippie

The Sixties Essays - Counterculture Of The 1960s, Hippie The Sixties The Sixties split the skies. Only Civil and two world wars so neatly divided our history into a Before and After. And the Sixties were more divisive than World War II, which drew more people for the war effort. The Sixties drove people apart husbands from wives, children from parents, students from teachers, citizens from their government. Authority was strengthened by World War II. It was challenged by the sixties. Relatively few Americans in 1960 would have predicted that the decade ahead was to be among the most turbulent of the century. Despite the growing restiveness of the nations African American population, and despite undercurrents of protest and discontent from many other groups, most Americans faced the future with optimism. The civil rights movement spawned social activism. Among the many effects of the civil rights movement as it gained momentum in the early 1960s was its impact on Greensboro sit-ins in 1960, accelerating with the 1961 Freedom Rides, and with the Mississippi Summer project. These movements opened up some eyes to Americans so they could see what was going on in the country at this time. Most of the things that went on in the sixties dealt with the War. The Cold war in which included the Korean War, but mostly dealt with our little rivalry the Soviet Union. There was a lot of division between people because of the War. Many people couldnt handle the thought of War. They were just scared that they had to be in a country that was involve in the War. Others thought that it was the perfect time to start their own groups. Some were Ethnic groups in which gained more power. Though much of American history, most of the nations dominant institutions had been controlled by middle-class, Protestan t, white males. Nonetheless, throughout those same years, American society was extraordinarily diverse. It included may groups whose political economic, and social outlook was very different from those of the controlling white male population. African American, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and members of other ethnic groups were largely excluded from the mainstream of American life. Women lived within sharply defined boundaries. People in the South and the West had different interests from those in the Northeast. The Existence of racial, ethnic, and religious diversity had been the source of many conflicts and adjustments for more than three centuries. In the 1960s, perhaps more than at any other moment in American history, that diversity erupted and helped redefine the nations life. African Americans, students and women all raised challenges to traditional practices and institutions. So did other groups who felt excluded from the centers of American life. The Counterculture rejected traditional standards and styles. The rise of political radicalism on college campuses occurred alongside an even larger change in the character of American youth: the emergence of what became known as the counterculture. Among the conspicuous features of this was a general contempt among young people for traditional standards. Youths displayed that contempt by wearing long hair, shabby or outrageous clothing, using unconventional speech, and acting in conventional standards of behavior. They also were attracted to drugs, particularly to weed(marijuana) and hallucinogens. In addition, they adopted a new and more permissive view of sexual behavior. Rock music was an increasingly important part of the counterculture. Lying behind these open challenges to traditional lifestyles were the outlines of a philosophy. Like members of the student left (with which it in many ways over lapped, the counterculture challenged the nature of modern American society for its hollowness and artificiality. It called for a more natural world in which men and women would live in closer harmony nature and would have greater freedom to vent their instincts and emotions. This was, in the end, a search for personal fulfillment. Popular phrases of the 1960s expressed something of it s character. Do your own thing or if it feels good, do it. So did the communities created by the so-called hippies. Adherents of the counterculture who attempted to withdraw from the conventional world and the live among people who shared their beliefs. Such communities emerged in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco and then spread to other large cities. The hippies

Research Paper on Fashion

Research Paper on Fashion The world of Fashion is a vast arena and encompasses every sphere of your life and your activities. Fashion today has taken a front seat and is of topmost priority to every individual from every age group. The word fashion in itself covers a wide arena from clothing to your mode of education, to your way of communication everything today holds a prefix to it in the form of out of or in fashion. Though the impact is more on the youngsters that is from the teenagers to the working professionals its not that the others are left out. All that we do today has got to be fashionable and the latest to the list is whether you are tech savvy, the way you communicate, the way you present yourself everything ought to be fashionable today. Though fashion predominantly in the past was related to the  designer wear clothing, footwear, accessories and others the scope of the word has increased gradually and now it covers everything that you can name of. From the kind of furniture, the kind of cellphone, the kind of clothing, the kind of jewellery, the format of your letter writing, the language you use on the email, the kind of cars, the way you wear make-up, the shades you use for your clothes and your make-up to the way you place your furnitures in your house everything now evolves around fashion. All the above mentioned things have their own fashions and some of them have their own reputed, international brands also like the Versace, Calvin Klein, the Woodlands, Nike, Aarmani, Durian and such like many more the list goes on and on. Youngsters today are more prone in imitating their role models and in most case it is the silver screen heroes and heroines when it comes to fashion related to your dresses and other trendsetting activities like some punch line or any other such activities. When it is how you set up your house or how you design your furnitures people generally follow the trend set by some interior decorators. It is a natural habit of almost everybody today to follow a set pattern which most of the time is very new and contemporary and is laid out by a certain individual or a group of people and call it the in-thing which in other words mean that this is in fashion. The term fashion has become so very predominant these days that which restaurants or which fast food centers you eat in also is termed as fashionable and out of fashion now. Like eating in Mc Donalds is fashionable but eating in an equally good road side ordinary restaurant is out of fashion.However, sometimes it is also the other way round where people eat in the roadside restaurants just because thats in fashion not even giving a thought to the important factors of the quality of food and service that the two different places will have, though this in itself is a debatable topic. Youngsters today get into the habit of smoking and boozing because they with their very little and immature thinking ability feel that this is in fashion and for them whatever is in fashion must be followed by all and sundry. Many teenagers in India today watch only English movies and listen to English music as that is in fashion. They are more knowledgeable in the English culture than their own motherlands culture which by the whole world is considered as one of the richest and valuable cultural society. We do not want to mention that knowing the English culture is a negative aspect but knowing your own culture is equally important, but fortunately or unfortunately that is not in fashion. The fact to be accepted here is that following fashion trends which ever way it might be does certainly prove beneficial at times but sometimes it is also the other way round. But, it is also left to us whether we take up the positives or the negatives from what is in fashion today. In doing so todays guardians and the people who are involved in grooming todays youngsters to become responsible Indian citizens of tomorrow play a major role and the onus is on them to guide the youngsters properly to choose the right path. Last but not the least the colourful world of fashion is so amazing that it ultimately takes everybody in its span including the elders and the oldies also who get overwhelmed by the trend setting fashionable ways and items and join the band of these fashion oriented youngsters. Among all the differences that exist between the different countries and provinces, Fashion trends is possibly the only mantra the whole world chants in unison today. You can also order a custom essay, term paper or research paper on fashion at our online custom writing service which provides students with high-quality custom papers written from scratch. Here is a list of the most popular fashion research paper topics:   Fashion Trends Among Youngsters Today   Fashion Trends Of the Hip Hop Communities   How music influences fashion   Dont Follow Fashion Trend Blindly   Fashion is a bad influence on teenage girls   Fashion in 18th century France   Political and social influences on fashion in the 1930s   Fashion of the 1800s   Fashion in the 1500s   Fashion of the 1950s   Fashion Industry   Fashion TV

Consequences of Partisan Polarization Research Paper

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Immigration and the challenges associated with socio-political integration in the European Union - Essay Example While the government has framed policies aimed at diluting specific differences that hamper active social participation and economic inclusion, differences associated with cultural identities have been fashioned into new processes of delineating and being a ‘true’ European. The governmental policies that aim at resolving differences between the native population and immigrants face major challenges owing to the large number of immigrants entering the EU from various developing nations. There are growing concerns about the immigration policies in both receiver and sending countries, wherein there are speculations about a large-scale increase in migration flows in the near future. According to various reviews, calculations on future flow of immigration from developing nations to the EU show that there may be 13.5 million immigrants within the EU, from the year 2000 until 2050 (Mansoor and Quillin, 2007). The calculations that give an average estimate are based on various e conomic and demographic factors significant in determining immigration flows. Along with these numbers, one must also take into consideration political, social and cultural aspects of the immigrants, owing to the intricate nature of the issue, closely related to human trafficking, irregular migration, and shifting borders. The demographic framework of a nation is greatly affected by migratory  movements, and owing to the inherent differences   in  socioeconomic and   demographic   structure   of  the immigrant   populations   in regard to   the   host   population,   migration   flows   significantly influence public expenditure, income distribution, demographic  evolution,   social  stratification  along with economic development (Amin,  1995).   With rising economic challenges emerging from a steady increase in elderly the population within  European  societies,  the  European  Commission  regards the  entry  and  integra tion of immigrants  within the EU  an added demographic challenge  that involves providing better living and working conditions, employment,  and education  for the immigrants and  working out a long-term, sustainable  budgetary plan (Linz and Stula, 2010). Immigration  may be triggered due to various reasons that may vary from political, economic, or personal  reasons,  while migration may also be  voluntary  or  even forced, and the later often involves human trafficking  (Kraler, Kofman, Kohli and Schmoll, 2011).  From a historical  perspective,  Europe  has always faced  migration  from different parts of the world. Prior to WWI,  during  the era of industrialisation,  there were large-scale transatlantic  labour migrations. Post WWII, during the period of severe economic crises and reconstruction,  Europe  became  an  important  destination for many immigrants.  This  was  mainly  due  to  large numbers of la bourers migrating  to the European continent from  various  parts  of  the  world  due to  work  shortage in their own countries (Castles and Miller,  2010). At this time, there were also intra-European  migrations, where  labourers  from  south  Europe  moved to various west European nations.   Subsequently there were  settlements  established, and  families brought over for reunification. Besides labour migration,  there were war refugees and  natural disaster  refugees that came  to  Europe  from the former USSR, Africa and the  Balkans, thus further adding to the social and cultural diversities within the EU population. In this context, the essay will review various research papers and analyse the different challenges associated with