Analyse and comment on the success Essay Example for Free

Analyse and comment on the success Essay Analyse and comment on the success of the title sequence of Baz Luhrmanns 1997 film adaptation of Romeo Juliet  The 1997 adaptation of Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann was attempting to reach out to a younger audience by modernising the old play with new ideas, even though the old text was kept. Set in modern times with modern things that a young audience could relate to, Luhrmann successfully hauled Shakespeares text from 16th century Verona, Italy to late 20th century Miami, USA. The purpose of this essay is to review, analyse and comment on the use of Luhrmanns background to help him in making the movie, the success of the film but most importantly the cinematic success of the title scene. The location was specifically chosen to represent modern times. America was the most modern country available. Although Luhrmann wanted to shoot the film in Miami, it was seen by the mayor of Miami as unrealistic to put the city on hold while they shot the movie; Mexicos capital city, Mexico City was used instead. It had everything the crew needed, it had a typical city milieu; it was perfect. As the movie was going to be originally set in Miami, the characters had to at least look like they were from Miami. The Montague household wore very casual Hawaiian t-shirts, which were not buttoned up but hung loosely on the wearer. The Capulets wore very serious, cool clothes, mostly dark colours like black and grey. The choices of clothes used were to symbolise gangsters and mob mentality. from ancient grudge break to new mutiny were being portrayed by Luhrmann, as two rival gangs. Casting was very much a big thing in Luhrmanns version. He had to pick actors that young people could relate to. It was hard finding such actors, as the young and popular ones had problems reading Shakespeares diverse and complicated old English text. Luhrmann knew that Leonardo Di Caprio would be perfect for Romeo, as he was a heartthrob worldwide, and would bring in the young girls, who adored him. Throughout the movie we are shown images of power. These images are more abundant in the opening title scene. Images of guns, violence and police are shown to create an atmosphere of chaos and anarchy. The guns are used, again to create a modernised version of the old play. The guns represent the swords used by the people in the sixteenth century, and they are referred to as swords by the actors, put up thy swords. Religion is one of the main themes in the play, and Luhrmann uses many powerful images to show this in the opening title scene. Two statues of Jesus are filmed round about either side of the city. The statues are opposite each other with their faces facing inwards, as if looking over the people of Verona and keeping guard. Also the Christian crucifix is used to replace some of the Ts in the scripture which occasionally flash between the montage of images of police, violent riots and arrests; the scripture is repeating the important parts of the sonnet that opens the play. Cinematography is used to great effect in the opening scene. Zooming and panning left and right all help to create the effect of disorder and chaos. Before the title of the movie is actually shown there is a montage of images; each clip lasts only for a split second. Each clip is taken from the movie to show the audience that it isnt an old fashioned soppy love story, but a violent, tragic blockbuster. Using the scenes of gun fights and violence the montage really creates an adrenalin rush. The music and the backing track for the title scene really goes with the visual picture on the screen. Fast tempo gets the blood pumping and again it helps to cause chaos. It has real power as it builds up towards the end of the title scene; during the montage of images it speeds up and the power of it envelops you. Then finally we see the title of the movie and the music stops after a few seconds after the title falls into view and the audience is left in silence. In conclusion, considering all the areas of the title scene, Baz Luhrmann has successfully given birth to a fantastic opening to Romeo and Juliet. The title scene underlines key aspects of the sonnet which opens the play, to help the people in the audience who dont understand Shakespeare and even the ones who do. He introduces the principle characters, again to stop the audience from getting confused. The use of exciting images, such as the gun and the images of police and violence makes certain people in the audience stay and not walk out because they may believe it to be boring; many teenagers would believe Shakespeare to be boring. The opening scene had a very strong effect on me personally. It really made me want to see the movie again, even though I had already seen it about three times. The scene gripped me and not many title scenes have done that to me. Baz Luhrmanns version of Romeo and Juliet was a complete success.

The Agenda Setting And Spiral Of Silence Media Essay

The Agenda Setting And Spiral Of Silence Media Essay Alan Crosbie, who is the Chairman of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, a large Irish media player said in his speech  commented on new media there is a tsunami of information coming from new media some of which has the capacity to destroy civil society and cause unimaginable suffering. Let us try and understand why Media holds so much power. Significantly Media has had a dominating influence over peoples lives and opinions since time immemorial. A classic example of convincing people of ones beliefs was during the Nazi Regime. The entire nation was convinced of the Nazi ideologies through getting the entire media channels either under the governments control or having censorship rights over the privately owned ones. This resulted in patriotic and nationalistic sentiments being instilled in songs, movies and even the news was censored to suit the ideology of the Nazis. The world as we see and know of around us is through the media and is hence is a second-hand reality portrayed to us by the media owners of the society. This becomes highly ominous in face of the fact that the entire world media is owned by about 9 Conglomerates only. Hence when there is a plethora of news bytes available, the news that reaches us is what the Media channels think newsworthy. And this is just a percentage of the world news that is present around us. This ability to influence which issues, persons and topics are perceived as the most important of the day is called the agenda-setting role of the mass media McCombs, 2004. The origin of the Agenda Setting Theory happened when Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw (1972), professors at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill used the presidential elections of the United States of America in 1968 as a live study to investigate the relationship if existed between the important issues of the public and that between the priority issues of the mass media.   McCombs and Shaw were able to determine the degree to which the media, in Bernard Cohens words, tell us [(the public)] what to think about. Agenda setting theory has two levels to it. The magnitude of media coverage the particular article gets How the article or object in question has been covered First Level Agenda deals with the issues present on the public, political and media domain. This is the most important area of the agenda setting research where media is seen as a highly influencing factor to the public and political issues. Second level agenda setting is more closer to framing. McCombs in his study discussed how second level agenda setting is more specific to the attributes that define the object in question. Balmas and Sheafer (2010) argued that the focus at the first level agenda-setting which emphasizes medias role in telling us what to think about is shifted to medias function of telling us how to think about at the second level agenda-setting. The similarity between second level agenda setting and framing is that they both are related with how a particular issue is portrayed, with mildness or with sensationalization. They are generic and not the issue or object specific. However they differ on the account of intensity, since framing is a higher degree or an ext ension of second level agenda setting. Spiral of Silence Spiral of Silence originates from understanding the Asch experiment (1958) and the Milgram experiment (1963). Asch experiment was a study on conformity. This basically measures how much other people get pressurized into changing their opinion or falling in line when people more powerful or in more volume than them do so. Other reasons for conforming are to not be isolated from the mass and be liked by their peer groups. The Milgram experiment tested the effects of punishment and hence understood the concepts of Obedience and Authority. These experiments prove that mass or volume opinions have a huge impact on individual opinions. The Spiral of Silence theory was created by Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann (1974). Public opinion is the dominant opinion which compels compliance of attitude and behavior in that it threatens the dissenting individual with isolation and the politician with loss of support. In the words of  its  originator  Elisabeth  Noelle-Neumann: observations  made  in one context the  mass  media spread to  another  and  encouraged  people  either  to proclaim  their  views  or to  swallow  them  and  keep  quite  until ,in a  spiraling  process,  the one  view dominated  the  public  scene  and  the  other  disappeared  from  public  awareness as  its  adherents  became mute  ,  this  is the  process  that  can be  called  a  spiral  of  silence. This basically emphasizes on how when an individual feels they are in a minority, out of numerous fears and insecurities, they feel it better to be a part of the popular and mass opinion and hence an issue even if relevant if doesnt have anything to do with the majority will spiral into silence. The silence of a person, who differs from the majority, spirals upwards thus forcing other people to stay silent. theory09a-789436.gif Strengths Explains why the people remain silent when they find themselves to be the minority. Explains the influence created by media over the crucial issues. Explains why people prefer to withhold their true feelings. Rather than take the risk of being isolated Explains how the spirals of silence solve the societal conflicts. Limitations Does not apply completely to the field of media as the aspects of fear of isolation reprisal does not hold true in the virtual world. Questions the transparency in quantifying the majority the minority. Co-relation between Agenda Setting and Spiral of Silence According to Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, the spiral of silence and the agenda setting theory go hand in hand. She believed that media plays a major role in forming public opinions. Therefore the masses shape their opinions in accordance with the media and according to her, media is the strongest bridge between these two theories. We can support the above point with the help of an example. During the Nazi period, Hitler was convinced that German race is far superior than anyone else on this planet. He made an extensive use of the media tools available at that time to convince the people about the same. Some people believed this but there were a lot of them who did not believe in this concept of German superiority. Although they did not believe, none of them raised their voice because of the fear of the Nazi regime and the fear of isolation. They convinced this case. Examples of Agenda Setting Theory The role of media in shaping public opinion about The Iraq War The marketing effort by the Bush administration to gain support for the invasion of Iraq began to get into full swing by the fall of 2002. When Condolezza Rice, then National Security Advisor to the President, was asked a question on the case of preemptive war in a CNN interview, she said- We know that he [Saddam] has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon. And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought, maybe six months from a crude nuclear deviceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we dont want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. Even the President made similar remarks about Saddams WMD program less than a month later on 7th October, 2002, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof-the smoking gun-that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. These and other such statements marked the beginning of what the Center for Public Integrity called, false statements, in their 2008 report titled, Iraq-The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War. The number of false reports increased tremendously towards the end of 2002 and the beginning of 2003, so did the general perception about Saddams nuclear program, suggesting a strong case for media agenda-setting. Future of Agenda Setting Theory With the introduction of the horizontal media and the internet, people have the option of following what they want without anyone forcing an opinion on them. The change in the technology and media has led to several changes in the agenda setting theory. This change is called as Agenda Mending which talks about the personal agendas of individuals vis-à  -vis their community and group affiliations  . This means that individuals join groups and blend their agendas with the agendas of the group.   Criticisms Agenda Setting Theory does not take into account the personal interests of an individual. Any issue considered salient by the media does not necessarily has to be important for the people. This theory uses a very scientific approach, therefore its not able to stand the test of scrutiny as humans are very unpredictable.

Relief Units for our Troops :: Military Influenza Health Essays

Relief Units for our Troops War Wounds and Influenza the Least of Our Worries While many soldiers have come back from the front with physical wounds and trauma, doctors and nurses at home are ready for any calamity that might arise. In New York City, and indeed, in many cities around the country, physicians are forming emergency relief units "for service during any calamity in any part of the USA." These doctors are meeting weekly with the police and hospitals, and are keeping informed of the situation in order to protect our citizens. They are training volunteers in first aid and crime control, and plans have been made to turn many of the larger public buildings into relief centers, should the need arrive. In addition, our own men have escaped the epidemic raging through German forces. "Conditions among the civil population of Germany are terrible," states a Dutch tailor who recently returned from Germany. "Workmen die at their work from lack of nourishment." With the country underfed and left in the mud, is it any wonder that so many of them succumbed to the infection? However, there are many more wounds left by this war that cannot necessarily be seen by the eye or healed with tonics and pills. Some of our soldiers return from the front mentally unsound, many so shell-shocked that they cannot recognize their own families, or they cry to themselves at hearing any sound other than their own voice. Some allied surgeons have claimed that the physically fit soldiers are immune to shell-shock, and that only the neurotic or "otherwise suffering" soldiers are at risk. Experience has shown us that seeing your comrades injured or dead around you, and hearing the whistle of shells around you at all times is enough to count as suffering. After all, isn't this why the government sends soldiers suffering from shell shock back to the front a short time after they come home? When we have so many cases of people being easily committed for lunacy, such as in the case of Leonard Abercrombie, who was committed by his brother under highly irregular circumstances- -why is there so much confusion on the topic of insanity? Some doctors have begun to actually treat victims of shell shock by having them listen to music, surrounded by the sounds and beauty of the opera.

verizon center :: essays research papers

Building facilities like the Verizon Wireless arena and other large sporting and special event venues can be costly. The cost of the Verizon Wireless Arena cost roughly $60 million dollars to compose. Many factors go into this finalized $60 million dollar facility, such as the cost per square foot, the cost per A and B space, and operational costs. To figure out how much money goes into the arena, it is important to keep track of how much income is generated and what forms of marketing and fundraising are done to promote and create profit for the facility. The Verizon Wireless arena has 230,000 sq. feet, which makes the cost of the facility, $260.87 per square foot. There is a vast amount of costs associated with the operation of the arena, for example: The furniture, fixtures, and equipment purchases- everything from the folding chairs, tables, basketball court, hand tools in the shop, office computers, Zambonis and the scoreboard are just some of the items off a list that is seven pages long in very small print. Other overhead costs include water, sewerage, electricity, phone service, internet access, natural gas, cable TV, staff salaries, and benefit packages. In order to upkeep all the equipment and technology the facility has daily operational costs, these include: labor and materials to repair damage, upgrading of current systems, maintain capitol equipment and perform preventative maintenance. In addition, each event within itself has its own related costs such as: labor and material that are requested by the event that are used exclusively for the event, for example: propane gases for pyro special effects, business equipment the show needs that we rent locally (copiers, fax machines, etc.), labor to convert the facility from hockey to concert mode, event housekeeping, event staff (security, ushers, supervisors, ticket takers, etc.). In order to stay in business a facility must make a great amount of income to flourish in its industry. There are many forms of incoming profits from many sectors of the arena. The most important form is Patron generated sales: tickets, premium seat packages these packages are VIP suites, party suites and club seating. Food and Beverage help to keep the customers satisfied while being entertained by events and is a big money maker. Merchandise is sold at each event and the arena even has its own store for Monarch hockey gear and the football arena team the Wolves sell souvenirs as well.

Weight Issues In Wrestling :: Health Nutrition Essays

Weight Issues In Wrestling What do Billy Saylor (19 years old) at Campbell University in North Carolina, Joseph LaRosa (22) at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, and Jeff Reese (21) at the University of Michigan all have in common? They are all dead now, victims of one of the ghastly secrets of college wrestling. All three boys were engaged in dehydrating practices trying to lose weight in order to qualify for their first college-wrestling matches. Reese was trying to lose 17 pounds so that he could wrestle in the 150-pound weight class. His two-hour workout in a rubber suit in a 92-degree room cost him his life. He died of rhabdomyolysis -- a cellular breakdown of skeletal muscle under conditions of excessive exercise, which, combined with dehydration, resulted in kidney failure and heart malfunction (Iowa Gazette - December 22, 1997). LaRosa was also riding a stationary bike and wearing a rubber suit when he collapsed and died. Saylor was riding a stationary bike in a predawn workout when he suffered a h eart attack (Washington Post - January 14, 1998). Physicians are of the consensus that excessive dehydration as a means to lose weight can harm bodily functions, possibly leading to kidney failure, heat stroke or a heart attack. Why then do the wrestlers engage in these dangerous activities? Legendary University of Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable had this to say in an ESPN report: "They (wrestlers) think they are indestructible. But I’ll tell you what -- those three athletes thought they were indestructible, too. And they aren’t around to talk about it."Wrestlers believe that it is mind over body; they can accomplish anything and nothing bad will ever happen to them. So, LaRosa’s behavior on that fatal day in November wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for many college wrestlers. He was wearing sweats over a rubber suit and riding a stationary bike in a steam-filled shower room. His body temperature reached 108 degrees. He was trying to make weight for his match the next day, and wrestling’s rules did little to discourage such dangerous practices. The logic in wrestling is to make the lowest weight you can in the weigh-ins, which are 24 hours before the match. Then you can replenish and rehydrate your body over the course of the 24 hours between the weigh-in and the match. This will give you an advantage in the competition b ecause you really will be bigger and stronger then most of the wrestlers in that lower weight class.

Jerry Maguire Essay

Students must secure (purchase, rent, or borrow) and view a copy of Jerry Maguire to answer the following questions 1. Describe Jerry Maguire’s job and describe what this type of position entails. Jerry Maguire is a sports agent a person who negotiates employment and endorsement deals for an athlete. For their services, the agent receives a commission, which usually runs between 4 and 10 percent. The agent also may assist in public relations and all aspects of his client’s finances. Our text states a few of the other responsibilities of the agent are; †¢ Determines the value of the players services †¢ Convinces a club to pay the player the aforementioned value †¢ Develops the package of compensation to suit the player’s needs †¢ Protects the player’s rights under contract †¢ Counsels the player about post career security, both financial and occupational †¢ Finds a new club upon the player’s free agency †¢ Assists the player in earning extra income from endorsements, speeches, appearances, and commercials †¢ Advises athletes on the effect of their personal conduct on their career (p 26) According to Wikipedia, a sports agent helps market athletes or products associated with that athlete to promote an athlete’s career. Agents are responsible for communications with team owners, managers, coaches, and other individuals. Primarily, agents are used to broker and negotiate contracts for their clients. Also, they are responsible for making recommendations in regards to the athlete’s options. In addition to finding income sources, agents often handle public relations matters for their clients. In some large sports agencies, such as IMG, Creative Artists Agency, and Octagon, agents deal with all aspects of a client’s finances, from investment to filing taxes. Sports agents may be relied upon by their clients for guidance in all business aspects, and sometimes even more broadly. For example, hockey agents start recruiting clients as young as 15, allowing the agent to guide the athlete’s career before the NHL draft, which happens usually at 18 years of age. Due to the length and complexity of contracts, many sports agents are lawyers or have a background in contract law. Agents are expected to be knowledgeable about finance, business management, and financial and risk analysis, as well as sports. It is important for a sports agent to follow trends in sports. Other skills an agent must possess are excellent communication and negotiation skills. Agents must be highly motivated, willing to work long hours, and have the ability to multitask. It is very common for agents to be in negotiations on behalf of several clients at one time. Some agents are part of large companies, and some are on their own. The number of clients an individual agent can handle and how many clients his or her employing agency can handle in total are interdependent variables. Before the 1990s, most soccer players did not use agents. In some cases, they used their fathers as agents. Due to most parents’ naivetà © about the football business, these young footballers were often given less-than-stellar contracts by football clubs, which yielded lower salaries than they thought they deserved. In Sweden, there were only three licensed agents in 1995. As of 2002, there were 33. According to FIFA, there were 5,187 licensed association football agents world-wide, with 600 agents in Italy alone. Since 2001, agents have not been licensed by FIFA. Instead, agents are now licensed directly by each association. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_agent 2. Why has the bargaining power of athletes increased so much in the past 40 years? The sports industry is experiencing tremendous growth, and sports’ marketing  is playing an important role in this emerging industry. Sports marketing will continue to grow in importance as sports become more pervasive in the U.S. culture and around the globe. The growth is identified in a number of ways; the number of spectators, the growth of media coverage, increase in sport participation, rising employment opportunities, and the growth in sports internationally. (p31) Based on this it is my opinion that the bargaining power of athletes have increased because demand has increased. 3. The competitive nature of the sports agency business is real. Name five of the top agencies and show the source of your information (i.e. www†¦). †¢ Creative Artists Agency: â€Å"CAA† – acquired various pieces of the sports agency business of SFX (see below), starting with football. †¢ IMG – International Management Group – corporate agency established by entrepreneur Mark McCormack, originally with a specialization in golf and tennis. After the death of McCormack the company was acquired by private equity group Forstmann Little. †¢ International Sports Management – British sports agency run by former European Tour golfer Andrew â€Å"Chubby† Chandler.[27] †¢ Octagon Worldwide – Full-service sports agency and event marketing group, traded with advertising and marketing companies in the Interpublic Group. †¢ Priority Sports and Entertainment- Agency representing the most NBA players, run by Mark Bartelstein. †¢ Rosenhaus Sports- sports agency run by Drew Rosenhaus. †¢ Sports Management Worldwide – (SMWW) – global sports agency founded by Dr. Lynn Lashbrook. †¢ Wasserman Media Group: acquired Arn Tellem’s basketball agency from SFX, and usually represents the most players in NBA lottery draft each year. I don’t know if these are the top five but there are quite a few of these names that keep popping up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_agent 4. Complete an Internet search of the Sports Agent career and describe how one could/should build a career in this industry (include source). Instructions 1. Pick an undergraduate degree program in sports management. These courses will prepare you for most jobs in the sports agent field. Most professional leagues require at least a four-year degree from an accredited university. Take as many business management and entertainment or sports law courses as you can during your education. 2. Determine what sport you want to be an agent in. Understand that the National Football League requires that sports agents hold a post-graduate degree in sports management, human relations, business management, personal finance or a related field. Check with the league or professional sports organization you aspire to work for to understand specific qualifications. 3. Find out about the various qualifications for sports agents in your preferred field. Each potential agent should have information regarding educational requirements, sports league rules, salary information, recruiting information, certification fees and membership costs. 4. Seek certification information on the league or professional organization in which you wish to work. Most leagues require some kind of certification, including the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Football League (NFL) and Major League Baseball (MLB). 5. Study for the certification test for the league or organization you wish to join. Each organization will have resources for certification courses that can help you prepare for the exam. 6. Pay the certification fee and take the respective exam of the organization you aspire to be certified in. 7. Obtain liability insurance, as this will be extremely important in your sports agent career. Some organizations require this of agents, while others do not specify it. Having it will be beneficial in searching for clients and ensure your own legal security on the job, 8. Meet as many agents, players, coaches and media figures as you can. Networking is a huge part of the sports industry and the best agents know how to sell themselves to players to gain clients. Get a good business card and give it to anyone that could be a potential client or lead you to a potential client. 9. Search for internships or entry-level positions at an agency or at the sport organization where you wish to work. Internships can be an excellent way to meet potential clients and since you will already be certified, you can immediately start to network yourself as a potential representative. 10. Start attending college and even high school sporting events in your area and scouting potential clients who may be in need of representation. Securing a client early will (if they are talented) help you build a name. Make sure you stay within the guidelines of district or National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) regulations for scouting. Read more: Steps for How to Be a Sports Agent | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_6755412_steps-sports-agent.html#ixzz2AWCVixFe 5. Locate and list five of the top sports agents (include source). Scott Boras – Scott Boras Corporation Arn Tellem – WMG Management Tom Condon – CAA Sports Drew Rosenhaus – Rosenhaus Sports Don Meehan – Newport Sports Management The top five that I found were from askmen.com but I do not know trustworthiness of this information. I did read on these five and they do have some big names behind them. http://www.askmen.com/top_10/sports/top-10-sports-agents_10.html Another site I visited had Arn Tellem, Bill Duffy, Tom Condon, and Tom Reich as the top agents. http://www.become-a-sports-agent.com/career.asp Shank, D. Matthew. Sports Marketing, A Strategic Perspective. 4th Ed. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.

Furniture: Marketing and Consumers

Question 2: Using a multistage CDP model, describe how consumers in this market segment( Gen Y and young professionals) typically make furniture purchase decisions. In this case, it mentions 4 stages which include need recognition, search process, pre-purchase evaluation, and purchase. Need recognition occurs when consumers really need more furniture commonly. Actually, many situations will cause their needs. For instance, replacing their furniture, having more money, get ting married and so on.After they decide to buy new furniture, if the need of new furniture is not very urgent, they intend to do external research to make sure. However, in many cases, they will be influenced by sales promotion and previous experience. Advice from friends and family will be a reference. Advertising, compared with that, is the most untrustworthy. They will go to real shops to see what they liked online and feel the comfort and workmanship in person. If they like a brand, they will find relevant prod ucts from that brand or another brand with similar styles.After deciding which to buy, it comes to the purchase process. Most of consumers had used financing in the past, but now they prefer to pay in cash. But for Gen Y and young professionals, they have lower income and cannot afford to pay cash. They desire to feel the perception, that they can enjoy a lifestyle that is above what they can afford by spreading the payments over a long period of time. Therefore, they would like to pay it with interests for six months. Question 3: How should Family Furniture respond to competitors?Over the years, Family Furniture has faced many big competitors. Some furniture store attract customers with â€Å"no, no, no† advertising, which means â€Å"no down payment, no interest and no payments until next year†. It was reported that an increasing number of Family Furniture’s customers went to other stores in other cities or nearby regions to buy furniture and some others were making their purchases through the Internet. This has put Family Furniture into a perplexing situation. In my view, Family Furniture should expand its target market to younger people, together with the old.The fact that the city has many young consumers, unemployment rate is low are an advantage for the company. That consumers here are mostly white-collar and well-educated workers with a high level of income tells us that they are totally be able to afford their purchases in Family Furniture. With a strong historical business, the company can promote big advertising campaigns to recall customer awareness, such as offering big sales on special occasions or sending magazines to their mail boxes every month to show new products with new promotional programs.These programs should always emphasize the familiarity of customers with Family Furniture over other competitors through a long period, well-known national brands and the quality of furniture. In addition, marketing techniques invol ving community involvement such as an official website or searching websites should also be improved, because they will catch customers’ attention and help them find information about the company and products much more easily. Question 4: What promotional strategy and media do you recommend for Family Furniture?Family Furniture is a business-to-consumer company but not a business-to-business one. They sell furniture directly to consumers. So I recommend this company to use a â€Å"pull strategy† which means spending on advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing to induce final consumers to buy their furniture. Advertising will help Family Furniture to present their promotion of ideas, goods, or services to compete with others, like Ikea. Direct marketing concentrates on individual consumers to both obtain immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships, such as the using of internet.According to the research on reasons of choosing a particular st ore, â€Å"previous experience† and â€Å"sale or promotion† account for 28 and 36 percentage respectively. It means these two reasons are the most important elements that make consumers choose a particular store. Family Furniture should choose both personal communication channels (two or more people communicate directly with each other) and non-personal communication channels (media that carry messages without personal contact for feedback) as their media to induce consumers to purchase.The last channel of personal communication is word-of-mouth influence. People may influenced by their neighbors, friends, family members and so forth. Print media, for instance, newspapers and magazines should be remained, because it works and has lasted for decades. As Cult Advertising said recently, nontraditional marketing techniques need to be involved. Young generations use computers more often than older people, they will pay attention to fresh and new things rather than printed brochures.Online media like company Web, e-mail should be used as well because most of their customers are older people, they should attract more young people. Then their consumers’ region will be broader. Using mass media often affect buyer behavior indirectly by causing more personal communication. If the products in Family Furniture are very good, consumers will spread this information by â€Å"word-of-mouth influence† channel.