Evaluate the reasons why the Ottoman army and navy were so s essays

Evaluate the reasons why the Ottoman army and navy were so s essays Evaluate the reasons why the Ottoman army and navy were so successful in the period 1451-1529 During the period 1451-1529, the Ottoman Empire flourished and the military was one great reason for and result of this development. The military were made up of two distinct groups, the Kapti Kullari forces and the local forces. Those in the Devshrime, who were not chosen for palace service or to cater the government, were forced to join the Janissaries who made up the core of the standing army. As these Janissaries had been trained as slaves from a young age, they gave loyal and disciplined support to the sultan, which further established the control of the sultan. The army was well equipped with clothing and armed with swords, bows, spears and later muskets. The slave forces also contained cavalry, armourers, artillerymen and wagon drivers. Secondly, the local forces were called upon in times of war and consisted mainly of cavalry, foot soldiers and raiders. The Sipahis (cavalry) of the local forces were feudal sipahis and were not supported by the state, but instead by the timar system. This meant that they were given land. The land was not owned by sipahis however; they were given the right to earn of it by the sultan. The sultan was repayed in loyal service as the sipahis worked for the government by collecting taxes and enforcing domestic law. It was this trust, loyalty and fairness exerted by each of the sultans, which was an extremely large contributor to the success of the military over this period of time. Each individual sultan brought their own particular input to the Ottoman army and navy in there respective reigns. Under Mehmed, the Ottoman military encountered its biggest test with the conquest of Constantinople. In 1453, Mehmed freshly crowned sultan, assembled ministers and assured them that the Ottoman Empire would never be safe until Constantinople was under their control. There was no strategic necessity for it&ap...

What Is a Personal Statement Everything You Need to Know About the College Essay

What Is a Personal Statement Everything You Need to Know About the College Essay SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips In addition to standardized test scores and transcripts, a personal statement or essay is a required part of many college applications. The personal statement can be one of the most stressful parts of the application process because it's the most open ended. In this guide, I'll answer the question, "What is a personal statement?" I'll talk through common college essay topics and what makes for an effective personal statement. // Even the terminology can be confusing if you aren't familiar with it, so let's start by defining some terms: Personal statement- an essay you write to show a college admissions committee who you are and why you deserve to be admitted to their school. It's worth noting that, unlike "college essay," this term is used for application essays for graduate school as well. College essay - basically the same as apersonal statement. (I'll be using the terms interchangeably.) Essay prompt - a question or statement that your college essay is meant to respond to. Supplemental essay - an extra school or programspecific essay beyond the basic personal statement. Many colleges ask for only one essay. However, some schools do ask you to respond to multiple prompts or to provide supplemental essays in addition to a primary personal statement. Either way, don't let it stress you out! This guide will cover everything you need to know about the different types of college essays and get you started thinking about how to write a great one: Why colleges ask for an essay What kinds of essay questions you'll see What sets great essays apart Tips for writing your own essay // Why Do Colleges Ask For an Essay? There are a couple of reasons that colleges ask applicants to submit an essay, but the basic idea is that it gives them more information about you, especially who you are beyond grades and test scores. #1: Insight Into Your Personality The most important role of the essay is to give admissions committees a sense of your personality and what kind of addition you'd be to their school's community. Are you inquisitive? Ambitious? Caring? These kinds of qualities will have a profound impact on your college experience, but they're hard to determine based on a high school transcript. Basically, the essay contextualizes your application and shows what kind of person you are outside of your grades and test scores. Imagine two students, Jane and Tim: they both have 3.5 GPAs and 1200s on the SAT. Jane lives in Colorado and is the captain of hertrack team, while Tim lives in Vermont and regularly contributes to the school paper, but they both want to be doctors and they both volunteer at the local hospital. As similar as Jane and Tim seemon paper, in reality they're actually quite different, and their unique perspectives come through in their essays. Jane writes about how looking into her family history for a school project made her realize how the discovery of modern medical treatments like antibiotics and vaccines had changed the world and drove her to pursue a career as a medical researcher. Tim, on the other hand, recounts a story about how a kind doctor helped him overcome his fear of needles, an interaction that reminded him of the value of empathy and inspired him to become a family practitioner. These two students may seem outwardly similar but their motivations and personalities are very different. Without an essay, your application is essentially a series of numbers: a GPA, SAT scores, the number of hours spent preparing for quiz bowl competitions. The personal statement is your chance to stand out as an individual. // #2: Evidence of Writing Skills A secondary purpose of the essay is to serve as a writing sample and help colleges see that you have the skills needed to succeedin college classes. The personal statement isyour best chance to show off your writing, so take the time to craft a pieceyou're really proud of. That said, don't panic if you aren't a strong writer. Admissions officers aren't expecting you to write like Joan Didion; they just want to see that you can express your ideas clearly. No matter what, your essay should absolutely not include any errors or typos. #3: Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances For some students, the essay is also a chance to explain factors affecting theirhigh school record. Did your grades drop sophomore year because you were dealing with a family emergency? Did you miss out on extracurricularsjunior year because of an extended medical absence? Colleges want to know if you struggled with a serious issue that affected your high school record, so make sure to indicate any relevant circumstances on your application. Keep in mind that in some cases there will be a separate section for you to address these types ofissues, as well as any black marks on your record like expulsions or criminal charges. #4: Your Reasons for Applying to the School Many colleges ask you to writean essay or paragraph about why you're applying to their school specifically. In asking these questions, admissions officers are trying to determine if you're genuinely excited about the school and whether you're likely to attend if accepted. I'll talk more about this type of essay below. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: // What Kind of Questions Do Colleges Ask? Thankfully, applications don't simply say "Please include an essay about yourself" - they includea question or prompt that you're asked to respond to. These prompts are generally pretty open ended and can be approached in a lot of different ways. Nonetheless, most questions fall into a few main categories. Let's go through each common type of prompt, with examples from the Common Application, the University of California application, and ApplyTexas, as well as a few individualschools. Prompt Type 1: Your Personal History This sortof questionasks you to write about a formative experience, important event or key relationship fromyour life. Admissions officers want to understand what is important to you and how your backgroundhas shaped you as a person. These questions are both common and tricky. The most common pitfall students fall into is trying to tell their entire life stories - it's better to focus in on a very specific point in time and explain why it was meaningful to you. Common App 1 Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. Common App 5 Discuss an accomplishment, event, orrealizationthatsparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. University of California 2 Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side. University of California 6 Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom. // Prompt Type 2:Facing a Problem A lot of prompts deal with how you solve problems or how you cope with failure. College can be difficult, both personally and academically, and admissions committees want to see that you're equipped to face those challenges. The key to these types of questions is to identify a real problem or failure (not a success in disguise) and show how you adapted and grew from addressing the issue. Common App 2 The lessons we take fromobstacles we encountercan be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced achallenge, setback, or failure.How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? Common App 4 Describe a problem you’ve solved or a problem you’d like to solve. It can be an intellectual challenge, a research query, an ethical dilemma - anything that is of personal importance, no matter the scale. Explain its significance to you and what steps you took or could be taken to identify a solution. ApplyTexas B Describe a circumstance, obstacle or conflict in your life, and the skills and resources you used to resolve it. Did it change you? If so, how? // Prompt Type 3:Diversity Most colleges arepretty diverse, with students from a wide range of backgrounds. Essay questions about diversity are designed to help admissions committees understand how you interact with people who are different from you. In addressing these prompts,you want to show that you're capable of engaging with new ideas and relating to people who may have different beliefs than you. Common App 3 Reflect on a time when youquestionedor challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? Whatwas the outcome? ApplyTexas A Describe a setting in which you have collaborated or interacted with people whose experiences and/or beliefs differ from yours. Address your initial feelings, and how those feelings were or were not changed by this experience. Prompt Type 4:Your Future Goals This type of prompt asks about what you want to do in the future: sometimes simply what you'd like to study, sometimes longer term career goals. Colleges want to understand what you're interested in and how you plan to work towards your goals. You'll mostly see these prompts if you're applying for a specializedprogram (like pre-med or architecture) or applying as a transfer student. Some schools also ask for supplementary essays along these lines. ApplyTexas C Considering your lifetime goals, discuss how your current and future academic and extracurricular activities might help you achieve your goals. University of California (Transfer Applicants) Please describe how you have prepared for your intended major, including your readiness to succeed in your upper-division courses once you enroll at the university. // Prompt Type 5: Why This School The most common style of supplemental essay is the "Why us?" essay (although a fewschools with their own application use this type of questionas their main prompt). In these essays, you're meant to address the specific reasons you want to go to the school you're applying to. Whatever you do, don't ever recycle these essays for more than one school. Yale University What is it about Yale that has led you to apply? Chapman University There are thousands of universities and colleges. Please share with us why you are choosing to apply to Chapman. Rice University How did you first learn about Rice University and what motivated you to apply? Prompt Type 6:Creative Prompts More selective schools often have supplemental essays with stranger or more unique questions. University of Chicago is notorious for its weird prompts, but it's not the only school that will ask you to think outside the box in addressing its questions. University of Chicago The word floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant or of having no value. It originated in the mid-18th century from the Latin words "floccus," "naucum," "nihilum," and "pilus"- all words meaningâ€Å"of little use.† Coin your own word using parts from any language you choose, tell us its meaning, and describe the plausible (if only to you) scenarios in which it would be most appropriately used. Tufts University Whether you've built blanket forts or circuit boards, produced community theater or mixed media art installations, tell us: what have you invented, engineered, created, or designed? Or what do you hope to? University of Virginia What’s your favorite word and why? University of Chicago(Phil Roeder/Flickr) // What Makes a Strong Personal Statement? OK, so you're clear on what a college essay is, but you're still not sure how to write a good one. To help you get started, I'm going to explainthe main things admissions officers look for in students' essays:an engaging perspective, genuine moments, and lively writing. I've touched onthese ideas already, buthereI'll go into more depth about how the best essays stand out from the pack. Showing Who You Are A lot of students panic about finding a unique topic, and certainly writing about something unusual like a successful dating app you developed with your friends or your time working as a mall Santacan't hurt you. But what's really important isn't so much what you write about as how you write about it. You need to use your subject to show something deeper about yourself. Look at the prompts above: you'll notice that they almost all ask you what you learned or how the experience affected you. Whatever topic you pick, you must be able to specifically address how or why it matters to you. Say a student, Will, was writing about the mall Santa in response to Common App prompt number 2 (the one about failure): Will was a terrible mall Santa. He was way too skinny to be convincing and the kids would always step on his feet. He could easily write 600 very entertaining words describing this experience, but they wouldn't necessarily add up to an effective college essay. To do that, he'll need to talk about his motivations and his feelings: why he took such a job in the first place and what he did (and didn't) get out of it. Maybe Will took the job because he needed to make some money to go on a school trip and it was the only one he could find. Despite his lack of enthusiasm for screaming children, he kept doing it because he knew if he persevered through the whole holiday season he would have enough money for his trip. Would you rather read "I failed at being a mall Santa" or "Failing as a mall Santa taught me how to persevere no matter what"? Admissions officersdefinitely prefer the latter. Ultimately, the best topics are ones that allow you to explain something surprising about yourself. Honesty Since the main point of the essay is to give schools a sense of who you are, you have to open up enough to let them see your personality.Writing a good college essay means being honest about your feelings and experiences even when they aren't entirely positive. In this context, honesty doesn't mean going on at length about the time you broke into the local pool at night and nearly got arrested, but it does mean acknowledging when something was difficult or upsetting for you. Think about the mall Santa example above. The essay won't work unless the writer genuinely acknowledges that he was a bad Santa and explains why. Want to build the best possible college application? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools, from state colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. We want to get you admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in. Even this little kid is a better Santa than Will was. EloquentWriting As I mentioned above, colleges want to know that you are a strong enough writer to survive in college classes. Can you express your ideas clearly and concisely? Can you employ specific details appropriately and avoidcliches and generalizations? These kinds of skills will serve you well in college (and in life!). Nonetheless, admissions officers recognize that different students have different strengths. They aren’t looking for a poetic magnum opus from someone who wants to be a math major. (Honestly, they aren't expecting a masterwork from anyone, but the basic point stands.) Focus on making sure that your thoughts and personality come through, and don't worry about using fancy vocabulary or complex rhetorical devices. Above all, make sure that you have zero grammar or spelling errors. Typos indicate carelessness, which will hurt your cause with admissions officers. Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar. Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges. Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now: // Top 5 Essay-Writing Tips Now that you have a sense of what colleges are looking for, let's talk about how you can put this new knowledge into practice as you approach your own essay. Below, I've collected my five best tips from years as a college essay counselor. #1: Start Early! No matter how much you want to avoid writing your essay, don’t leaveit until the last minute. One of the most important parts of the essay writing process is editing, and editing takes a lot of time. You want to be able to put your draft in a drawer for a week and come back to it with fresh eyes. You don't want to be stuck with an essay you don't really like because you have to submit your application tomorrow. You need plenty of time to experiment and rewrite, so I would recommend starting your essays at least two months before the application deadline. For most students, that means starting around Halloween, but if you're applying early you'll need to get going closer to Labor Day. Of course, it's even better to get a head start and begin your planning earlier. Many students like to work on their essays over the summer when they have more free time, but you should keep in mind that each year's application isn't usually released until August or September. Essay questions often stay the same from year to year, however. If you are looking to get a jump on writing, you can try to confirm with the school (or the Common App) if the essay questions will be the same as the previous year's. #2: Pick a Topic You’re Genuinely Excited About One of the biggest mistakes students make is trying to write what they think the committee wants to hear. The truth is that there's no "right answer" when it comes to college essays - the best topics aren't limited to specific categories like volunteer experiences or winning a tournament. Instead, they're topics that actually matter to the writer. "OK," you're thinking, "but what does she mean by 'a topic that matters to you'? Because to be perfectly honest, right now what really matters to me is that fall TV starts up this week, and I have a feeling I shouldn't write about that." You're not wrong (although some great essays have been written about television). A great topic isn't just something that you're excited about or that you talk to your friends about; it's something that has had a real, describableeffect on your perspective. This doesn't mean that you should overemphasize how somethingabsolutely changed your life, especially if it really didn't. Instead, try to be as specific and honest as you can about how the experience affected you, what it taught you, or what you got out of it. Let'sgo back to the TV idea. Sure, writing an essay abouthow excited you are for the new season of The Vampire Diariesprobably isn't the quickest way to get yourself into college, but you couldwrite a solidessay (in response to the first type of prompt) about how SpongeBob SquarePants was an integral part of your childhood. However,it's not enough to just explain how much you loved SpongeBob - you must also explain why and how watching the show every day after school affected your life. For example, maybe it was a ritual you shared with your brother, which showed you how even seemingly silly pieces of pop culture can bring people together. Dig beneath the surface to show who you are and how you see the world. When you write about something you don't really care about, your writing will come out cliched and uninteresting, and you'll likely struggle to motivate. When you write about something that is genuinely important to you, on the other hand, you can make even the most ordinary experiences - learning to swim, eating a meal, or watching TV - engaging. As strange as it sounds, SpongeBob could make a great essay topic. #3: Focus onSpecifics But how do you write an interesting essay?Focus. Don't try to tell your entire life story, or even the story of an entire weekend; 500-650 words may seem like a lot, but you'll reach that limit quickly if you try to pack every single thing that has happened to you into your essay. If, on the other hand, you just touch on a wide range of topics, you'll end up with an essay that reads more like a resume. Instead, narrow in on one specific event or idea and talk about it in more depth. The narrower your topic, the better. For example, writing about your role as Mercutio in your school's production ofRomeo and Juliet is too general, but writing about opening night, when everything went wrong, could be a great topic. Whatever your topic, use details to help draw the reader in and express your unique perspective, but keep in mind that you don't have to include every detail of what you did or thought - stick to the important and illustrative ones. #4: Use Your Own Voice College essays aren't academicassignments: you don't need to be super formal. Instead, try to be yourself. The best writing sounds like a more eloquent version of the way you talk. Focus on using clear, simple languagethat effectively explains a point or evokes a feeling. To do so, avoid the urge to use fancy-sounding synonyms when you don't really know what they mean. Contractions are fine; slang, generally, is not. Don't hesitate to write in the first person. A final note: you don’t need to be relentlessly positive. It’s OK to acknowledge that sometimes things don’t go how you want - just show how you grew from that. #5: Be Ruthless Many students want to call it a day after writing a first draft, but editing is a key part ofwriting a truly great essay. To be clear, editing doesn't mean just making a few minor wording tweaks and cleaning up typos; it means reading your essay carefully and objectively and thinking about how you could improve it. Ask yourself questions as you read: is the progression of the essay clear? Do you make a lot of vague, sweeping statements that could be replaced with more interesting specifics? Do your sentences flow together nicely? Do youshow something about yourself beyond the surface level? You will have to delete and rewrite (potentially large) parts of your essay, and no matter how attached you feel to something you wrote, you might have to let it go. If you've ever heard the phrase "Kill your darlings," know that it is 100% applicable to college essay writing. At some point, you might even need to rewrite the whole essay.Even though it's annoying, starting over is sometimes the best way to get an essay that you're really proud of. Ludwig/Flickr What's Next? Make sure to check out our other posts on college essays, including our step-by-step guide to how to write your college essay,our analysis of the Common App Prompts, and our collection of example essays. If you're in need of guidance on other parts of the application process, take a look at our guides to choosing the right college for you, writing about extracurriculars, and requesting teacher recommendations. Last but not least, if you're planning on taking the SAT one last time, check out our ultimate guide to studying for the SAT and make sure you're as prepared as possible. Want to improve your SAT score by 160points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Developing a care pathway for patients with fractured neck of femur Essay

Developing a care pathway for patients with fractured neck of femur - Essay Example The study is done in St. Vincent Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria in October 1, 1997 to November 30, 1998. It has 111 patients with 80 women and 31 men with mean age of 81 years old. They have found that a proactive multidisciplinary approach can reduce the length of stay. The study also shows that early intervention is another way to reduce the stay in the hospital therefore the risk of having complications brought about by the longer stay in the hospital has lessen. St. Vincent Hospital includes patients with language and cognitive difficulties. Since not all of their population does not speak English. They believed that the inclusion would test the efficacy of clinical pathways in the delivery of multidisciplinary care. Also during the study they found no significant clinical difference in time of mobilization or complication or readmission rates. Possible explanation includes the frequent existence of unstable and often untreated premorbid conditions in patients with fractured neck of femur, which requires attention during their acute admission. In contrast, patients undergoing elective joint replacement have the benefit of preadmission assessment clinics which may resolve expected medical, allied health or discharge issues before admission.. ( Choong , Langford, Dowsey, Santamaria 2000 ) The report of the South Tyneside health Care Trust in 2003 whi... The pathway starts at the waiting after the Triage to see the A&E doctor, which could be up to an hour since patient with these case are given low priority. Another hour of waiting for the X-ray department since they could handle one patient at a time. The next wait would be for the porter staff to come to take the patient to the X-ray Department and again, once the X-rays have been taken, another one to bring the patient back to A&E. The films had then to be interpreted by the A&E doctor, who may not have been immediately available. Once the diagnosis has been made, the orthopedic doctor on duty had to see the patient and the transfer to the ward again another wait for the porter. They want to make the pathway much easier for the patient they make a study and make necessary adjustment to lessen the waiting time. The changes were made, on arrival the patient is seen by a senior A&E nurse who has undergone appropriate training. The nurse assess the patient's need for analgesia and adm inister it according to protocol. The A&E Nurse fills out the X-ray request form and contacts the X-ray Department. The Bed Coordinator is contracted and warned of the portable need for an orthopedic bed. The patient is offered the use of a cordless telephone to contact relatives and or neighbors. The patient is taken to the X-ray department and the films taken. Once the radiographer made necessary impression the radiographer notifies the A&E. Since the patient will take only for a few minutes in the x-ray department the porters will wait for her and take the patient directly to the orthopedic ward. If no fracture is seen, the patient is returned to A&E for further assessment. The

Effect of reverberation and amplification on sound localisation Essay

Effect of reverberation and amplification on sound localisation - Essay Example Binaural cues are based on the processing of differences in intensity, time and frequency correlation between both ears in the central nervous system. Localisation can be affected by any number of factors, including age, hearing loss, gender, handedness, environmental conditions and sound variations. An important factor in sound localisation is reverberation, which affects auditory perception and can provide listeners with a cue for sound distance. Reverberation refers to the acoustic environment that surrounds a sound, and is defined as the combined effect of multiple sound reflections within a room. Hearing loss may affect listening in reverberation by distorting the speech spectrum, therefore it is interesting to further investigate the effect of reverberation on speech localisation. Sound localisation may also be affected by hearing aids, as these may affect the localisation cues. Sound localisation therefore can be both negatively and positively affected by hearing aids. Directi onal microphones may disrupt binaural cues for localisation, as they can artificially change the inter-aural level and phase differences, which are both critical cues for localisation. ... However, previous studies are contradictory as to whether bilateral or unilateral hearing aids are better when in terms of sound localisation. The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the contribution of adding reverberation on a listening environment to the abilities of normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners in localising speech and non-speech signals, and to evaluate whether it is necessary to add reverberant environments in clinical testing. Another objective of the study will be to determine if adding reverberation makes localisation more challenging for hearing impaired listeners in comparison to normal hearing listeners. The second main purpose of the present study is to understand the effect of the hearing loss and the hearing aid amplification systems on the utilization of the localisation cues in reverberant and anechoic environments. These two factors will be investigated separately by comparing the hearing impaired performances with and without hearin g aids in both listening environments. 1.2 Thesis Outline Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Background and Literature Review. This chapter introduces the concepts and literature on horizontal sound localisation in both normal and hearing impaired listeners. Background information on reverberation, and what is known on the effects of reverberation on our ability to localise sound sources in the horizontal plane, is also introduced. Chapter 3 Experimental Design. This chapter describes the experimental set-up and apparatus used in the localisation experiments in the thesis. It will further provide some details of the stimuli, reverberation, and the methods, used in simulating different reverberant environments. Chapter 4 KEMAR Measurements. This chapter reports the measurements

Hepatitis A Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hepatitis A - Essay Example The most effective method to prevent the disease is the use of vaccination (Hall, William and Clarke, 34-36). The symptoms for the disease are clearly visible within two to six weeks of the entrance of the virus in the human body. In some children the symptoms may not be even visible. The symptoms usually last for less than 2 months and can persist for almost half a year. The symptoms usually include high fever, nausea, and loss of appetite, pain in the abdomen, jaundice, head ache, and other such symptoms. These mentioned symptoms are common to many other diseases as well and therefore in the initial stages it is usually diagnosed as some other disease and when the infection prolongs then it is correctly diagnosed. The virus which causes hepatitis A is present in the blood stream and therefore it affects liver the most. Hepatitis A is a serious disease and can even result in death. Liver is one of the most important organs of the body and its proper functioning is extremely necessary for the proper and healthy working of the body and as hepatitis A has a direct impact on the liver and its failure may even result in death. For the diagnosis of hepatitis A several blood tests are carried out and the entire medical history of the patient is observed so as to prevent from any wrong conclusions because it is a highly misdiagnosed disease. Several tests are carried out to test the liver conditions and x-rays and ultrasounds are carried out to properly examine the liver and make proper conclusions (Atlanta, Ga.: U.S. Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, 45-70). There is no proper treatment for the cure of hepatitis A. the only treatment is that the surrounding conditions of the patient are made extremely clean and hygienic and efforts are made to eliminate germs as much as possible. The diet of the patient is made healthy and highly nutritious and fatty products are completely eliminated and it is made sure

Psychologically Manipulative Advertising Strategies

Psychologically Manipulative Advertising Strategies Introduction: This research is based on the psychological effects of advertising on the consumer. The controversial advertising campaigns are intended to provoke discussion of global issues, not to sell clothes. Today, any product is made of two things: a percentage of material and a percentage of image. And the part of the product that is made of image is getting bigger (Luciano Benetton)( Financial Times, 2001). Therefore advertising is getting more tricky and complicated. The picture has great importance to the content of the advertisement because it has the possibility to express feelings. Owing to this, it is very important to be sure that the picture expresses feelings that agree with the strategy of the sender. If not, there is a risk that the picture sends out a message that was not intended (Sidenbladh,E 2000). This not only kills the purpose of the advertisement but fails to impact the consumers mind, not to mention the waste of valuable advertising time and the costs attached to it. Ad vertising intends to influence people to think a particular way and to apply pressure for consumers to purchase a product. There is a level of understanding of this fact on the part of the consumer, but this does not mean that the people are able to fully control their own reactions. To persuade the receiver is the most important task of the picture. The receiver is meant to think along the line of thoughts that the sender intended to create. It is therefore believed that peoples self-understanding, behaviour and lifestyle would be affected. The picture is intended to remind people about their own and personal lifestyle and experiences. The fact is that we look at a picture in accordance with our own experiences. The consciousness only grasps a small part of all the sight impressions we actually receive. This is where peoples different associations and experiences enter the picture (Hansson et al., 1992). Many of these messages are certainly involuntary, usually coming from the atti tudes that are widespread in a society at a given time. These messages are intended to attract the viewer and to guide thier thinking on certain channel with the aim of selling the product and making the consumer believe that are getting the complete package that comprises of the product along with the image attached to it. This may be achieved by giving an impression of what that product may account for in their lives by exaggerating and impressing an image of a certain level of emotional importance that they link to the product. There are many different communication models that originate from the classical Stimuli-Organization-Response Model (Aaker et al., 1992; Fiske, 1994). As an example we have chosen Edfeldt (1992) because it stresses the influence of disturbance of the senders message. The sender should create an advertisement and formulate it in the best possible way, in order to sell the product intended. Already at this stage it might happen that the message changes owing to the simple reason that it is not always so easy to put your thoughts into words and pictures. The senders own thoughts have vital importance to how the advertisement will look and through which sender and channel it will be publicized. When the advertisement reaches the sender it will be changed and also be affected by this persons personal thought; later on it will also be adjusted and might again be changed in some ways, in order to fit the media channel, which is intended. After that the receiver, and hopefully also the consi gnee, will get the message and in this step it is their thoughts that decide how the advertisement shall be interpreted. Consequently, at every step there are disturbances, which make the process sometimes troublesome.(Andersson, S. 2004)Advertising agencies make use of their knowledge of psychology to come up with campaigns that will appeal to the consumers desires and needs. In an individual society its easier to victimise the masses with such kind of an advertisement campaign as compared to multicultural societies. Products like fairness creams are significantly advertised in the sub continent and the advertisements give an impression that people who are dark are less likely to succeed in life as compared to the ones with a lighter skin tone. One of the fair and lovely ads shows how a girl cannot get her dream job only because she is dark and after using this product she get it even without an interview. (Fair and lovely, 27 Feb. 2009) Viewing such an ad will impact the people who have a darker skin and in some cases put them in a complex about their appearance. This in turn will make the consumer believe that in order to live a better life they require the product. Contrary to that in countries with a predominant Caucasian population tanning lotions are publicised. These products are again publicised sticking with the same concept. The Coppertone Sun Lotion Commercial from 1989 shows a girl walking on the beach alone and lonely and at the sight of the tanning lotion she starts to fantasize of being really sexy and a male attention magnet. (Coppertone Sun Lotion Commercial 1989, 24 Feb. 2009). This kind of an advertising approach impresses that the product being advertised is not just a luxury cosmetic anymore for the consumer but a survival necessity. Such advertisement campaigns are not taken to be offensive in that particular region and in fact are spot on as these concepts originate from the complexes that originally exist in that particular society. This may also be considered as one of the approaches to this kind of advertising. When the advertisers are dealing with a society like the one in UK that has a mixture of all sorts of cultures using such an advertisement strategy becomes all the more complex and difficult. Some of the ideas might create interest in one particular group of people, while others may be unaffected or worse offended by it. In order to design such a advertising strategy the advertisers may have to have a fairly good knowledge of the way the people think in that particular community which is being targeted. This study will investigate effectiveness of such advertising campaigns as The message of the advertisements is basically to sell products and to be able to catch the receivers attention. Therefore it is important that the sender not only makes sure that the product in the advertisement is successful and is selling, but also is aware of and careful about the pictures many effects. The values that are spread and how they in turn affect the consumer are important for the future of the product ((Hà ¤gg et al., 1972) Literature review Impact of media and in particular visuals on a consumers mind Background Historically, television was assumed to be an excellent vehicle for presenting a message to a relatively captive mass audience (Secunda, 1988). Lead by a large body of research, advertisers often spend noteworthy sums attempting to ensure that certain segments see specific ads enough to prompt some response and spawn the biggest â€Å"bang for the buck† (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999). There has been a lot of research done on the way consumers react and interpret advertisement. This research focuses on the audience as a whole and consumers as a general market. However there has been no research carried out that divides the consumers in regards to their ethnicity and subcultures and study how each of them react to the same kind of an advertisement. A targeted advertisement is more valuable with the targeted segment because ad characteristics such as actors, symbols, and themes are customized specifically to the characteristics of the targeted consumer segment. Previous research shows that consumers who are members of the group being targeted by an ad are more likely to take a positive interpretive attitude regarding the ad than are members of non-targeted groups (Grier and Brumbaugh, 1999). That is, targeted consumers are likely to create meanings that transmit through the advertisement positively to themselves. It is a common awareness among the managers of multinational companies that advertising plays a vital role in a building brand. Developing and upholding a sturdy brand in the fullest sense requires much more strategic thinking as brand tools suggest the conceiving of a promise of value for customers and then ensuring that the promise is kept. Building a powerful brand requires determining the substantial characteristics of the contributions that carry the brand name and the payback the customers get from those benefits and the psychological or emotional benefits of the products. This may be described as what â€Å"value† means to a typical loyal customer; and what, ultimately, is the crucial nature and character of the brand over time. A good brand image will result in an increase in the brand equity. Strong brand equity allows the companies to retain customers better, service their needs more effectively, and increase profits. (Rajagopal, 2006) Consumers often animate brands by donating them with personality traits, and marketers often create or highlight these perceptions by their brand positioning. Brand personality traits provide symbolic meaning or emotional value that can chip in to consumers image of the brand. Human personality traits are determined by multi-dimensional factors like the individuals behaviour, appearance, attitude and beliefs, and demographic characteristics. Based on the trait theory, (Batra et al. 1993) observed that there are five steady personality dimensions, also called the â€Å"Big Five† human personality dimensions. The â€Å"Big Five† human personality dimensions are Extroversion/introversion, Agreeableness, Consciousness, Emotional stability, and Culture. Based on these human personality dimensions, Aaker (1997) identifies the new â€Å"Big Five† dimensions related to brands. These are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness. This pattern suggests that these brand personality dimensions might operate in different ways or influence consumer preference for different reasons. Sincerity, excitement, and competence represent an innate part of human personality whereas sophistication and ruggedness tap dimensions of indivi dual desire. Hence, the following proposition has been considered as the customers identify brands that have similarity to their own personalities and represent closeness in terms of the psychographic and emotional attributes.( Rajagopal, 2006) This builds the grounds for the psychologically manipulative advertising strategies. Advertisers study carefully these attributes and try to link it to the consumer. Then base the advertisements to target these personality traits in people. The following discussions in the paper analyze the influence of advertising practices on the buying behaviour of consumers. The discussions in the paper are built around cognitive relationship between the consumer behaviour and communication. There do exist well thought out advertisement strategies that are carefully planned and call upon the values of a closely defined audience or a subculture. Over a period of time, some campaigns can transform the public perceptions, in turn increasing public awareness and changing general perceptions of issues previously overlooked (Rotfield, 2002). Some subjects that are commonly used as the bases of such sort of an advertising strategy are talked about in the following chapters. These form the basis of psychological manipulative advertising strategies and have an underlined meaning and an impact on the way the consumer not just sees the product but also triggers some emotions that they start to relate to it. Sexuality The upcoming and the new focus of advertiser in th fashion advertisement is the homosexual community. With approximately 22-30 million members (Dossi, 2006), or approximately 6-7 percent of American adults (Seckler, 2006), and a combined collective buying power of $641 billion in 2006, the USA gay and lesbian market is commonly considered the â€Å"Dream Market† (Packaged Facts, 2004). The average household income for gay/lesbian households is between $60,000 and $79,999, significantly higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts (GL Census, 2005). These figures portray the homosexual community as a substantial market. There for an attractive target for the advertisers and a potential consumer base for the brands. A recent study addressing this issue investigates heterosexual and homosexual responses to ads containing heterosexual, implicit homosexual and explicit homosexual imagery (Oakenfull and Greenlee, 2005, p. 429). The authors of the study find that the conventional straight audience is alienated by explicit gay and lesbian imagery, but not by implicit gay and lesbian imagery. They also find that the homosexual audience responds equally well to both implicit and explicit gay and lesbian imagery, and therefore suggested using implicit homosexual imagery to reach this audience and at the same instance avoid alienating or worse offending the larger heterosexual population that makes up a far greater percentage of the market. However, In this study the use of implicit versus explicit gay and lesbian imagery in this study did not represent a deviation in the degree of intimacy, and may have caused a level of inaccuracy in interpretation of the results. The ad that represented the implicit im agery used was an actual beer ad containing the symbolism of a pink triangle, a rainbow flag and the slogan, â€Å"Another one coming out†, this add does have a implicit under lying message to it but does not really have a level of intimacy attached to it that was meant to be studied, whereas the supposedly explicit imagery showed a kiss on the cheek or the forehead with either a lesbian or a gay male couple, both images were taken from clothing ads. Neither ad primarily contained explicit sexual contact, and could have portrayed to be a non-sexual relationship.( Dotson M.J, et al. 2009) Based on the findings of Dotson M.J it is suggested that If narrow targeting is possible, it is preferable to the use of crossover ads. If ones primary audience consists of straight males, one might not wish to use ads with any homosexual themes. There is perhaps wider freedom with a straight female audience who may be more tolerant of ambiguous homosexual imagery. If ones primary audience is gay and lesbian, evident depictions of primarily gay males and lesbians, especially androgynous depictions, are recommended. If management wishes to use crossover appeals in a publication that appeals to both gays and straights, ambiguous subtle approaches would appear to be most appropriate (Dotson M.J, et al. 2009). Gender Gender is one of another tools that can be used for this kind of an advertising approach and plays an important role in how ads are perceived. Both the gender of the audience as well as the gender of the models presented in the ads (Oakenfull and Greenlee, 2005) is of equal value. The relations between genders may have important implications for marketers. Advertisers often place the same advertisement in multiple media outlets, and rely on it communicate a specialized message to each audience (Penaloza, 1996). This could be a problem or a gamble both at the same time. It may be a problem as all the media might not be aiming to the same kind of a consumer in terms of background and mental and emotional levels, therefore the message may be interpreted differently by the variance in the market that is being targeted. It may be a gamble as the advertisers are trying to reach out to a wider demographic with the same advertisement this could be a hit or miss situation depending on the typ e advertisement and the consumer it is targeting. Advertisers usually use gender stereotypes and gender-linked traits (a collection of psychological characteristics and behaviours characterizing men and women) and gender roles activities differentially appropriate for men or women in advertisements (An.D and kim S. 2007). Usually gender role depictions of women as dependent and emotional have been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes and having adverse effects on a wide range of behaviours (Bretl and Cantor, 1988). Specifically, Jones (1991) summarized instances of subtle stereotyping in advertisements: †¢ functional ranking – the ability to depict men in executive roles and as more functional when collaborating with women; †¢ relative size – the inclination to depict men as taller and larger than women, except in the case when women are clearly superior in social status; †¢ reutilization of subordination – an surplus of images of women lying on floors and beds or as objects of mens mock assaults; †¢ the feminine touch – the tendency to show women cradling and caressing the surface of objects with their fingers; and †¢ Family – fathers depicted as physically distant from their families or as relating primarily to sons, and mothers depicted as relating primarily to daughters. (An.D and kim S. 2007) In the past content analysis has been used as a major research method to investigate gender roles portrayed in advertising (Cooper-Chen, 1995). Since, there has been such high levels of research in this particular area, its is not fair to provide a complete review in a few paragraphs (for articles based on the review , see Courtney and Whipple, 1983; Furnham and Mak, 1999. In the first study of this particular subject, Courtney and Lockeretz (1971) reported that US magazine advertisements depicted woman for having a place only in the household, and also did not consider them of a great value to make important decisions, and thus highly dependent on the opposite sex for that matter. In the next few decades, quite a few studies based on the subject (McArthur and Resko, 1975; Belkaoui and Belkaoui, 1976; Whipple and Courtney, 1985; Gilly, 1988; Bretl and Cantor, 1988; Mazzella et al., 1992; Kramer and Knupfer, 1997; Furnham and Mak, 1999; Furnham et al., 2000) also portrayed and examine d this depiction of woman in US magazine and television advertising. This research implied the status of woman and their role to be more of a passive nature, secondary to men, and thus dependent on men, and not capable of making important decisions, depicting their lack of brainpower and authority, younger, appealing, self-enhancing, and ornamental. Such stereotyping in the portrayal of women has continued into the mid-1990s although percentage of women shown as professionals and managers has made modest gains since the late 1950s (Cheng, 1997). The role of women was also brought forward as for being an attention grabber in advertisements, women were quiet often shown as objects of sex (Soley and Kurzbard, 1986; Ferguson et al., 1990; Klassen et al., 1993). While most researchers were mainly focusing and paying attention to the role of women, another research has observed the portrayal of men and women appearing in advertisements together (Wiles and Tjernlund, 1991; Klassen et al., 1993; Zotos and Lysonski, 1994) or male positioning solely (Wolheter and Lammers, 1980; Skelly and Lundstrom, 1981; Kolbe and Albanese, 1996). These studies generally implied that men are depicted in categorically dissimilar ways as authoritative, sovereign, professional, self-directed, outdoor, middle-aged, argumentative, practical, and pleasurable. Comparative studies showed that the difference in the portrayal of the two sexes was in the presentation (i.e. men were kept in the forground as the main focus as the women provided to be a back ground) of the type of products advertised (e.g. men were used for technical products or women for the purpose of household products). Other researchers (Soley and Kurzbard, 1986; Bretl and Cantor, 1988; Ferguson et al., 1990; Klassen et al., 1993) observed that the advertisers had made some development in the ways both the genders are advertised, mainly in the depiction of women in a less domesticated way (e.g. regular representations of women in more professional and corporate ways) perhaps due to the increasing feminine movements along with â€Å"raising† of feminist consciousness (Ford and LaTour, 1993). In this observation the cases studied the impact that the consumer psychology had on the way advertisers approach their advertising campaigns. This also suggested that the advertisers dont just use advertising to make people believe in things but at times use underlying norms prevailing in the society to structure the advertising campaigns in order to relate to the audiences and reach out to them. Hence leaving an impact on the way they view things. Celebrity Another key aspect that advertisers especially in the fashion arena use to impact and attract the consumers attention is celebrities. From the work of Langmeyer and Shank (1994), we can define this assemble not only comprise objective beauty, but also non-physical beauty, such as sportsmanship, charm, grace, intelligence and credibility. A good-looking celebrity is more likely to be a more powerful foundation of a brands image due to the advantage of their celebrity standing and their physical attractiveness (Kamins, 1990). In research that has investigated physical attractiveness showed that physically attractive celebrities have a positive effect on the products and brands with which they are linked to. As an example, after thoroughly reviewing the literature, Joseph (1982) states that physically attractive celebrities have a positive effect on the way the product is perceived and looked upon. In another study Kahle and Homer (1985) discover that the celebritys attractiveness can i mprove the way the brand is remembered, what the brand promises and the attractiveness of a brand. In an even more current study, Till and Busler (1998) bring to a close that the use of an attractive representative for the brand has positive effects, on the attitude of the consumers targeted, towards the brand. One of the findings from these observations is that the attractive sources tend to attract more attention than other less attractive sources. Therefore they are able to communicate the meaning with more effectiveness. Building on from these findings, we can say that the more attractive the celebrity, the more the image of the endorsed product will benefit. An example of an advertising campaign where the attractiveness-image of a celebrity has been linked with the image of the brand and used as a psychologically impacting tool for the consumer is the Star Ambassador campaign by a renowned watchmaker Omega. This ad champagne features supermodel Cindy Crawford and Formula One racing driver Michael Schumacher. Crawfords who is renowned for her beauty, and Schumachers for his outstanding driving abilities makes them extremely eye-catching and very noticeable in their professions and beyond. These attributes make these celebrities ideal ambassadors for Omegas products (see Omega, 2004). Considering this it is safe to say that celebrity attractiveness has a positive relationship with brand image (seno.d, et al 2007). In a study carried out by Klaus et al. It suggested that, women in particular responded more positively and had a more favourable attitude towards, celebrities in the advertisements.(Klaus N et al, 2008). This research also showed that male and female consumers responded more favourably to adverts with female celebrities, with male participants providing a more favourable response than female participants, but finds only limited interaction effects, in terms of differences between male and female participants attitudes, evaluations, and responses, to adverts with male and female celebrities.(Klaus N et al, 2008) This research observed the impact of this manipulation approach in advertising on male and female consumers. Goldsmith et al. (2000) define celebrity standing in the context of advertising as the extent to which a celebrity is â€Å"perceived as possessing expertise relevant to the communication topic and can be trusted to give an objective opinion on the subject†. This shows that the careful selection of a celebrity to represent a product is crucial, as the celebrity has to have some level of relation to the way the product is preceded by the consumer. It could be in terms of the trust that the consumers hold with the celebrity or the authenticity and the sincerity of the opinion of that particular celebrity on the subject of that product. Expertise and trustworthiness are the most important aspects of celebrity credibility. When consumers evaluate these aspects of a particular celebrity, they echo on the soundness of the pronouncements made by that celebrity. There is a level of trust between the celebrity and the consumer. The trust being that the consumer believes in the credibility of what the celebrity is endorsing (e.g.Hovland et al., 1953). The more the consumer is in favour of these celebrity credibility constituents, the celebrity endorser in turn is seen to be a more convincing source for the representation of that information about the product and also as an authentic representation for that brand (e.g. Ohanian, 1990). After a careful study of the literature on this area, Goldsmith et al. (2000) conclude by saying that the assumed credibility of a particular celebrity has a positive impact, in respect to convincing consumers and influencing consumer attitudes, towards the products with which the celebrity is associated. One such example of a celebrity whose credibility coincides with that of a brands image is John Travolta (actor). He endorses the Australian airlines (Qantas). John Travolta as an individual has a passion for airplanes and aviation. He has a commercial pilot license and also owns a Boeing 707. Considering all this, John Travolta is therefore considered to be a convincing aviation expert. Therefore, the Australian airline (Qantas) values John Travolta as a celebrity endorser for their brand (Gotting, 2002). From what has been discussed above, it could be said that celebrity credibility has a positive relation to the image of the brand. As brand image has a positive relation to brand equity, It can be said that celebrity credibility has an indirect but yet a positive effect on brand equity (seno.d, et al 2007). This research emphasises and proves the importance of such kind of an advertising approach and its positive appeal to not only the brand image but also the brand e quity. Importance of consumer behaviour Consumer behaviour can be defined as ‘the study of the process involved when individuals or groups, select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires (Solomon et al., 2002). From a marketing perspective, an understanding of consumer behaviour can help marketers to come up with marketing strategies that successfully aim the group being targeted while fulfilling their business objectives. In order to come to a decision the consumer processes the information conveyed to them which in turn triggers a response including feelings and emotions. These messages, usually in form of images, ‘ either present and attractive personality for the product or indirectly suggest to the consumer that they can acquire a certain style by using a particular brand (Duncan, 2002). As an affect of the advertisements consumers relate products and brands to lifestyles or quality. The emotional experience is becoming a crucial part of advertisin g in todays world marketing communicators require a good understanding of these responses and implications in order to be able to foresee the effectiveness of brand messages (Ducan,2002). Cultural diversity in the UK At present marketers supporting ethnic communities are building brand awareness by using central symbolisms to reach ethnic consumers (Holland and Gentery, 1999). The marketers tend to use the stereotypical image of the ethnic minorities as a base for their advertisements. The inevitable stereotypical portrayal of ethnic minorities in intercultural communications results in a wide range of emotional responses and attributes regarding the motifs of marketers (Holland and Ball, 1995). At the same time the negative responses feared as a result of stereotyping regardless of the intention, may be one of the reasons as to why marketers are slow to catch on the ethnic marketing practices (Burton, 2002), also the uncertainty of marketers in how to approach ethnic consumers (Gooding, 1998). From the literature already discussed shows that the advertisers have put quiet a lot of effort in studying the consumer psychology as a whole and in the past have proved to be helpful to the marketers, ho wever very little effort has been put in the past to study the diversity of the market in terms of ethnicity. One such study lead by Holland and Gentry (1999:67) suggested that irrespective of the degree of acculturation of an ethnic individual, they still tend to ‘ maintain expressive symbols of ethnicity and cultural traditions, whilst..adapting or renegotiating them to fit into present day society. The study of these attributes can open a new window of opportunity for the advertisers to reach out to such individuals at a more personal level. In this context the expression to be used goes beyond the symbolic expression, whereas ethnic individuals hand pick parts of their cultural past with the intention of adopting them to the present day society or in other words come up with a hybrid between the two cultures that they coexist in at the same time at more of a psychological level. The strength of ethnic identification is shown to have a significant effect on audience evaluation of advertisements (Greg, 1997), and in turn is more likely to influence the way the information in the advertisements is perceived and subsequently the implications it may have on marketing related decisions (Green, 1999). Donthu and Cherian (1992) discovered that the measure of ethnic identification may be of great significance to the consumer purchase behaviour. Whittler (1991) suggested that individuals with a high ethnic identification had strong cultural attitudes attached to them, therefore are more likely to be affected by the race or origin of the model. Green (1999) discovered in his study that African Americans were more probable to have a positive assessment of an advertisement featuring models from the same race. Advertisers in their attempts to market a product look for the target markets approval for that particular advertisement though when targeting ethnic minorities they should emphasise more on the use of cultural symbols that are closer to that of the target audiences (Holland and Gentry, 1999). Koslow et al. (1994) observed that using Spanish language in advertisements was linked to positive consumer perceptions towards the advertisers sensitivity towards the Hispanic culture. Therefore it could be said that strong ethnic identifiers are likely to trigger a stronger emotional response to the advertisements that depict some sort of cultural attributes (Holland and Gentry, 1999, Green, 1999). Greens (1999) research findings suggested that ‘the individuals feelings towards advertisements depend on the degree of identification with their ethnic group. The proposition of this study would be to the advertisers that there should be a great deal of emphasis on the media strategy which w ould imply that the main focus should be on their target audience rather than on the creative strategy i.e. the use of black/white models. Green (1999) suggested that advertising in the local publications was more effective in regards to national publications when advertising to an ethnic minority. It was also observed that the Asian markets responded better to the ethnic based advertisements irrespective of the type of media (Kinra, 1997). On the other hand the representation of ethnic actors has increased greatly in the media that there is now an over representation of the ethnic minorities in the media as compared to their proportion in the society (Taylor and Stern, 1997). Thi Psychologically Manipulative Advertising Strategies Psychologically Manipulative Advertising Strategies Introduction: This research is based on the psychological effects of advertising on the consumer. The controversial advertising campaigns are intended to provoke discussion of global issues, not to sell clothes. Today, any product is made of two things: a percentage of material and a percentage of image. And the part of the product that is made of image is getting bigger (Luciano Benetton)( Financial Times, 2001). Therefore advertising is getting more tricky and complicated. The picture has great importance to the content of the advertisement because it has the possibility to express feelings. Owing to this, it is very important to be sure that the picture expresses feelings that agree with the strategy of the sender. If not, there is a risk that the picture sends out a message that was not intended (Sidenbladh,E 2000). This not only kills the purpose of the advertisement but fails to impact the consumers mind, not to mention the waste of valuable advertising time and the costs attached to it. Ad vertising intends to influence people to think a particular way and to apply pressure for consumers to purchase a product. There is a level of understanding of this fact on the part of the consumer, but this does not mean that the people are able to fully control their own reactions. To persuade the receiver is the most important task of the picture. The receiver is meant to think along the line of thoughts that the sender intended to create. It is therefore believed that peoples self-understanding, behaviour and lifestyle would be affected. The picture is intended to remind people about their own and personal lifestyle and experiences. The fact is that we look at a picture in accordance with our own experiences. The consciousness only grasps a small part of all the sight impressions we actually receive. This is where peoples different associations and experiences enter the picture (Hansson et al., 1992). Many of these messages are certainly involuntary, usually coming from the atti tudes that are widespread in a society at a given time. These messages are intended to attract the viewer and to guide thier thinking on certain channel with the aim of selling the product and making the consumer believe that are getting the complete package that comprises of the product along with the image attached to it. This may be achieved by giving an impression of what that product may account for in their lives by exaggerating and impressing an image of a certain level of emotional importance that they link to the product. There are many different communication models that originate from the classical Stimuli-Organization-Response Model (Aaker et al., 1992; Fiske, 1994). As an example we have chosen Edfeldt (1992) because it stresses the influence of disturbance of the senders message. The sender should create an advertisement and formulate it in the best possible way, in order to sell the product intended. Already at this stage it might happen that the message changes owing to the simple reason that it is not always so easy to put your thoughts into words and pictures. The senders own thoughts have vital importance to how the advertisement will look and through which sender and channel it will be publicized. When the advertisement reaches the sender it will be changed and also be affected by this persons personal thought; later on it will also be adjusted and might again be changed in some ways, in order to fit the media channel, which is intended. After that the receiver, and hopefully also the consi gnee, will get the message and in this step it is their thoughts that decide how the advertisement shall be interpreted. Consequently, at every step there are disturbances, which make the process sometimes troublesome.(Andersson, S. 2004)Advertising agencies make use of their knowledge of psychology to come up with campaigns that will appeal to the consumers desires and needs. In an individual society its easier to victimise the masses with such kind of an advertisement campaign as compared to multicultural societies. Products like fairness creams are significantly advertised in the sub continent and the advertisements give an impression that people who are dark are less likely to succeed in life as compared to the ones with a lighter skin tone. One of the fair and lovely ads shows how a girl cannot get her dream job only because she is dark and after using this product she get it even without an interview. (Fair and lovely, 27 Feb. 2009) Viewing such an ad will impact the people who have a darker skin and in some cases put them in a complex about their appearance. This in turn will make the consumer believe that in order to live a better life they require the product. Contrary to that in countries with a predominant Caucasian population tanning lotions are publicised. These products are again publicised sticking with the same concept. The Coppertone Sun Lotion Commercial from 1989 shows a girl walking on the beach alone and lonely and at the sight of the tanning lotion she starts to fantasize of being really sexy and a male attention magnet. (Coppertone Sun Lotion Commercial 1989, 24 Feb. 2009). This kind of an advertising approach impresses that the product being advertised is not just a luxury cosmetic anymore for the consumer but a survival necessity. Such advertisement campaigns are not taken to be offensive in that particular region and in fact are spot on as these concepts originate from the complexes that originally exist in that particular society. This may also be considered as one of the approaches to this kind of advertising. When the advertisers are dealing with a society like the one in UK that has a mixture of all sorts of cultures using such an advertisement strategy becomes all the more complex and difficult. Some of the ideas might create interest in one particular group of people, while others may be unaffected or worse offended by it. In order to design such a advertising strategy the advertisers may have to have a fairly good knowledge of the way the people think in that particular community which is being targeted. This study will investigate effectiveness of such advertising campaigns as The message of the advertisements is basically to sell products and to be able to catch the receivers attention. Therefore it is important that the sender not only makes sure that the product in the advertisement is successful and is selling, but also is aware of and careful about the pictures many effects. The values that are spread and how they in turn affect the consumer are important for the future of the product ((Hà ¤gg et al., 1972) Literature review Impact of media and in particular visuals on a consumers mind Background Historically, television was assumed to be an excellent vehicle for presenting a message to a relatively captive mass audience (Secunda, 1988). Lead by a large body of research, advertisers often spend noteworthy sums attempting to ensure that certain segments see specific ads enough to prompt some response and spawn the biggest â€Å"bang for the buck† (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999). There has been a lot of research done on the way consumers react and interpret advertisement. This research focuses on the audience as a whole and consumers as a general market. However there has been no research carried out that divides the consumers in regards to their ethnicity and subcultures and study how each of them react to the same kind of an advertisement. A targeted advertisement is more valuable with the targeted segment because ad characteristics such as actors, symbols, and themes are customized specifically to the characteristics of the targeted consumer segment. Previous research shows that consumers who are members of the group being targeted by an ad are more likely to take a positive interpretive attitude regarding the ad than are members of non-targeted groups (Grier and Brumbaugh, 1999). That is, targeted consumers are likely to create meanings that transmit through the advertisement positively to themselves. It is a common awareness among the managers of multinational companies that advertising plays a vital role in a building brand. Developing and upholding a sturdy brand in the fullest sense requires much more strategic thinking as brand tools suggest the conceiving of a promise of value for customers and then ensuring that the promise is kept. Building a powerful brand requires determining the substantial characteristics of the contributions that carry the brand name and the payback the customers get from those benefits and the psychological or emotional benefits of the products. This may be described as what â€Å"value† means to a typical loyal customer; and what, ultimately, is the crucial nature and character of the brand over time. A good brand image will result in an increase in the brand equity. Strong brand equity allows the companies to retain customers better, service their needs more effectively, and increase profits. (Rajagopal, 2006) Consumers often animate brands by donating them with personality traits, and marketers often create or highlight these perceptions by their brand positioning. Brand personality traits provide symbolic meaning or emotional value that can chip in to consumers image of the brand. Human personality traits are determined by multi-dimensional factors like the individuals behaviour, appearance, attitude and beliefs, and demographic characteristics. Based on the trait theory, (Batra et al. 1993) observed that there are five steady personality dimensions, also called the â€Å"Big Five† human personality dimensions. The â€Å"Big Five† human personality dimensions are Extroversion/introversion, Agreeableness, Consciousness, Emotional stability, and Culture. Based on these human personality dimensions, Aaker (1997) identifies the new â€Å"Big Five† dimensions related to brands. These are Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication, and Ruggedness. This pattern suggests that these brand personality dimensions might operate in different ways or influence consumer preference for different reasons. Sincerity, excitement, and competence represent an innate part of human personality whereas sophistication and ruggedness tap dimensions of indivi dual desire. Hence, the following proposition has been considered as the customers identify brands that have similarity to their own personalities and represent closeness in terms of the psychographic and emotional attributes.( Rajagopal, 2006) This builds the grounds for the psychologically manipulative advertising strategies. Advertisers study carefully these attributes and try to link it to the consumer. Then base the advertisements to target these personality traits in people. The following discussions in the paper analyze the influence of advertising practices on the buying behaviour of consumers. The discussions in the paper are built around cognitive relationship between the consumer behaviour and communication. There do exist well thought out advertisement strategies that are carefully planned and call upon the values of a closely defined audience or a subculture. Over a period of time, some campaigns can transform the public perceptions, in turn increasing public awareness and changing general perceptions of issues previously overlooked (Rotfield, 2002). Some subjects that are commonly used as the bases of such sort of an advertising strategy are talked about in the following chapters. These form the basis of psychological manipulative advertising strategies and have an underlined meaning and an impact on the way the consumer not just sees the product but also triggers some emotions that they start to relate to it. Sexuality The upcoming and the new focus of advertiser in th fashion advertisement is the homosexual community. With approximately 22-30 million members (Dossi, 2006), or approximately 6-7 percent of American adults (Seckler, 2006), and a combined collective buying power of $641 billion in 2006, the USA gay and lesbian market is commonly considered the â€Å"Dream Market† (Packaged Facts, 2004). The average household income for gay/lesbian households is between $60,000 and $79,999, significantly higher than that of their heterosexual counterparts (GL Census, 2005). These figures portray the homosexual community as a substantial market. There for an attractive target for the advertisers and a potential consumer base for the brands. A recent study addressing this issue investigates heterosexual and homosexual responses to ads containing heterosexual, implicit homosexual and explicit homosexual imagery (Oakenfull and Greenlee, 2005, p. 429). The authors of the study find that the conventional straight audience is alienated by explicit gay and lesbian imagery, but not by implicit gay and lesbian imagery. They also find that the homosexual audience responds equally well to both implicit and explicit gay and lesbian imagery, and therefore suggested using implicit homosexual imagery to reach this audience and at the same instance avoid alienating or worse offending the larger heterosexual population that makes up a far greater percentage of the market. However, In this study the use of implicit versus explicit gay and lesbian imagery in this study did not represent a deviation in the degree of intimacy, and may have caused a level of inaccuracy in interpretation of the results. The ad that represented the implicit im agery used was an actual beer ad containing the symbolism of a pink triangle, a rainbow flag and the slogan, â€Å"Another one coming out†, this add does have a implicit under lying message to it but does not really have a level of intimacy attached to it that was meant to be studied, whereas the supposedly explicit imagery showed a kiss on the cheek or the forehead with either a lesbian or a gay male couple, both images were taken from clothing ads. Neither ad primarily contained explicit sexual contact, and could have portrayed to be a non-sexual relationship.( Dotson M.J, et al. 2009) Based on the findings of Dotson M.J it is suggested that If narrow targeting is possible, it is preferable to the use of crossover ads. If ones primary audience consists of straight males, one might not wish to use ads with any homosexual themes. There is perhaps wider freedom with a straight female audience who may be more tolerant of ambiguous homosexual imagery. If ones primary audience is gay and lesbian, evident depictions of primarily gay males and lesbians, especially androgynous depictions, are recommended. If management wishes to use crossover appeals in a publication that appeals to both gays and straights, ambiguous subtle approaches would appear to be most appropriate (Dotson M.J, et al. 2009). Gender Gender is one of another tools that can be used for this kind of an advertising approach and plays an important role in how ads are perceived. Both the gender of the audience as well as the gender of the models presented in the ads (Oakenfull and Greenlee, 2005) is of equal value. The relations between genders may have important implications for marketers. Advertisers often place the same advertisement in multiple media outlets, and rely on it communicate a specialized message to each audience (Penaloza, 1996). This could be a problem or a gamble both at the same time. It may be a problem as all the media might not be aiming to the same kind of a consumer in terms of background and mental and emotional levels, therefore the message may be interpreted differently by the variance in the market that is being targeted. It may be a gamble as the advertisers are trying to reach out to a wider demographic with the same advertisement this could be a hit or miss situation depending on the typ e advertisement and the consumer it is targeting. Advertisers usually use gender stereotypes and gender-linked traits (a collection of psychological characteristics and behaviours characterizing men and women) and gender roles activities differentially appropriate for men or women in advertisements (An.D and kim S. 2007). Usually gender role depictions of women as dependent and emotional have been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes and having adverse effects on a wide range of behaviours (Bretl and Cantor, 1988). Specifically, Jones (1991) summarized instances of subtle stereotyping in advertisements: †¢ functional ranking – the ability to depict men in executive roles and as more functional when collaborating with women; †¢ relative size – the inclination to depict men as taller and larger than women, except in the case when women are clearly superior in social status; †¢ reutilization of subordination – an surplus of images of women lying on floors and beds or as objects of mens mock assaults; †¢ the feminine touch – the tendency to show women cradling and caressing the surface of objects with their fingers; and †¢ Family – fathers depicted as physically distant from their families or as relating primarily to sons, and mothers depicted as relating primarily to daughters. (An.D and kim S. 2007) In the past content analysis has been used as a major research method to investigate gender roles portrayed in advertising (Cooper-Chen, 1995). Since, there has been such high levels of research in this particular area, its is not fair to provide a complete review in a few paragraphs (for articles based on the review , see Courtney and Whipple, 1983; Furnham and Mak, 1999. In the first study of this particular subject, Courtney and Lockeretz (1971) reported that US magazine advertisements depicted woman for having a place only in the household, and also did not consider them of a great value to make important decisions, and thus highly dependent on the opposite sex for that matter. In the next few decades, quite a few studies based on the subject (McArthur and Resko, 1975; Belkaoui and Belkaoui, 1976; Whipple and Courtney, 1985; Gilly, 1988; Bretl and Cantor, 1988; Mazzella et al., 1992; Kramer and Knupfer, 1997; Furnham and Mak, 1999; Furnham et al., 2000) also portrayed and examine d this depiction of woman in US magazine and television advertising. This research implied the status of woman and their role to be more of a passive nature, secondary to men, and thus dependent on men, and not capable of making important decisions, depicting their lack of brainpower and authority, younger, appealing, self-enhancing, and ornamental. Such stereotyping in the portrayal of women has continued into the mid-1990s although percentage of women shown as professionals and managers has made modest gains since the late 1950s (Cheng, 1997). The role of women was also brought forward as for being an attention grabber in advertisements, women were quiet often shown as objects of sex (Soley and Kurzbard, 1986; Ferguson et al., 1990; Klassen et al., 1993). While most researchers were mainly focusing and paying attention to the role of women, another research has observed the portrayal of men and women appearing in advertisements together (Wiles and Tjernlund, 1991; Klassen et al., 1993; Zotos and Lysonski, 1994) or male positioning solely (Wolheter and Lammers, 1980; Skelly and Lundstrom, 1981; Kolbe and Albanese, 1996). These studies generally implied that men are depicted in categorically dissimilar ways as authoritative, sovereign, professional, self-directed, outdoor, middle-aged, argumentative, practical, and pleasurable. Comparative studies showed that the difference in the portrayal of the two sexes was in the presentation (i.e. men were kept in the forground as the main focus as the women provided to be a back ground) of the type of products advertised (e.g. men were used for technical products or women for the purpose of household products). Other researchers (Soley and Kurzbard, 1986; Bretl and Cantor, 1988; Ferguson et al., 1990; Klassen et al., 1993) observed that the advertisers had made some development in the ways both the genders are advertised, mainly in the depiction of women in a less domesticated way (e.g. regular representations of women in more professional and corporate ways) perhaps due to the increasing feminine movements along with â€Å"raising† of feminist consciousness (Ford and LaTour, 1993). In this observation the cases studied the impact that the consumer psychology had on the way advertisers approach their advertising campaigns. This also suggested that the advertisers dont just use advertising to make people believe in things but at times use underlying norms prevailing in the society to structure the advertising campaigns in order to relate to the audiences and reach out to them. Hence leaving an impact on the way they view things. Celebrity Another key aspect that advertisers especially in the fashion arena use to impact and attract the consumers attention is celebrities. From the work of Langmeyer and Shank (1994), we can define this assemble not only comprise objective beauty, but also non-physical beauty, such as sportsmanship, charm, grace, intelligence and credibility. A good-looking celebrity is more likely to be a more powerful foundation of a brands image due to the advantage of their celebrity standing and their physical attractiveness (Kamins, 1990). In research that has investigated physical attractiveness showed that physically attractive celebrities have a positive effect on the products and brands with which they are linked to. As an example, after thoroughly reviewing the literature, Joseph (1982) states that physically attractive celebrities have a positive effect on the way the product is perceived and looked upon. In another study Kahle and Homer (1985) discover that the celebritys attractiveness can i mprove the way the brand is remembered, what the brand promises and the attractiveness of a brand. In an even more current study, Till and Busler (1998) bring to a close that the use of an attractive representative for the brand has positive effects, on the attitude of the consumers targeted, towards the brand. One of the findings from these observations is that the attractive sources tend to attract more attention than other less attractive sources. Therefore they are able to communicate the meaning with more effectiveness. Building on from these findings, we can say that the more attractive the celebrity, the more the image of the endorsed product will benefit. An example of an advertising campaign where the attractiveness-image of a celebrity has been linked with the image of the brand and used as a psychologically impacting tool for the consumer is the Star Ambassador campaign by a renowned watchmaker Omega. This ad champagne features supermodel Cindy Crawford and Formula One racing driver Michael Schumacher. Crawfords who is renowned for her beauty, and Schumachers for his outstanding driving abilities makes them extremely eye-catching and very noticeable in their professions and beyond. These attributes make these celebrities ideal ambassadors for Omegas products (see Omega, 2004). Considering this it is safe to say that celebrity attractiveness has a positive relationship with brand image (seno.d, et al 2007). In a study carried out by Klaus et al. It suggested that, women in particular responded more positively and had a more favourable attitude towards, celebrities in the advertisements.(Klaus N et al, 2008). This research also showed that male and female consumers responded more favourably to adverts with female celebrities, with male participants providing a more favourable response than female participants, but finds only limited interaction effects, in terms of differences between male and female participants attitudes, evaluations, and responses, to adverts with male and female celebrities.(Klaus N et al, 2008) This research observed the impact of this manipulation approach in advertising on male and female consumers. Goldsmith et al. (2000) define celebrity standing in the context of advertising as the extent to which a celebrity is â€Å"perceived as possessing expertise relevant to the communication topic and can be trusted to give an objective opinion on the subject†. This shows that the careful selection of a celebrity to represent a product is crucial, as the celebrity has to have some level of relation to the way the product is preceded by the consumer. It could be in terms of the trust that the consumers hold with the celebrity or the authenticity and the sincerity of the opinion of that particular celebrity on the subject of that product. Expertise and trustworthiness are the most important aspects of celebrity credibility. When consumers evaluate these aspects of a particular celebrity, they echo on the soundness of the pronouncements made by that celebrity. There is a level of trust between the celebrity and the consumer. The trust being that the consumer believes in the credibility of what the celebrity is endorsing (e.g.Hovland et al., 1953). The more the consumer is in favour of these celebrity credibility constituents, the celebrity endorser in turn is seen to be a more convincing source for the representation of that information about the product and also as an authentic representation for that brand (e.g. Ohanian, 1990). After a careful study of the literature on this area, Goldsmith et al. (2000) conclude by saying that the assumed credibility of a particular celebrity has a positive impact, in respect to convincing consumers and influencing consumer attitudes, towards the products with which the celebrity is associated. One such example of a celebrity whose credibility coincides with that of a brands image is John Travolta (actor). He endorses the Australian airlines (Qantas). John Travolta as an individual has a passion for airplanes and aviation. He has a commercial pilot license and also owns a Boeing 707. Considering all this, John Travolta is therefore considered to be a convincing aviation expert. Therefore, the Australian airline (Qantas) values John Travolta as a celebrity endorser for their brand (Gotting, 2002). From what has been discussed above, it could be said that celebrity credibility has a positive relation to the image of the brand. As brand image has a positive relation to brand equity, It can be said that celebrity credibility has an indirect but yet a positive effect on brand equity (seno.d, et al 2007). This research emphasises and proves the importance of such kind of an advertising approach and its positive appeal to not only the brand image but also the brand e quity. Importance of consumer behaviour Consumer behaviour can be defined as ‘the study of the process involved when individuals or groups, select, purchase, use or dispose of products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires (Solomon et al., 2002). From a marketing perspective, an understanding of consumer behaviour can help marketers to come up with marketing strategies that successfully aim the group being targeted while fulfilling their business objectives. In order to come to a decision the consumer processes the information conveyed to them which in turn triggers a response including feelings and emotions. These messages, usually in form of images, ‘ either present and attractive personality for the product or indirectly suggest to the consumer that they can acquire a certain style by using a particular brand (Duncan, 2002). As an affect of the advertisements consumers relate products and brands to lifestyles or quality. The emotional experience is becoming a crucial part of advertisin g in todays world marketing communicators require a good understanding of these responses and implications in order to be able to foresee the effectiveness of brand messages (Ducan,2002). Cultural diversity in the UK At present marketers supporting ethnic communities are building brand awareness by using central symbolisms to reach ethnic consumers (Holland and Gentery, 1999). The marketers tend to use the stereotypical image of the ethnic minorities as a base for their advertisements. The inevitable stereotypical portrayal of ethnic minorities in intercultural communications results in a wide range of emotional responses and attributes regarding the motifs of marketers (Holland and Ball, 1995). At the same time the negative responses feared as a result of stereotyping regardless of the intention, may be one of the reasons as to why marketers are slow to catch on the ethnic marketing practices (Burton, 2002), also the uncertainty of marketers in how to approach ethnic consumers (Gooding, 1998). From the literature already discussed shows that the advertisers have put quiet a lot of effort in studying the consumer psychology as a whole and in the past have proved to be helpful to the marketers, ho wever very little effort has been put in the past to study the diversity of the market in terms of ethnicity. One such study lead by Holland and Gentry (1999:67) suggested that irrespective of the degree of acculturation of an ethnic individual, they still tend to ‘ maintain expressive symbols of ethnicity and cultural traditions, whilst..adapting or renegotiating them to fit into present day society. The study of these attributes can open a new window of opportunity for the advertisers to reach out to such individuals at a more personal level. In this context the expression to be used goes beyond the symbolic expression, whereas ethnic individuals hand pick parts of their cultural past with the intention of adopting them to the present day society or in other words come up with a hybrid between the two cultures that they coexist in at the same time at more of a psychological level. The strength of ethnic identification is shown to have a significant effect on audience evaluation of advertisements (Greg, 1997), and in turn is more likely to influence the way the information in the advertisements is perceived and subsequently the implications it may have on marketing related decisions (Green, 1999). Donthu and Cherian (1992) discovered that the measure of ethnic identification may be of great significance to the consumer purchase behaviour. Whittler (1991) suggested that individuals with a high ethnic identification had strong cultural attitudes attached to them, therefore are more likely to be affected by the race or origin of the model. Green (1999) discovered in his study that African Americans were more probable to have a positive assessment of an advertisement featuring models from the same race. Advertisers in their attempts to market a product look for the target markets approval for that particular advertisement though when targeting ethnic minorities they should emphasise more on the use of cultural symbols that are closer to that of the target audiences (Holland and Gentry, 1999). Koslow et al. (1994) observed that using Spanish language in advertisements was linked to positive consumer perceptions towards the advertisers sensitivity towards the Hispanic culture. Therefore it could be said that strong ethnic identifiers are likely to trigger a stronger emotional response to the advertisements that depict some sort of cultural attributes (Holland and Gentry, 1999, Green, 1999). Greens (1999) research findings suggested that ‘the individuals feelings towards advertisements depend on the degree of identification with their ethnic group. The proposition of this study would be to the advertisers that there should be a great deal of emphasis on the media strategy which w ould imply that the main focus should be on their target audience rather than on the creative strategy i.e. the use of black/white models. Green (1999) suggested that advertising in the local publications was more effective in regards to national publications when advertising to an ethnic minority. It was also observed that the Asian markets responded better to the ethnic based advertisements irrespective of the type of media (Kinra, 1997). On the other hand the representation of ethnic actors has increased greatly in the media that there is now an over representation of the ethnic minorities in the media as compared to their proportion in the society (Taylor and Stern, 1997). Thi