Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success - CoSchedule

Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success On Feb. 26, 2015, BuzzFeed published a post asking one simple question: What Colors Are This Dress? Although the answer seems simple enough, it launched arguably one of the biggest internet memes of all time. And whether you were team blue and black or white and gold, the accompanying image was simply unavoidable, making it’s way onto just about every publisher. It was truly viral content at its best. This is the kind of success most brands only dream of, and Roman Originals–the retailer behind the dress–saw huge returns. Within a month, their organic traffic  increased  by 420 percent and their press mentions by a whopping 17,550 percent. The overnight success left many marketers like myself wondering, â€Å"What it is about some silly piece of content that can have such a profound impact on our online sharing behavior, and more importantly, can it be replicated?† Luckily, more and more research is being dedicated to viral content, specifically on what triggers someone to click â€Å"share.† In one of his earliest studies  that scraped nearly 7,000 New York Times  articles, Jonah Berger noted that highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional. Highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional.Get Your Free Decoding Successful Content Infographic Visualize the SUCCESs formula for viral content with this free infographic with original research from Fractl. How to Follow A Six-Part Recipe for Viral Content SuccessBrothers Chip and Dan Heath- also devotees to the science of viral content- agreed, particularly about the surprising and highly emotional elements. In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, they offer six components  they believe elevate an idea from shareable to viral: Their SUCCESs model  argues that viral content should be: Simple: Making something simple doesn’t mean dumbing it down; it’s about focusing your message around a single idea (i.e. people should be able to describe your campaign’s key theme in only two or three sentences) Unexpected: This is where you want to include something that will gain your audience’s attention. Run of the mill data goes in one ear and out the other; something that challenges an assumption will hold an audience’s attention. Concrete: For an idea to be concrete, it presents a difficult concept in a more relatable way. For example, a popular concrete idea you might have heard of is that humans consume enough bottled water  in a little more than a day to circle the entire equator with plastic bottles stacked end to end. Credible: Along with getting an audience to listen to your message, you also need to convince them to believe it. Make sure to offer facts that are backed by either primary or secondary research. Emotional: Although people look for credibility, they also want to feel something. Be sure to trigger an emotional response. Generate stories: Individuals should be able to act on your content (i.e. present an idea, let others be able to interpret in their own way). Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value So what does this look like in action? My team at Fractl recently analyzed how three successful campaigns  stacked up against these key principles. In total, the following three campaigns earned 2,300 placements  and more than 140,000 social shares: Hotel Hygiene Exposed: For one of our clients, we  gathered 36 samples from nine different hotels to determine which rooms were the dirtiest. Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers: Superheroes typically boast massive biceps and incredibly tiny waists, so we used Photoshop on behalf of one of our clients to see what these familiar faces would look like if they reflected the average American body type. Sexually Suggestive Emojis: For another client campaign, we scraped Twitter to discover which countries have the most flirtatious emoji use around the world. Below I’ll walk you through each of the Heath brothers’ principles, providing a six-part recipe on how you can generate similar, highly viral content. 1. Simple: Roll Out Your Content’s Core Focus in the Easiest Way Possible For an idea to be simple, it needs to be easily understood, and quickly. To gain your audience’s attention, identify a central theme and make sure your content connects to this idea whenever possible. Gain your audience's attention by connecting content to one central themeFor instance, in Sexually Suggestive Emojis, a month of tweets from the United States and more than 50 European countries were condensed into 14 easy-to-read charts. In less than 10 minutes, readers could easily identify global trends in how these emojis are used – including their own countries. Simplify Content By Setting Clear Campaign Goals Another easy way to simplify your content is when you’re setting your campaign goal. Do you expect the campaign to drive conversions or do you want it to boost general brand awareness? You’ll also want to make sure your goal is as specific as possible: The more specific you are when setting your goal, the greater the likelihood you’ll actually reach it – and this specificity will help you focus both your content and time. Below is a three-step guide on how to set attainable goals: Begin with an audit of previous campaigns. Remember that data is your friend, and you likely already have a ton of it at your fingertips thanks to previous campaign metrics. Note any key data points- your new goals should fall somewhere within the same ballpark. Evaluate your current position within your industry. If you don’t have a large part of the market yet, consider a goal that only aims for a 2 to 5 percent increase in something. On the other hand, if you already have a large presence in the industry, set a goal that is a little more challenging- you don’t want to miss out on any potential growth. Set one major goal, and follow up by outlining two or three other goals that will help you get there. When setting goals for your content, you’ll likely have more than one. For example, if you want a campaign to drive a certain amount of blog traffic, you’ll also want to set smaller goals like earning placements on X,Y, and Z publishers that will help you get there. Recommended Reading: This is How to Start a Successful Blog That Will Crush Your Marketing Goals 2. Unexpected: Produce Something With a Dash of Shock Beyond an idea that’s quickly understood, another easy way to earn someone’s attention is to offer content that is shocking. This guarantees an element of surprise, which will drive results because instead of adding to the white noise on the internet, you’re actually breaking through. In the case of Hotel Hygiene Exposed, the results yielded a shocking finding: The nicest hotels actually had the most germs. This made outreach a breeze, with big name publishers like Yahoo taking full advantage of the added shock value with headlines like, â€Å"Eww! New Study Finds Expensive Hotels Have More Germs.† Producing controversial content is also a great way to add something unexpected. Below are a few different approaches to controversial content: Disprove an easily held assumption: This content often focuses on testing an audience’s beliefs. For example, the Ad Council’s incredibly successful â€Å"Love Has No Labels† video used an X-ray machine that featured skeleton couples showing different signs of affection to one another before revealing themselves as either gay, lesbian, or biracial – forcing viewers to rethink any unconscious biases they might have and appreciate that love is love, no matter who is involved. Produce something taboo: These ideas center around a topic that isn’t often discussed. Again, the Sexually Suggestive Emoji campaign is a great example because who doesn’t blush a little when they see some of those eggplant combinations? Stir up a debate: Most controversial ideas would fall under this umbrella, with a majority of these campaigns presenting data from both sides in order to allow readers to drive the discussion. For instance, the campaign in â€Å"The Most Prejudiced Places in America† focuses on which areas have the most non-politically correct tweets. The geographic ego bait ignites a discussion because it gives readers the opportunity to offer their two cents on whether or not they agree. via The Daily Beast Recommended Reading: Why Your Content Will Go Viral 3. Concrete: Difficult Concepts Often Require You to Whip Up More Than One Example The Heath brothers say something is â€Å"concrete† in its ability to be described through sensory language. In other words, your content should be understood using one of the five senses. So how can you do this with online content? Let’s take a moment to review the Velcro Theory  about memory. This concept argues that although it is unlikely for someone to totally comprehend – or â€Å"grasp† – brand new information, it is likely that they will be able to grasp small bits of information as long as their prior knowledge presents something for this new information to â€Å"hook† onto – much like a piece of Velcro. By connecting your content’s new information to things your audience already knows, it makes retention and discussion much easier. In the case of online content, concreteness often stems from being able to visualize new concepts. For example, in Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers, the core theme of the campaign was to offer a new way to discuss body image issues – particularly with men. When comic book icons like Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America shed their bulging biceps in an effort to look more like an everyday individual, audiences suddenly had a new way to talk about more difficult concepts like body dysmorphia. Try Comparing Apples To Oranges Think of something’s â€Å"concreteness† as being able to compare apples to oranges. A great example is this campaign–Data IRL–that visualizes what digital storage size would look like in the form of storage boxes. If you assume 10 megabytes of data is equivalent to one standard storage box, an iPhone’s 4 gigabytes of data suddenly becomes much easier to understand: It’s 400 storage boxes, or–when the boxes are lined up–enough data to stretch nearly the length of 1.5 football fields. via Better Buys Keep in mind what you can compare more difficult concepts like data storage to is only limited by your imagination. A good jumping off point is by taking a look around you and identifying what you use on a day-to-day basis (think a can of soda or a deck of cards); these are the type of routine items that make something unfamiliar suddenly incredibly relatable. Recommended Reading: How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy Figuring what you want to present, though, is only half the battle. You still need to figure out how you want to visualize the data. Luckily there are a few tools  out there for anyone who might not have a designer on their team, including the following: Piktochart: Relying on the continued popularity of infographics,  the application allows users to easily create IGs using themed templates Tableau Public: The drag-and-drop platform offers users a wide range of collaborative maps and charts to fool around with Infogram: This easy-to-use application allows users to create interactive charts without any coding Silk: Another drag-and-drop platform, this is one of the easier tools to use, requiring users to simply upload their data through a spreadsheet to begin building visualizations around it 4. Credible: Garnish Your Content With a Methodology That is Both Reliable and Familiar Readers want to see content that is trustworthy, and something that is data-driven is a great way to boost authority and earn credibility. Your methodology should be readily available and include the following: Specifics on your data set, including how, when, and where you collected it Any outliers that were omitted in your data A list of additional sources (i.e. secondary research) Access to raw data if possible An easy way to boost credibility is to partner with a reputable third party, specifically someone with expertise in your industry. For example, if you’re producing a campaign that focuses on sports injuries, consider reaching out to organizations like the Sports Physical Therapy Section (SPTS) or the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). They could offer assistance on how closely your data aligns with common trends in sports-related injuries or how specific injuries should be treated. But how do you get in contact with them? All you need to do is reach out via email explaining who you are, what your campaign is about, and some options on how they could help with the final project – â€Å"options† being the keyword here as you’re more likely to get a response if you offer more than one way to participate. Boost your content's credibility by partnering with a reputable third partyA great example of this in action is the Hotel Hygiene Exposed campaign. We reached out to a third-party lab to test the four samples we collected from nine different hotels. This outside testing helped make the bold claim that the nicest hotels are actually the dirtiest that much more valid. Recommended Reading: How to Rock a Data-Driven Content Calendar Template That Will Boost Results By 299% Support Your Content With Secondary Research Don’t forget about the  value of secondary research – and how easy it is to access. It’s simply the analysis of data or information that was either gathered by someone else (e.g. researchers, educational institutions, etc.) and reusing it to add more authority to your current content. Two of the most common secondary research sources include the following: Academic journals: These are resources filled with original research. Examples include Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of the American Medical Association  (JAMA). Technical reports: Typically a resource that is updated annually, these reports offer insights on industry-specific research projects. For example, HubSpot’s State of Inbound  is released annually and reveals the latest trends in content marketing. So how can you include these in your campaign? At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the Reverse Photoshopping campaign has a quantitative element to it. However, the landing page includes stats from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention  on the levels of obesity for both men and women in America- stats that are both easily accessible and familiar to any audience. Here’s what it looks like on the LP: Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 5. Emotional: Knead  Something Your Audience Can Feel Into Your Content This is a big one. As much as credibility can help keep your campaign fend off trolls, remember that people have an innate desire to make a personal connection with content, regardless of their opinion. An emotional connection  is essential in order to drive shares, and one of the biggest goals for marketers today is to help brands create messages that people want to share. Luckily there’s a wide range of emotions for your content to tap into, as illustrated in these three campaigns: The â€Å"ick† factor was palpable in the hotel campaign, and it’s something everyone can relate to – aiding in both natural syndication and social shares. via AOL Body image is already a highly emotional topic, and by connecting it to something in the entertainment industry- a channel that is no stranger to the pressures of physical perfection- social traction skyrocketed. via The Huffington Post For the emojis campaign, a reader could easily go back and forth between feelings of embarrassment and amusement thanks to the easily identifiable innuendos. via People Recommended Reading:  Proof That Emotional Headlines Get More Shares on Social Media Use Emotional Cues to Drive Clicks The most successful emotional content ignites an immediate reaction: Audiences should be able to easily click, read, and share your content because it triggers an opinion – and they want the rest of the internet to know. The most successful content ignites an immediate reaction6. Stories: A Mix of Stimulating and Inspirational Content Will Drive Discussion During production, you should continually ask yourself one question: Would I share this campaign with my friends? This is the easiest way to determine whether or not your content tells a story  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and often times the best content tells more than one. The comic book campaign, for instance, was created for a California-based organization that provides resources to individuals struggling with eating disorders, but the 1,300 pickups and 105,000 social shares indicate that the content reached well beyond its targeted audience – in large part because it allowed publishers to tell multiple stories. For example, some readers were less concerned with a discussion on body image and instead focused their attention on general criticism of the project.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Superheros can’t save the world if they’re lounging around like the average American,† criticized a reader at Smash.com. These sentiments were shared in the comment section of a Spanish gaming site  (whose audience probably had little interest in finding out more about eating disorders). What these two placement prove, though, is that the pop culture theme helped the content resonate with more than one demographic. Yes, these characters don’t relate directly to eating disorders, but in the right context, they can connect issues about body image to a much larger audience. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects Use Humor to Tell Stronger Stories Humorous content is a great way to drive stories, as emphasized through some of the headlines for the emoji campaign: Study: Frequent Emoji Users Are Hornier Than the Rest of Us, New York Magazine Dear Mississippi, You’re Obsessed With Eggplant Emoji. Please Explain, Vocativ New Sex Emoji Study Shows That Eggplants Trump Bananas, New York Daily News    So what are some ways you can tickle your audience’s funny bone? Make an everyday routine funny: Some of the best content comes from building on shared experiences, and the same can be said for comedy. A great example is any Poo-Pourri campaign. Don’t be shy about self-deprecation: Any easy way to make people laugh while humanizing your brand? Make a joke at your own expense. For instance, JetBlue found a clever way to engage with a customer who thought their emails were coming on a little too strong (see below). Keep it simple: The more complex and complicated your humor is, the more likely it is to fall flat. Carlsberg, for instance, has been using their cheeky tagline, â€Å"Probably the best beer in the world since 1973. Recommended Reading: How to Build Your Brand With Humor So You'll Feel Like a Human Go Out and Create Some Viral Content In an age where viral content seems to come and go within a matter of minutes, it’s unlikely that your content will reach â€Å"The Dress† levels of internet immortality. The good news, though, is that more studies continue to prove that a content’s viral potential isn’t a matter of luck. Remember that there are many factors that influence what we share online, and the SUCCESs model serves as a great blueprint when outlining your next content marketing campaign. The key ingredients for a viral hit include credibility, an emotional connection, and the ability to tell more than one story–along with an idea that isn’t too vanilla and offers a new, often debatable perspective. Viral Content How to Follow a Six-Part Recipe for Success On Feb. 26, 2015, BuzzFeed published a post asking one simple question: What Colors Are This Dress? Although the answer seems simple enough, it launched arguably one of the biggest internet memes of all time. And whether you were team blue and black or white and gold, the accompanying image was simply unavoidable, making it’s way onto just about every publisher. It was truly viral content at its best. This is the kind of success most brands only dream of, and Roman Originals–the retailer behind the dress–saw huge returns. Within a month, their organic traffic  increased  by 420 percent and their press mentions by a whopping 17,550 percent. The overnight success left many marketers like myself wondering, â€Å"What it is about some silly piece of content that can have such a profound impact on our online sharing behavior, and more importantly, can it be replicated?† Luckily, more and more research is being dedicated to viral content, specifically on what triggers someone to click â€Å"share.† In one of his earliest studies  that scraped nearly 7,000 New York Times  articles, Jonah Berger noted that highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional. Highly shared posts are typically useful, surprising, and positive, but above all, highly emotional.Get Your Free Decoding Successful Content Infographic Visualize the SUCCESs formula for viral content with this free infographic with original research from Fractl. How to Follow A Six-Part Recipe for Viral Content SuccessBrothers Chip and Dan Heath- also devotees to the science of viral content- agreed, particularly about the surprising and highly emotional elements. In their book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, they offer six components  they believe elevate an idea from shareable to viral: Their SUCCESs model  argues that viral content should be: Simple: Making something simple doesn’t mean dumbing it down; it’s about focusing your message around a single idea (i.e. people should be able to describe your campaign’s key theme in only two or three sentences) Unexpected: This is where you want to include something that will gain your audience’s attention. Run of the mill data goes in one ear and out the other; something that challenges an assumption will hold an audience’s attention. Concrete: For an idea to be concrete, it presents a difficult concept in a more relatable way. For example, a popular concrete idea you might have heard of is that humans consume enough bottled water  in a little more than a day to circle the entire equator with plastic bottles stacked end to end. Credible: Along with getting an audience to listen to your message, you also need to convince them to believe it. Make sure to offer facts that are backed by either primary or secondary research. Emotional: Although people look for credibility, they also want to feel something. Be sure to trigger an emotional response. Generate stories: Individuals should be able to act on your content (i.e. present an idea, let others be able to interpret in their own way). Recommended Reading: The Six Types of Social Media Content That Will Give You the Greatest Value So what does this look like in action? My team at Fractl recently analyzed how three successful campaigns  stacked up against these key principles. In total, the following three campaigns earned 2,300 placements  and more than 140,000 social shares: Hotel Hygiene Exposed: For one of our clients, we  gathered 36 samples from nine different hotels to determine which rooms were the dirtiest. Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers: Superheroes typically boast massive biceps and incredibly tiny waists, so we used Photoshop on behalf of one of our clients to see what these familiar faces would look like if they reflected the average American body type. Sexually Suggestive Emojis: For another client campaign, we scraped Twitter to discover which countries have the most flirtatious emoji use around the world. Below I’ll walk you through each of the Heath brothers’ principles, providing a six-part recipe on how you can generate similar, highly viral content. 1. Simple: Roll Out Your Content’s Core Focus in the Easiest Way Possible For an idea to be simple, it needs to be easily understood, and quickly. To gain your audience’s attention, identify a central theme and make sure your content connects to this idea whenever possible. Gain your audience's attention by connecting content to one central themeFor instance, in Sexually Suggestive Emojis, a month of tweets from the United States and more than 50 European countries were condensed into 14 easy-to-read charts. In less than 10 minutes, readers could easily identify global trends in how these emojis are used – including their own countries. Simplify Content By Setting Clear Campaign Goals Another easy way to simplify your content is when you’re setting your campaign goal. Do you expect the campaign to drive conversions or do you want it to boost general brand awareness? You’ll also want to make sure your goal is as specific as possible: The more specific you are when setting your goal, the greater the likelihood you’ll actually reach it – and this specificity will help you focus both your content and time. Below is a three-step guide on how to set attainable goals: Begin with an audit of previous campaigns. Remember that data is your friend, and you likely already have a ton of it at your fingertips thanks to previous campaign metrics. Note any key data points- your new goals should fall somewhere within the same ballpark. Evaluate your current position within your industry. If you don’t have a large part of the market yet, consider a goal that only aims for a 2 to 5 percent increase in something. On the other hand, if you already have a large presence in the industry, set a goal that is a little more challenging- you don’t want to miss out on any potential growth. Set one major goal, and follow up by outlining two or three other goals that will help you get there. When setting goals for your content, you’ll likely have more than one. For example, if you want a campaign to drive a certain amount of blog traffic, you’ll also want to set smaller goals like earning placements on X,Y, and Z publishers that will help you get there. Recommended Reading: This is How to Start a Successful Blog That Will Crush Your Marketing Goals 2. Unexpected: Produce Something With a Dash of Shock Beyond an idea that’s quickly understood, another easy way to earn someone’s attention is to offer content that is shocking. This guarantees an element of surprise, which will drive results because instead of adding to the white noise on the internet, you’re actually breaking through. In the case of Hotel Hygiene Exposed, the results yielded a shocking finding: The nicest hotels actually had the most germs. This made outreach a breeze, with big name publishers like Yahoo taking full advantage of the added shock value with headlines like, â€Å"Eww! New Study Finds Expensive Hotels Have More Germs.† Producing controversial content is also a great way to add something unexpected. Below are a few different approaches to controversial content: Disprove an easily held assumption: This content often focuses on testing an audience’s beliefs. For example, the Ad Council’s incredibly successful â€Å"Love Has No Labels† video used an X-ray machine that featured skeleton couples showing different signs of affection to one another before revealing themselves as either gay, lesbian, or biracial – forcing viewers to rethink any unconscious biases they might have and appreciate that love is love, no matter who is involved. Produce something taboo: These ideas center around a topic that isn’t often discussed. Again, the Sexually Suggestive Emoji campaign is a great example because who doesn’t blush a little when they see some of those eggplant combinations? Stir up a debate: Most controversial ideas would fall under this umbrella, with a majority of these campaigns presenting data from both sides in order to allow readers to drive the discussion. For instance, the campaign in â€Å"The Most Prejudiced Places in America† focuses on which areas have the most non-politically correct tweets. The geographic ego bait ignites a discussion because it gives readers the opportunity to offer their two cents on whether or not they agree. via The Daily Beast Recommended Reading: Why Your Content Will Go Viral 3. Concrete: Difficult Concepts Often Require You to Whip Up More Than One Example The Heath brothers say something is â€Å"concrete† in its ability to be described through sensory language. In other words, your content should be understood using one of the five senses. So how can you do this with online content? Let’s take a moment to review the Velcro Theory  about memory. This concept argues that although it is unlikely for someone to totally comprehend – or â€Å"grasp† – brand new information, it is likely that they will be able to grasp small bits of information as long as their prior knowledge presents something for this new information to â€Å"hook† onto – much like a piece of Velcro. By connecting your content’s new information to things your audience already knows, it makes retention and discussion much easier. In the case of online content, concreteness often stems from being able to visualize new concepts. For example, in Reverse Photoshopping Comic Covers, the core theme of the campaign was to offer a new way to discuss body image issues – particularly with men. When comic book icons like Batman, Iron Man, and Captain America shed their bulging biceps in an effort to look more like an everyday individual, audiences suddenly had a new way to talk about more difficult concepts like body dysmorphia. Try Comparing Apples To Oranges Think of something’s â€Å"concreteness† as being able to compare apples to oranges. A great example is this campaign–Data IRL–that visualizes what digital storage size would look like in the form of storage boxes. If you assume 10 megabytes of data is equivalent to one standard storage box, an iPhone’s 4 gigabytes of data suddenly becomes much easier to understand: It’s 400 storage boxes, or–when the boxes are lined up–enough data to stretch nearly the length of 1.5 football fields. via Better Buys Keep in mind what you can compare more difficult concepts like data storage to is only limited by your imagination. A good jumping off point is by taking a look around you and identifying what you use on a day-to-day basis (think a can of soda or a deck of cards); these are the type of routine items that make something unfamiliar suddenly incredibly relatable. Recommended Reading: How to Use Data to Fuel Your Content Marketing Strategy Figuring what you want to present, though, is only half the battle. You still need to figure out how you want to visualize the data. Luckily there are a few tools  out there for anyone who might not have a designer on their team, including the following: Piktochart: Relying on the continued popularity of infographics,  the application allows users to easily create IGs using themed templates Tableau Public: The drag-and-drop platform offers users a wide range of collaborative maps and charts to fool around with Infogram: This easy-to-use application allows users to create interactive charts without any coding Silk: Another drag-and-drop platform, this is one of the easier tools to use, requiring users to simply upload their data through a spreadsheet to begin building visualizations around it 4. Credible: Garnish Your Content With a Methodology That is Both Reliable and Familiar Readers want to see content that is trustworthy, and something that is data-driven is a great way to boost authority and earn credibility. Your methodology should be readily available and include the following: Specifics on your data set, including how, when, and where you collected it Any outliers that were omitted in your data A list of additional sources (i.e. secondary research) Access to raw data if possible An easy way to boost credibility is to partner with a reputable third party, specifically someone with expertise in your industry. For example, if you’re producing a campaign that focuses on sports injuries, consider reaching out to organizations like the Sports Physical Therapy Section (SPTS) or the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). They could offer assistance on how closely your data aligns with common trends in sports-related injuries or how specific injuries should be treated. But how do you get in contact with them? All you need to do is reach out via email explaining who you are, what your campaign is about, and some options on how they could help with the final project – â€Å"options† being the keyword here as you’re more likely to get a response if you offer more than one way to participate. Boost your content's credibility by partnering with a reputable third partyA great example of this in action is the Hotel Hygiene Exposed campaign. We reached out to a third-party lab to test the four samples we collected from nine different hotels. This outside testing helped make the bold claim that the nicest hotels are actually the dirtiest that much more valid. Recommended Reading: How to Rock a Data-Driven Content Calendar Template That Will Boost Results By 299% Support Your Content With Secondary Research Don’t forget about the  value of secondary research – and how easy it is to access. It’s simply the analysis of data or information that was either gathered by someone else (e.g. researchers, educational institutions, etc.) and reusing it to add more authority to your current content. Two of the most common secondary research sources include the following: Academic journals: These are resources filled with original research. Examples include Harvard Business Review, American Journal of Sociology, and the Journal of the American Medical Association  (JAMA). Technical reports: Typically a resource that is updated annually, these reports offer insights on industry-specific research projects. For example, HubSpot’s State of Inbound  is released annually and reveals the latest trends in content marketing. So how can you include these in your campaign? At first glance, it doesn’t seem like the Reverse Photoshopping campaign has a quantitative element to it. However, the landing page includes stats from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention  on the levels of obesity for both men and women in America- stats that are both easily accessible and familiar to any audience. Here’s what it looks like on the LP: Recommended Reading: This Is The Marketing Research Process That Will Take Your Content to the Next Level 5. Emotional: Knead  Something Your Audience Can Feel Into Your Content This is a big one. As much as credibility can help keep your campaign fend off trolls, remember that people have an innate desire to make a personal connection with content, regardless of their opinion. An emotional connection  is essential in order to drive shares, and one of the biggest goals for marketers today is to help brands create messages that people want to share. Luckily there’s a wide range of emotions for your content to tap into, as illustrated in these three campaigns: The â€Å"ick† factor was palpable in the hotel campaign, and it’s something everyone can relate to – aiding in both natural syndication and social shares. via AOL Body image is already a highly emotional topic, and by connecting it to something in the entertainment industry- a channel that is no stranger to the pressures of physical perfection- social traction skyrocketed. via The Huffington Post For the emojis campaign, a reader could easily go back and forth between feelings of embarrassment and amusement thanks to the easily identifiable innuendos. via People Recommended Reading:  Proof That Emotional Headlines Get More Shares on Social Media Use Emotional Cues to Drive Clicks The most successful emotional content ignites an immediate reaction: Audiences should be able to easily click, read, and share your content because it triggers an opinion – and they want the rest of the internet to know. The most successful content ignites an immediate reaction6. Stories: A Mix of Stimulating and Inspirational Content Will Drive Discussion During production, you should continually ask yourself one question: Would I share this campaign with my friends? This is the easiest way to determine whether or not your content tells a story  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ and often times the best content tells more than one. The comic book campaign, for instance, was created for a California-based organization that provides resources to individuals struggling with eating disorders, but the 1,300 pickups and 105,000 social shares indicate that the content reached well beyond its targeted audience – in large part because it allowed publishers to tell multiple stories. For example, some readers were less concerned with a discussion on body image and instead focused their attention on general criticism of the project.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Superheros can’t save the world if they’re lounging around like the average American,† criticized a reader at Smash.com. These sentiments were shared in the comment section of a Spanish gaming site  (whose audience probably had little interest in finding out more about eating disorders). What these two placement prove, though, is that the pop culture theme helped the content resonate with more than one demographic. Yes, these characters don’t relate directly to eating disorders, but in the right context, they can connect issues about body image to a much larger audience. Recommended Reading: How to Find Your Target Audience and Create the Best Content That Connects Use Humor to Tell Stronger Stories Humorous content is a great way to drive stories, as emphasized through some of the headlines for the emoji campaign: Study: Frequent Emoji Users Are Hornier Than the Rest of Us, New York Magazine Dear Mississippi, You’re Obsessed With Eggplant Emoji. Please Explain, Vocativ New Sex Emoji Study Shows That Eggplants Trump Bananas, New York Daily News    So what are some ways you can tickle your audience’s funny bone? Make an everyday routine funny: Some of the best content comes from building on shared experiences, and the same can be said for comedy. A great example is any Poo-Pourri campaign. Don’t be shy about self-deprecation: Any easy way to make people laugh while humanizing your brand? Make a joke at your own expense. For instance, JetBlue found a clever way to engage with a customer who thought their emails were coming on a little too strong (see below). Keep it simple: The more complex and complicated your humor is, the more likely it is to fall flat. Carlsberg, for instance, has been using their cheeky tagline, â€Å"Probably the best beer in the world since 1973. Recommended Reading: How to Build Your Brand With Humor So You'll Feel Like a Human Go Out and Create Some Viral Content In an age where viral content seems to come and go within a matter of minutes, it’s unlikely that your content will reach â€Å"The Dress† levels of internet immortality. The good news, though, is that more studies continue to prove that a content’s viral potential isn’t a matter of luck. Remember that there are many factors that influence what we share online, and the SUCCESs model serves as a great blueprint when outlining your next content marketing campaign. The key ingredients for a viral hit include credibility, an emotional connection, and the ability to tell more than one story–along with an idea that isn’t too vanilla and offers a new, often debatable perspective.

Discuss the main causes and effects of gun crime in the USA Essay - 2

Discuss the main causes and effects of gun crime in the USA - Essay Example Subsequently, the following paper makes an insight into most widespread causes and effects of gun violence. One if the factors the most commonly blamed for gun crimes is availability of firearms. The debate over the right of the general population to bear firearms has been among the actively and commonly debated ones. From one side, opponents of gun control argue that any law denying such right would be a violation of the Constitution that allows one to protect property and life from criminals, who would still have a gun, regardless of the prohibition. Although the following position may contain the grain of logic, it, in fact, leads to more crimes, research shows. A recent study that compared data from developed countries on gun ownership and subsequent deaths clearly concluded that more guns mean more gun-related deaths. †There was a correlation between guns per head per country and the rate of deaths with Japan being on one end of the spectrum and the US - on the other† (Boseley, 2013) Subsequently, availability and easy access to guns can be regarded as one of the essentia l causes of gun crimes in the U.S. Another possible cause of gun violence in the United States has been called social conditions that allow the existence of risk factors most commonly associated with gun violence. According to Walker (2014), one of the recent strategies that proved its effectiveness for alleviating the rates of gun crimes has been a mentoring program, focusing on the at-risk population and preventing it from the involvement in felonious situations and aggressive behavior. Success of the program in reducing crimes occurrence proves that unfavorable social conditions are associated with gun crimes. The commonly cited risk factors are unemployment, poverty, and poor education. (Walker, 2014; "Gun violence prevention,") Therefore, the low quality of life should be regarded as a predictor of gun crimes. Apart from that, it is argued that the lack

Sir Richard Branson - Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Sir Richard Branson - - Case Study Example Also, we will look at other attributes that if incorporated in his life, would zeal his future adventures, like space tourism. Leadership Styles The identification of a leader is an always lagging factor. Leadership is being proven by the future orientation of the leader. Here first of all we are going to focus on transactional leadership, authentic leadership, and transformational leadership. Then we will focus on the relationship between the leader and the members, and at last we will conclude this section by throwing some light on the global leadership. Transactional leadership is focused on the self-interest of the followers and thus motivates the followers to a particular goal. Here the leader is empowered with the formal authority to mould the followers. These leaders control, organize and plan for the short term. To run a successful transactional leadership style, it is highly required that all the process are well defined, and the goals and obstacles of the organization is cl early understood. This is good for the businesses which are well established. In such a structured environment, it is possible to push the followers to some defined goals. Though not very impressive like a hero, the transactional leaders are the foundation of any organization. ... Transformational leaders are a few steps ahead of an authentic leader. The words that describe them are visionary, inspiring, daring, and ethical. They can understand the future trends. They understand the possibilities with such changes. They can make their followers understand their visions and take the necessary step to mould the organizations. Thus transformational leadership creates synergy. These kinds of leaders are found in every level of the organizations. Even in the start ups, they are clearly visible. Thinking out of the box is a central theme for these people. These leaders do not waste time in blame game; rather focus on the core issues. They are a real inspiration to their followers. These are the people who are called charismatic leaders (Huang and Hsu, 2011, p. 870). Now let’s focus on the leader and follower relationship. It is important to know the interdependency and reciprocity between these two layers. The relationship between the leader and the followers grows with increasing transactions. From simple stranger phase, it grows into acquaintance phase and then transforms into mature partnership. Though the dynamics of leadership is well researched, the dynamics of followers is less understood as there is no such in depth research. There is a bias that leaders are the only movers and shakers. In reality, followers’ dynamics has also an effect on leadership style (Kean, 2011, p. 35). A real leader clearly understands the dynamics of the followers. With the globalization in process, there are numerous organizations that have presence across the globe. In leading such a global organization, the

External Influences on Lenovo

External Influences on Lenovo The main purpose of this report is to show the way of Lenovo from just project to international corporation and to analyze their way using such methods as PEST and SWOT analysis as well as Porters Five Competitive Forces. Using PEST makes possible to determine the impact of external environment (politics, economics, society and technology) and indirect factors on company. SWOT reveals the strengths and weaknesses of given organization. Combining these two methods makes analysis even more precise. In its turn, Porters Five Competitive Forces helps to understand the competition within the industry. Lenovo is a great example of a company which used innovation and creativity, obstinacy and communication with customer as a tool to make their way to the top. Today Lenovo is one of leading PC vendors. They manufacture tablets, laptops, ultrabooks, All-in-One PCs, desktops, nettops and own accessories. Lenovo creates unique and durable products at really aggressive price point. And they are here to stay. Introduction Lenovo. The company was established in Beijing, China in 1984 by eleven members of the Computer Technology Research Institute, they called it the Legend Holdings. But in 2003, decision to expand outside Chinese market led to another one change the name of the company. Legend changed their name to Lenovo. Name of Lenovo is combination of Le- (as part of Legend) and novo Latin ablative for new. In Chinese it can also be understood as connected thinking or creativity. Despite the fact that current name of the company was introduced just in 2003, Lenovo already gained trust and loyalty of millions of customers. The company has started from budget of 200ÂÂ  000 yuan commissioned Liu Chuanzhi (founder of Lenovo) by Chinese government in order to distribute computers which are made in other countries. Lenovos first office was about 17 square meters. Mr. Chuanzhi once said: It wasnt easy. The lowest thing you could do in the early 80s, as a scientist, was to go into business. China had a strict planned economy and there was barely room for a freewheeling company like ours (Liu Chuanzhi for Asiaweek, June 13, 1997). First major win was a circuit board which enabled IBM computers to process Chinese characters Han-card. Later on Lenovo started to create and distribute computers using its own brand. In May 1988, Lenovo looked for employees for the first time. They have placed ads on the cover of the China Youth News. Out of all respondents, 280 were selected to sit for a written exam. About 120 of the candidates were interviewed in person. Despite interviewers had authority to hire only 16 people, 58 were given offers. 18 people of these had graduate degrees, 37 had undergraduate degrees, and three students did not have university-level education at all. Their average age was 26. Future CEO of Lenovo Yang Yuanqing was among this group who introduced new name and expanded company on Europe and USA. In 1994 Lenovo became a publicly traded company after listing in Hong Kong. Later in 2002 Lenovo Group made partnership with Xiahua Electronics Stock Company, giving the start of Lenovo mobile phone business. In 2008 Lenovo has sold its mobile department but then would pay $200 million to buy it back in November of 2009. Now Lenovo Mobile ranks third in terms of market share of mobile phones market in China. On May of 2005 Lenovo Group announced the completion of the $1.75 billion deal of acquisition of IBMs PC unit. That made companys annual revenue almost quadruple. Company which used to have $3 billion in annual revenue now had nearly $13 billion. They became the worlds third-largest PC vendor, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. But revenues are not the only benefit Lenovo got from this deal. They have acquired the ThinkPad brand. ThinkPad is ultra-resistant due to special casing, special keyboard structure that let water drain through the laptop. Moreover it was one of first laptops with hard disk block system, which could turn on emergency brakes thereby save data from being just lost because of physical damage of the disk when laptop is dropped. Later Lenovo would face the closest rival on their way to the top Dell. It was a hard competition, it was a complex competition. The main problem of Lenovo back in the days was a bit more conservative way of making business. Dell used new and innovative methods to produce, distribute and promote products. They spent on ads twice as more than Lenovo, their prices were lower and market share grew more and more. Dell even captured segments which used to be favorite ones of Lenovo. To overcome the enemy Lenovo started to increase value of brand. That means they started to raise name awareness among the customers, they delivered maximum possible customer satisfaction. They are still using those principles as core philosophy of the company. Nowadays, Lenovo has three main categories of laptops. ThinkPads are powered for productive work experience, uncompromised secured and ultra-reliable, solid and durable. IdeaPads are optimized for entertainment and multimedia. They have some enchantments in audio, video performance and possess both functional internal and beautiful external designs. The third lineup is Essential. These products have nothing unnecessary; they are always up-to-date, portable enough and reliable. The tablets are also divided on Idea and Think lineups as well as All-in-Ones and desktops. The principal stays the same. Idea for creativity and entertainment, Think for business and work. In 2012 Lenovo became the fastest growing company in the USA for 8 quarters in a row. Actually, they are the only one who has a growth. In the third financial quarter of 2012, shipments of the company expected to reach 15.7 per cent of world-wide PC shipments. Lenovo would surpass Dell and HP. The Mission and Vision of Lenovo Mission is the main goal, beliefs which push company to develop into new something more than just business. Mission is the reason why company does actually exist. Lenovos origins are in China; their name has meaning so their mission is strong and inspiring as well. Lenovo has a desire to become the leading company of new world that is respected for break-through innovation and award-winning designs, quality, to be loved for an ecosystem of devices, services. Become recognized as one of the best, most trusted and most well-respected companies to work for and do business with. And they are on the right way to reach the goal. Company strives to be one that creates extraordinary, innovative and exceptionally great PCs for its customers. They do not have formal restrictions and bonds which could distract or interfere from manufacturing best possible machines. Lenovo claims that they design exciting and innovative products, services to meet customers needs. And sometimes they even manage to exceed level of the expectations. Lenovo wants to do business from their own global point of view, own perspective and own commitment to building great technology for people who view technology as a tool to accomplish fascinating things. By having few categories of products, Lenovo does not put any effort on useless departments therefore does not waste resources and time. David Schmoock, President of North American Lenovo department said: What I want to do is get to number one and be sustainable as number one. At the very basic level of the company there is one core principle that is extremely important: We do what we say and own what we do. So far the main goals company wants to reach are serving customers, trust and integrity, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Lenovo. New World, New Thinking PEST Analysis PEST analysis in general measures a market, its potential, indicates growth or decline, thereby market attractiveness. Actually, PEST analysis helps to determine SWOT factors. PEST analysis is a model that can be used for describing the framework of macro environmental factors that a company should have in mind forming its long-term strategic plans. Of course, the external factors may vary in significance to a given company based on the products and services that it produces and also on the industry it is in. For any company which wants to win in the competitive marketing, such methods of analysis of the external factors and environment are the way to succeed. In this report PEST will be used in order to focus on analyzing external environment of the Lenovo Corporation and try to foresee major influence of those external factors in their business environment. The letter P stands for political factors influencing companys market. Those are level of bureaucracy, laws and regulations, legalization and policies, rule of law, freedom of press, tariff controls and trade. Nowadays, computers are tightly linked with peoples life. From the last century computers were used in business and other areas and help factories, hospitals and other structures to increase production and interest. At the same time, new technology caused some new problems such as pollution of the environment, health and energy consumption. Considering these problems European Union, China and other countries encourage the Green IT. That means computer must not produce noise pollution more than specified, energy consumption must be no more than required. In Lenovo groups, the isopsophic index is lower than 30dB. Therefore, Lenovo has achieved in noise pollution section. Since China has a population of one and a half billion, there is more than enough labor and payment would not be too high. That is the reason why many of assembly lines are Chinese, so Lenovo placed factory in China as well. When China joined WTO in 2005, the export tariff for IT products has decreased to 9.1%. So thes e policies are encouraging business organization developing to global. Next one is E. It stands for economic factors such as interest rates and inflation, disposable income, labor cost and supply, impact of globalization. Letter S is for social culture. It is social studies and education, lifestyle attitudes and choice, population growth rate and age profiles, etc. And the last letter is T. That is for technological factors such as impact of energy technologies, increase in remote working, and current level of technological development, impact of technology on the work process and productivity. For economic, influence by the 2008 economic crisis, the world economic tends to going down. But in the worst time, Chinese government published the new economic policy which was positive financial policy and loose and comfortable monetary policy. The government also offered four-hundred million RMB stimulates economic development (The Marketing Surveillance Center of China, 2008). For Chinas IT industry, this is a great opportunity to develop them. Then change the focus to the economic development. In 1950, the total trades of China include import and export was 11.3 hundred million dollars, but in 2008, it enhanced 25616 hundred million dollars. Also at home, the GDP increased with a high speed: So according to this chart, it very clear that Chinas GDP has achieved satisfactory level and the disposable personal income has increased also (stats, 2009). So the demand of products will increase with the economic enhancing. In the other words, the IT market becomes bigger and Lenovo also has strength to competitive the market share because Lenovo not only produce computers, mobile phone also produced by them. For society culture, the population growth, lifestyle choice and attitudes, population health, education, social mobility and attitudes are influence the demand of high technology products. 60 years ago, 80% people in China were illiteracy, but under the new government value, in 2008, the Einschulungsrate f. of different education level has achieved a satisfactory level: It is clearly that the education level has increased and the demand of high technology products also enhancing (Communist Party Learning, 2009). This situation also offered a huge market for Lenovo. On the other hand, because the globalization and influenced by the developed countries lifestyle, the Chinese people also become more international which live with a high level life and influenced by the education level, the lifestyle of Chinese people become more out-going and open enough (Human Geography Research Center, 2003). So the consumption custom of modern Chinese people also offers a good developing environment to Lenovo. Also in the next five to ten years, this situation will be increase. At the same time, the social culture of China has changed from traditional feudalism to modern lifestyle which is more science and high technology in life. For technological, Lenovo was set by 11 scientists who worked in Chinese Academy of Science which is a governmental organization. So this situation offered a good technology support. In 2005, Lenovo has finished the purchase IBM, so the technology transfer from IBM also helps Lenovo make the Research Development activities and produce high quality products with high technology (Lenovo, 2005). At the same time, with the technology development, the communications costs and increased remote work can help the different corporations share their techniques and also good for Research Development activities. So all of these technological factors can help Lenovo increase their competitive ability in the next five to ten years and the marketing share of IBM also belongs to Lenovo. For the legal section, here just mention two articles which can support Lenovo. Firstly, in light of article 6, Peoples Republic of China Consumer Protection, the government encourages and supports every person and organization supervises the illegal action which damages the consumers legal power (National Peoples Congress, 1993). So this law can reduce other organizations use illegal method to competitive in the marketing and its also a protection for Lenovo. On the other hand, in light of article 6, Peoples Republic of China Law on Product Quality, the government encourages apply scientific management method, advanced science and technology, support the products achieved or beyond the industry standard or international standard. And give the award to the organizations whose products achieved or beyond the international standard (National Peoples Congress, 1993). So as an international corporation, Lenovo links the technology of IBM, they will produce the high quality products and r eceived the government supports from the legal. Finally, for the ethical, because the increased of education level, the peoples diathesis also enhanced. So protect the legal power has become normal in the modern society. Then if the organization make illegal actions, it will be ejected from the market by customers, such as never buy their products. Also for an organization, the ethical problems are faith, fair and good service. As Lenovo, their value are serve consumers, innovation, faith and fair (Lenovo, 2005). So this entire ethical development tendency is good for Lenovos business environment in the next five to ten years. In summary, the policies which about green IT from European Union and the export tariff which from Chinese government are good for Lenovos improvement; at the same time, the economic development of China and the increased disposable personal income also offering a big market to Lenovos development in the future; as the modern society, the population of the world was achieved 67-hundred million in 2007 (Unctad Report, 2008). It offers a huge number of customers; also because the education increase, the lifestyle of modern customers is tend to high technology and high quality. On the other hand, the purchase of IBM also offers the technology transfer and the development mechanics of communication saved the communications costs and its good for international Research Development activities and international cooperation. At the same time, the law of Chinese government also supports and the ethical factors in the modern society are good for Lenovos improvement. So based on the analysis, in the next five to ten years, the likely major influences in Lenovos business environment are environment protection, international cooperation, the economic development, technology communication and Research Development, legal protection and ethical problems. But all of these tend to good for Lenovo in the future. So if the strategy department managers based on the external environment to make the strategic planning, Lenovo will take a great leap for their business in the next five to ten years. The PEST analysis is a model for reviewing and surveying a companys strategy or its position in the market. It measures the market, along with its competitors from the viewpoint of a particular business. It is also used to describe the framework of macro environmental factors that a company should regard and take into consideration. Of course, the external factors may vary in significance to a given company based on the products and services that it produces and also on the industry it is in. Political factors Economic factors Economic factor relates to the economy of the country itself, as well as market and trade cycles. Over the past years Walmart has had a stable economic condition and had 11% growth totalling in $6.5 billion. Why Walmarts figure has been doing so well so far is because it takes into account not only the economy of the company, but also of the countrys economy in which they are setting up their business. Another reason for its success is that Walmart prefers to first check the economical factors of the county before actually doing any business there. The main economical factors that are worth considering are economic stability and peoples purchasing power. Its crucial to acknowledge these factors for doing business in the third world countries because any change in economy can increase the actual price of the goods and services, which the company offers to its customers and of course the demand for these products will go down. Social Factors Social factors are made up of lifestyle trends, major events and various influences, religious and ethnic factors. Walmart has a tendency of evaluating and measuring social factors, just like economic factors, of a country they have chosen to do business in. Social values and frugality are also quite important factors. Walmart appeals to consumers with a rather low income, nevertheless, it ensures that the goods, products and services that they provide are apprised and accepted by their customers. It is a known fact that Walmart doesnt supply its stores with goods that are likely to cause various complaints from the clients and customers. The company makes good relationships with its customers in engaging and taking part in various public activities. Technological Factors Technological factors generally include various factors like maturity of technology, global communications and innovations, as well as technology legislation. Nowadays technology plays an immense part in the whole society. As a matter of fact, technology hugely improves quality of the products, however it tends to decrease the amount of time to promote and advertise the goods and services. Walmart was quick to accept new technology and to make effective and best use of it. It operates most of its logistics with the usage of a modern system called hub-and-spoke of its distribution centres. Customers that shop at Walmart stores get the most benefits out of it. Walmart believes that by introducing natural products on the market, it can have a big and positive impact on the atmosphere around us and the worlds natural resources. Walmart exploits the newest technology such as brad new cash register and security system. In short, Walmart keeps up with technology innovations and adjusts very well to the changes in the world. Porters Five Competitive Forces Porters Five Forces model is generally used in order to understand better the context of the industry in which the company is operating in and to see the attractiveness of an industry structure. By using this model we can see that Walmart is a strong independent company that has a stable growth, professional management and reasonably competitive prices. This model helps to look into the company more closely by assessing the potential threat of new entrants, the competitive rivalry within already existing companies, the threat of substitute products and goods, the bargaining power of suppliers and finally, the bargaining power of customers. Threat of new entrants Theres always a possibility of new companies coming into existence, however in order to compete with such strong company as Walmart they will need a relatively large capital. Walmart is expanding rather fast and it practically leaves neither chance nor room for other new companies to enter the competitive market. Above anything else, Walmart has excellent distribution systems, for example hub-and-spoke system that I mentioned before, as well as good locations and an enormous capital to be actually able to compete with new entrants. Competitive rivalry Walmart is a much larger and more profitable company than its competitors, so the competition inside the retail industry poses no threat whatsoever to it. However, there are a few other strong competitors such as Target, which can bring out some fair competition to Walmart. To sum up, Walmart is generally ahead of its competitors; it is a global leader in the retail industry and has a firm position in the competitive market. Threat of substitute products There arent a lot of direct substitutes to Walmart, because stores in the retail industry sell products for everyday use mostly. However, there are some substitute products that can be a threat to the sales of branded products. Another threat can be put from specialized retail stores like electronics and various garments. There are stores such as Carrefour and Target, which can offer same goods at a similar price or even lower. Still, when it comes to Walmart, there arent many other stores that can actually replace its convenience and attractively low prices. Bargaining power of suppliers Walmart is a huge customer to its suppliers and, thus, it has a lot of power, because in case it decides to switch to a different supplier, this would create a very scary tactic for its suppliers. It also has an option to purchase goods from many various suppliers so if they decide to drop out some, this wont make a significant difference. Walmart definitely takes advantage of being one of the largest customers to such international companies as Kraft Foods and Gillette. Because of its strong position in the market, suppliers are more than willing to satisfy Walmarts requirements, as well as provide them with favourable terms of payment and various discounts. We can see this good relationship between Walmart and its suppliers through its enhancing success. Bargaining power of buyers The customers will surely always be a threat to Walmart mainly because there are so many competitors. The buyers decision tends to be based on the price and quality of the product, and also on the convenience. Usually consumers are price sensitive and their decisions are based mainly on the price itself. And if products are similar this will increase the rivalry in the industry, which will lead to lower prices and thus, lower profit. Also, Walmart is not in a monopolistic market, but a competitive one, so the goods it offers can be replaced or substituted by its rivals. However, the company strives to please its clients by making the prices of their products and services similar to those of their competitors. Its profitability has proved that consumers are pleased with the chains reasonably low prices and its very convenient locations. Conclusion The purpose of this report was to analyze the external factors that have a certain impact and influence on Walmart. There are some significant factors that became clear after the PEST analysis and Porters Five Competitive Forces analysis have been made. I found out that Walmart is one of the global leaders in the retail industry, which has a great influence on various sectors. Walmart is still expanding to new locations and it is a growing strong company that has a firm position in the domestic market in the US and abroad as well. Unfortunately, Walmart, just like any other organization, isnt protected against the negative influence from various environmental factors, which may decrease the companys total revenues or even weaken the popularity of the whole company. However, despite all of the negative factors mentioned above, the positive impact of the external factors is much greater. Walmarts intention to help people save money so they can live better moves the company on the top position in the retail industry and makes it more attractive and appealing to existing and future consumers. Recommendations In my personal opinion the future success and survival of Walmart will depend on changing its attitude and becoming even more customer focused, as well as building even closer relationships that would broaden the product range and competitive prices. The company should take into consideration that the market is still rather new to foreign companies and that other retail stores are also expected to appear in the nearest future, which will probably result in reduction of clients Walmart is considered as one of the international leaders in the retail industry and I think it will keep its position for a certain period of time. However, I have to make a point that the company should also consider its promotion and shouldnt rely in the fact that they are one of the best in the market. Whats more Walmart should take into consideration that the market is still rather new to foreign companies and that other retail stores are also expected to appear in the near future, which will probably result in reduction of clients.

Is Global Peace an Illusion

Q. 6 Over several centuries, the collaborative goal of the world has been to attain the harmony, understanding and interdependent relationships between nations that brings peace, security and stability to the world. However, although global peace is attainable, much collaborative effort is needed to turn global peace into a reality, instead of living in a world of deception where global peace is merely a false belief. Therefore, the world aims to attain global peace via international efforts and individual contributions, to counter the problems that prevents global peace of being attained, such as due to the lack of understanding and collaboration between nations, as well as due to selfish demands and the lack of initiative from individuals to make it work. Some people may think that global peace is simply too good to be true due to the lack of collaboration and understanding between nations. As the people of different nations have their own set of ideologies and beliefs, this leads to conflicting ideologies between nations which could spark an international dispute such as in the case of the cold war which occurred between the United States of America which practiced capitalism, as well as the Soviet Union which practiced communism. This vast difference in belief thus led to conflicts between the nations, which sparked feelings of hatred and resentment between the people of the two nations. This prevented the success of efforts to call for further global peace. Additionally, differing interests of the nation could lead to violence, as well as terrorism, such as in the case of the Bali Bombings in 2005 which involved a terrorist group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) of Al Qaeda. They bombed specific tourist sites in Bali to display their displeasure towards people of another nation, as well as to rebel against the newly adopted democratic practice. This led to great instability within the country, as well as many people from around the world to feel dubious about the Indonesians in general. This led to an even greater segregation as well as isolation of the Malay race and Muslim religion as they were thought to be terrorists, deterring the progress of the world to achieve global peace and harmony. Secondly, the lack of individual initiative to push for greater global peace leads to the inefficiency of the world to achieve global peace. As individuals make up the largest percentage of the country, they have arguably the most influence to ensure that efforts to achieve global peace are successful. Hence, individuals are the key driving force for the achievement of global peace, and not relying solely on governmental efforts. However, as many individuals are simply pushing the responsibility to the government, global peace cannot be achieved However, commendable efforts have been made by international organizations (IGOs) and governments to make global peace a reality, which includes international governmental organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Such organizations aim to promote regional and international peace and stability, and to promote active collaboration and mutual assistance between countries which would foster stronger bonds, thus promoting harmony between nations. An example is when the UN started the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to alleviate income inequality between nations to prevent conflict between nations due to growing income disparity between the rich and the poor. On 1 December 2000, the United Nations General Assembly also adopted a resolution on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict, breaking the link between the illicit transaction of rough diamonds and armed conflict, as a contribution to prevention and settlement of conflicts. The ASEAN-Korea Summit in 2009 also contributed to greater understanding between the countries involved, and thus helped to bridge differences. Hence, international efforts by IGOs, along with the cooperation from respective governments, are able to pave the way towards attaining global peace and harmony by promoting mutual understanding between nations which would promote the forging of strong bonds between the nations, instead of conflicts due to differences in beliefs. In conclusion, although global peace is able to be attained, it is not able to be sustained for a long period of time. Global peace is also not able to be achieved universally as efforts to call for peace are inadequate as lack sufficient support from the people in the world. Thus, the ephemeral nature of peace inevitably causes global peace to be nothing but a false belief, seemingly attainable yet out of reach.

Getting to Mars Overcoming Hurdles

In the late 1960s, the United States proved to the world that it was possible to land humans on the Moon. Today, decades after that first mission, people are again looking to travel to another world, but its not just to the Moon. Now, they want to walk on Mars. Innovations in spacecraft, materials, and designs will be needed to accomplish such a mission, and those challenges are being met by new generations of engineers and scientists. Visiting and colonizing those worlds will require complex spacecraft not just to get people there, but to safeguard them once they arrive. Todays rockets are far more powerful, far more efficient and far more reliable than those used on the Apollo missions.  The electronics that control the spacecraft and that help keep the astronauts alive are changing all the time, and some of it gets used every day, in cellphones that would put the Apollo electronics to shame. Today, every aspect of manned space flight has become substantially more evolved. So why, then, have humans  not been to Mars YET? Getting to Mars is Difficult The root of the answer is that the scale of what a trip to Mars is incredibly big and complex. The challenges are formidable. For example, nearly two-thirds of Mars missions have met with some failure or mishap. And those are just the robotic ones! It gets more crucial when people start to talk about sending people to the Red Planet!   Think about how far they will have to travel. Mars is about 150 times farther away from Earth than the Moon. That may not sound like a lot, but think about what that means in terms of added fuel. More fuel means more weight. More weight means bigger capsules and bigger rockets. Those challenges alone put a trip to Mars on a different scale from simply hopping to the Moon (which takes a few days at the most). However, those are the only challenges.  NASA has spacecraft designs (like Orion and Nautilus) that would be capable of making the trip. Other agencies and companies have plans to go to Mars, such as SpaceX and the Chinese government, but even they arent quite ready yet to make the  leap. However, its quite likely that some form of a mission will fly, perhaps within a decade at the very earliest. An artists rendition of SpaceXs interplanetary transport system approaching Mars carrying a crew. SpaceX, donated to public domain.  Ã‚   However, theres another challenge: time. Since Mars is so far away, and orbits the Sun at a different rate than Earth, NASA (or anybody sending people to Mars) must time launches to the Red Planet very precisely. Mission planners have to wait until the best window of opportunity when the planets are in the correct orbital alignment. Thats true for the trip there as well as the trip home. The window for a successful launch opens up only every couple of years, so timing is crucial. Also, it takes time to get to Mars safely; months or possibly as much as a year for the one-way trip.   While it may be possible to cut the travel time down to a month or two using advanced propulsion technology currently under development, once on the surface of the Red Planet the astronauts will need to wait until Earth and Mars are correctly aligned again before returning. How long will that take? A year and a half, at  least. Dealing With the Issue of Time The lengthy timescale for travel to and from Mars causes problems in other areas as well. How do the travelers get enough oxygen? What about water? And, of course, food? And how do they get around the fact that they are traveling through space, where the Suns energetic solar wind is sending harmful radiation around the spacecraft? And, there are also the micrometeorites, the debris of space, that threaten to puncture the spacecraft or spacesuit of an astronaut. The solutions to these problems are trickier to accomplish. But they will be solved, which will make a trip to Mars doable. Protecting the astronauts while in space means building the spacecraft out of robust materials and shielding it from the Suns harmful rays. The problems of food and air will have to be solved through creative means. Growing plants that produce both food and oxygen is a good start. However, this means that should the plants die, things will go horribly wrong. That is all assuming you have enough room to grow the volume of planets needed for such an adventure. Astronauts could take food, water, and oxygen along, but enough supplies for the entire trip will add weight and size to the spacecraft. One possible solution might be to send materials to be used ON Mars ahead, on an uncrewed rocket to land on Mars and be waiting when the humans get there.  Thats a very doable solution that several mission planners are considering. An artists conception of a food production unit on Mars with the cutaway showing the plants colonists would need.   NASA NASA is confident that it can overcome these problems, but we are not quite there yet. SpaceX says its getting ready. The plans from other countries are less knowable, but they are serious about Mars, as well. Still, the plans are still very much theoretical. Over the coming two decades mission planners hope to close the gap between theory and reality. Maybe then, humanity can actually send astronauts to Mars on long-term missions of exploration and eventual colonization. Updated and edited by Carolyn Collins Petersen.

The Greek God Apollo Sun God, God of Music, Prophecy

The Greek god Apollo was the son of Zeus and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt and the moon. In later periods, Apollo was commonly considered to have been the driver of the solar disc, but Apollo was not associated with the sun during Homeric Greek times. In this earlier period, he was the patron of prophecy, music, intellectual pursuits, healing, and plague. His brainy, orderly interests caused writers  of many ages to contrast Apollo with his half-brother, the hedonistic, disorderly Dionysus (Bacchus), god of wine. Apollo and the Sun Perhaps the earliest conflation of Apollo and the sun god Helios occurs in the surviving fragments of Euripides Phaethon. Phaethon was one of the chariot horses of the Homeric goddess of the dawn, Eos. It was also the name of the son of the sun god who foolishly drove his fathers sun-chariot and died for the privilege. By the Hellenistic period and in Latin literature, Apollo was associated with the sun. The firm connection with the sun may be traceable to the Metamorphoses of the major Latin poet Ovid. The Romans called him Apollo, and also sometimes Phoebus Apollo or Sol. He is unique among the major Roman gods in that he retained the name of his counterpart in the Greek pantheon. Apollos Oracle The Oracle at Delphi, a renowned seat of prophecy in the classical world, was intimately connected with Apollo. The Greeks believed that Delphi was the site of the omphalos, or navel, of Gaia, the Earth. Stories vary, but it was at Delphi that Apollo slew the serpent Python, or alternately, brought the gift of prophecy in the form of a dolphin. Either way, the Oracles guidance was sought by Greek rulers for every major decision and was respected in the lands of Asia Minor and by the Egyptians and Romans as well. Apollos priestess, or sybil, was known as Pythia. When a supplicant asked a question of the sybil, she leaned over a chasm (the hole where Python was buried), fell into a trance, and began to rave. The translations were rendered into hexameter by the temple priests. Attributes and Animals Apollo is depicted as a beardless young man (ephebe). His attributes are the tripod (the stool of prophecy), lyre, bow and arrows, laurel, hawk, raven or crow, swan, fawn, roe, snake, mouse, grasshopper, and griffin. Apollos Lovers Apollo was paired with many women and a few men. It wasnt safe to resist his advances. When the seer Cassandra rejected him, he punished her by making it impossible for people to believe her prophecies. When Daphne sought to reject Apollo, her father helped her by turning her into a laurel tree. Myths of Apollo He is a healing god, a power he transmitted to his son Asclepius. Asclepius exploited his ability to heal by raising men from the dead. Zeus punished him by striking him with a fatal thunderbolt. Apollo retaliated by killing the Cyclops, who had created the thunderbolt. Zeus punished his son Apollo by sentencing him to a year of servitude, which he spent as a herdsman for the mortal king Admetus. Euripides tragedy tells the story of the reward Apollo paid Admetus. In the Trojan War, Apollo and his sister Artemis sided with the Trojans. In the first book of the Iliad, he is angry with the Greeks for refusing to return the daughter of his priest Chryses. To punish them, the god showers the Greeks with arrows of plague, possibly bubonic, since the plague-sending Apollo was associated with mice. Apollo was also linked to the laurel wreath of victory. In one myth, Apollo was fated to a disastrous and unrequited love for Daphne. Daphne metamorphosed into a laurel tree to avoid him. Leaves from the laurel tree were thereafter used to crown victors at the Pythian games.