Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay Example for Free

Life Course of a Mas Murderer Essay On April 16, 2007 one of the most devastating mass murders in U.S history occurred at a Virginia college. Seung-Hui Cho a 23 year old South Korean alone executed the killing of 33 people by securing colleges doors to prevent escape of any students. Events such as these are truly tragic and devastating to all involved. By gathering background information about Seung-Hui Cho, we can effectively examine social development theories as they relate to Cho and review my analysis that this particular occurrence was preventable. Born in South Korea, Seung-Hui Cho immigrated to America when he was 8 years old. Although Cho was a quiet well behave child he was awkwardly withdrawn and angry (cite book). Throughout school Cho was teased and bullied which could have been the cause of his average grades throughout school. Cho’s sister Sun-kyung was often in the school newspaper and was selected to attend the most elite Ivy League Universities (Schmalleger, 2009). Cho went on to attend Virginia tech where he was recognize once again for being extremely violent and was even removed from class. Cho was referred to multiple counselors and officials where he denied all thoughts of suicide and homicide. Although Cho denied these having these thoughts students that attend Virginia Tech could see the imminent risk rising with Cho. There are many social development theories that can be applied to Seung-Hui Cho but I feel that the Life Course Perspective accurately represents Cho most effectively. With the social development perspective, human development occurs on many levels simotaneously, including psychological, biological, familial, interpersonal, cultural, social, and ecological (Schmalleger, 2009). Social development d\theories focus on delinquencies over an extended period of time as well as transitions people go through within their life span. As the Life course perspective suggests Cho exhibited showed a distinct pattern of anti-social behavior throughout his childhood and had never committed any crimes. Cho had a hard childhood and was in the shadows of his very successful sister. Even in college Cho had no friends and began to look up to other school shooters as martyrs. Although these individuals were not his friends at all in his situation they were the closest thing to having friends. In college Cho was accused of stalking women on two different occasions, was caught taking photos of the legs of female students in class and was separated out of classes. I believe that Cho’s antisocial lifestyle along with the transition any from home eventually lead him to commit the mass murder. Cho’s anti-social lifestyle seemed to escalate to criminal behaviors from the time he went off to college until the time of the Virginia Tech shooting. I believe that this tragedy could have been prevented if the proper preventative measures and treatment techniques were taken. As a boy Cho should have been taken in for a mental evaluation but I believe the integration of his family into the American society prevented that. In high school Cho being bullied and teased could have been put to a stop by teachers and surrounding students. Also when Cho started writing gruesome poems short stories and plays he should have been recommended to a counselor. Any counselor that Cho had encounters with could have been a lot more persistent in getting to the bottom of Cho’s situations. A teacher college teacher doesn’t just separate a student from her class. Finally the two females who Cho supposedly stalked could have reported Cho and pressed charges, preventing him from escalating in criminal nature. Seung-Hui Cho may have lived a particularly difficult life but with appropriate preventative and treatment measures the Virginia Tech shooting could have been prevented. One way this could have been prevented is with the support of his family. Cho’s family should have played a larger role in providing guidance and discipline and instilling sound values in Cho. Also social institutions failed him. He was bullied in teased in schools and church which could have been the reason for him being anti-social throughout his lifespan (Seung-Hui, 2013). Finally individuals in Cho’s life should have intervened immediately and constructively when delinquent behavior first occurred. After closely reviewing Cho’s background information and examining social development theories as they relate to Cho my analysis is that the Virginia Tech shooting was preventable. References Schmalleger, F. (2009). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. (5th; ed., pp. 297-341). Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hal. Retrieved from http://devry.vitalsource.com/ Seung-Hui Cho. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:22, Jul 28, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/seung-hui-cho-235991.

Distinguishing personnel management and human resource management

Distinguishing personnel management and human resource management P1: Distinguish between personnel management and human resource management and discuss the historical development and changing context in which they operate?   Personnel Management:      PM is basically an administrative record functioning at operational level. PM attempts to maintain fair terms and conditions of employment while at the same time efficiently managing personnel activities for individual departments and the activities which result ultimately in achieving organizational success. Human Resource Management:- HRM is concerned with carrying out the same functional activities conventionally performed by the personnel function such as HR Planning, Job analysis, recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employee appraisals, compensation management, training and development but it performs these functions in a qualitatively distinct way as compared with personnel management. History of Human Resource Management:-   The concept and name of human resource management has been changed many times throughout the history. The changes were mostly because to the change in social and economic activities throughout the history. Human resource management came to birth when industrial revolution took place in the year 1833 then the industrialist incepted to increase their production and they raised the burden of work on the employees by having 60 hours a week. The workers became fed up of this circumstance and they took decision among themselves to find out the solution for this problem. After this workers were losing interest in their work and they divided in different groups and all this caused less production. The industrialists came to know this, they straggle to satisfy the workers but however the workers were not happy with that and formed their Trade Union. Now the industrialists gave full authority to one manager. In spite of this the problems remained constant because the manager was not able to ha ndle their problems then the workers went to strike for their rights.  Ã‚  This led to the formation of personnel management. Personal management was working only when clashes arise. PM was dealing on bargaining, so this system also failed to motivate the employees, in addition PM was not able to take full control of it. The combination of wartime production demands, government wage price controls and the need to negotiate cooperative agreements forced many companies to expand their personnel staffs and control their HR practices. Such basic HR practices as job classification systems, hiring standards, uniform pay grades and written disciplinary procedures were developed for the first time by many companies.    Another early donor to HRM was called the human relations movement. Two researchers, Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger included human factors into work. This movement began as a result of a chain of studies conducted at the Hawthorne facility of Western Electric in Chicago between 1924 and 1933. The purpose of the study was to conclude the effects of illumination on workers and their output. The studies pointed out the significance of the social interaction and work group on output and satisfaction. The human relations movement eventually around the mind 1960s became a branch and a contributor to the field of organizational behavior; because of this progress all the industrialists and peoples came to know that human beings are the most valuable assets of an organization.    Human Resource Management gets more into practice as people are acknowledging from HRD and HR practices and these departments are fulfilling all the requirements of the employees, are managing all human resource and are giving full rights to every one. Now in all successful organizations there are HRM departments Shifting from Personnel Management to HRM The significant role of HRM is reflected in the transformation of the personnel management purpose from one of concentrating on employee welfare to one of managing people in a way which matches organizational and individual goals and providing employees with intrinsic and extrinsic reward. Therefore today Human Resource Management is historically known as personal management which deals with official system for the management of the people within an organization. Different Stages of shifting from Personnel Management to HRM: First stage: HRM earlier react in an even way to problems as they arise. Effective HRM seeks to connection HRM issues to the largely strategy of the organization with the most effective HRM policies and practices included into such corporate policies and strategies to strengthen or transform an organizations culture. Integration is required in two senses (1) integrating HRM issues in an organizations strategic planning (2) securing the acceptance and addition of a HRM view in the decisions of line managers. The HRM policy in worth of the various functions for example training and recruitment etc should be internally reliable Second stage:-   structure powerful cultures is a way of promoting demanding organizational goals in that a strong culture is intended at uniting employees through a shared set of managerially authorized values such as excellence   service and innovation etc. However there can be anxious between a strong organizational culture and the need to change situations and to be elastic particularly in the highly competitive and fast changing environment in which employers have to work on daily basis. Speedy change demanded by the market is sometimes tough in an organization with a strong culture.   Third stage: The mind set that people are a changeable cost is in effectual HRM which is replaced by the view that people are a resource and that as community capital it can be developed and can add to competitive advantage. Mostly it is accepted that competitive advantage is gained through well educated and trained motivated and dedicated employees at all levels. This recognition is now almost considered worldwide and important of management training and growth are the middle pillars of HRM.    Fourth stage: The view that the interests of employees and management or shareholders are different and confliction though considerably true in the past as organization which practices effective human resource management seeks to classify and promote a commonality of interests. important examples are training which enhances employment security and high earning ability for employees while at the same time rising the employees value to the enterprise goals of healthier productivity and performance pay systems which increase earnings without important labor cost increases and which at the same time endorse higher performance levels goal setting through two way communication which establishes joined goals and objectives and which provides basic rewards to the employee through a participatory process.   Fifth stage: Top to down communication tied with restricted information flow to keep power within the control of management give a way for sharing of information and knowledge. This transform facilitates the creation of faith and commitment and makes knowledge more fruitful. Control from the top is in successful HRM being replaced by increasing employee contribution and policies the ways in which the larger Japanese enterprises have installed participatory schemes and introduced information distribution and two way communication systems are instructive in this view. In enterprises that tend to have company missions and where there are fundamental values that shape their corporate culture HRM becomes a part of the strategy to attain their objectives. In some types of enterprises such as one in which permanent technological change takes place the goal of successfully managing change at short intervals often requires employee collaboration through emphasis on communication and involveme nt. Shifting of personnel management to HRM took place in three stages:   1) Records and Administration 2) Accountability Regulations 3) Competitive Advantage 1) Records and Administration In first stage the main activities which were taken out by personnel department were plan Company picnics setting up vacations enroll workers for health are exposure planning retirement parties increase diverse workforce and contain health care cost. 2) Accountability Regulations During this phase most important framework of rules and regulations started rising in the company. In 1970 the duty of the HR manger was to keep their organizations out of court. In the 1980 HR mangers had to address staffing costs linked to mergers and acquisition and downsize.   The economic issues associated to an increasingly worldwide and completive workplace characterize the 1990. 3) Competitive Advantage The aim of this shift stage is from just securing fulfillment to the more determined one of winning promise. The employee resource therefore becomes worth investing in and training and development thus assume a top profile. These initiatives are linked with or even predicated upon a propensity to shift from a collective orientation to the management of the workforce to a distinctive one.    P 2: Assess the role, tasks and activities of the human resource practitioner Human resource management plays a vital role in the success of every organization. Human resource management is concerned with the development and implementation of human resource strategies which are integrated with corporate strategies to ensure that the culture values structure of the organization quality motivation and commitment of its members contribute fully for the achievement of organizational goals. In big organizations it plays a very important and positive role in its success however it is difficult to deal with all the activities. HRM makes the quality of work life desirable in the organization.   ROLES AND TASKS OF HR Manager HR manager plays an important role in developing and maintaining polices. HR manager should motivate employees to make them fruitful for the organization. HR manager should conduct recruitment process effectively and efficiently, so that the skillful people could hire for the organization. HR manger is responsible for increasing the skills of the employees to make their performance better. HR manager should make the standards of performance so that the employees performance can be judged. HR is responsible to make a good environment in which the employees can work effectively and efficiently. HR manager should keep aware the employees about new policies of the organization and guide them. HR manager should develop a leading edge for the effective management of the people to maintain competitive advantage. HR manager should recommend the strategic direction for employees and ensure its implementation. HR manager should co-ordinate the design, implementation and administration of human resource policies and activities to ensure the availability and effective utilization of human resources for meeting the companys objectives. An Ideal HR Manager HR managers are very important for any organization because they makes polices, develop strategies directing and coordinating human resource management. The most important responsibility of HR manager is interviewing and recruiting candidates. HR manager of MOBILINK should develop its people to work hard for higher standards. HR manager of MOBILINK have to make recruitments of best talent because humans are the basic tool for having competitive edge in the market for most of the organizations. They should analyze the performance level of the employees and if they find it below standards so they have to motivate them and give them training of developing their skills to be productive for the MOBILINK organization. HR manager have to make good relationship with different departments like marketing, operation and finance and make himself aware of new updates to to prevent miscommunication. P3:- Evaluate the role and responsibilities of line managers in human resource practices? The Different roles Responsibility of line manager Line manager plays an important role in the success of HR manager. Line manager should deliver the task and responsibilities on time to the senior management. Keep informing the management about the progress in the organization. Line manager should defend the company strategy or management strategy when talking to the work group. Clear appropriate picture to the work group to keep them informed of the rules and polices and have to look out the ways to become more efficient. Line manager should set tasks and standards for the employees. Line manager should also have to provide training and development to the employees when needed. Line manager should involve group people in decision making and to understand their needs and to motivate them. Should also provide reasons for decisions and represent the view and ideas of work force to higher authorities. Line manager should maintain the good environment. Line manager have to take the following points in mind in order to make their activit ies better.   Line manager should be a positive role model Line manager should be honest to others and help the employees and give guidance about their job. Line manager should have to speak against injustice. Line manager should be self confident. M1:- Discuss how the concepts of PM and HRM are practiced in an organization? We have selected MOBILINK as an organization. The HR mission statement of MOBILINK is given as To lead the organization in enhancing its human capital and creating a winning environment where everyone enjoys contributing to the best of ones ability. HR Practices and personnel management at Mobilink: These are few of the HR and personnel management practices Recruitment   Selection Training Development Compensation   Performance Appraisal System   Occupational Health and Safety measures   Career Planning and Development   Research and Development Reward Management Employee Relations Planning: Now after the emergence of new telecom companies in the market the market becomes more competitive and employees are less loyal to the company. Whenever they get any better opportunity than the existing one they go for that which is their right. Due to this fact MOBILINK do not have any formal strategy for succession planning. They do consider the people from inside but proper success plan is not practiced in MOBILINK these days. But now due to market trends they transformed new strategies according to the management that it is not useful to invest in the employee at a larger extent. They do develop their employees for their career planning but no formal success planning is practiced. Recruitment and Selection: In MOBILINK the requirement for the new job is communicated by the respective managers to the HR department. After that the HR department looks for the possibilities of internal and external recruitment. Internal Recruitment: In MOBILINK internal recruitment is done the higher grades like managers and directors. When there is a vacancy the HR department views the past performance of the employees working at lower levels and chooses the right one to promote him/her to that position. But if there is a vacancy for managerial position and none of the suitable employee is available with in the organization then external recruitment is carried out. EXTERNAL RECRUITMENT In external recruitment the duty of line manager is to prepare a form for the job about their need in the organization. Then the role profile of that job is dent to functional director by line manager after his approval it is forward to the HR department. HR manager confirms the availability of the budget required and the cost of the advertisement for that job. After than by forecasting budget along with job profile sent to HR director for his final approval. Line and HR manager again sit together for short listing the people and the following criteria is adopt by them. Quality of earlier schooling Extra curricular activities Marks obtained Overseas travel Age Relevant experience The HR department then issue letters to the short listed candidates along with blank application forms by time date and venue for the preliminary interview and candidates is asked to bring along completed application forms. A two-member panel of HR and line management carries out the interviews managerial functional and supervisory skills. After clearing the preliminary interviews, people apply for different jobs are tested in different ways by a panel of cross functional assessors in the case of management selection. Resource management Rational decision making Communication skills Creative thinking Business development Influencing The HR department is responsible for assessments training details o rumination packages and conditions of services. Prepare letter and finalize other documents. M2: Make an effective judgment about PM and line manager responsibilities in studied organization. HR helps LINE manager in offering them coaching creating managers role plays for meetings, and providing them toolkits to refer them. In MOBILINK Peshawar they do not have formal HR department and final recruitments are done at ISLAMABD head office. They do have informal set up for hiring internees and also perform the responsibilities of HR manager in coordination with other major departments. In MOBILINK Islamabad head office they have formal HR setups for making decisions for other regions as well. Strategies are there in MOBILINK for HR manager to provide help to LINE manager in performing their job. HR manager clarify the standards, expectations, performance goals and ask line boss for his feed back regularly. HR manager of MOBILINK look ways for line manager to get him out of jams and prevent him for making serious errors. There may be some conflicts between the priorities of HR and of line management, in this situation a manager has to work hard for identifying issues and makes alternative for addressing it. HR manager when presenting bad news, try to bundle it with good news also but be careful to avoid letting problems drag for extended periods of time waiting on good news to happen. Line managers and supervisors are responsible for enforcing and promoting the work environment of dignity. They must take every action to prevent the unsuitable behavior. Line managers and HR managers are expected to communicate clearly to their staff members about their policies of harassment, discipline etc. MOBILINK is considering having the best HR in PAKISTAN and they have retained this edge. According to the judgment the HR department of MOBILINK is achieving their desired results. They have a good relationship with the different departments like finance, marketing etc. D1: Evaluate the roles and responsibilities of HR manager and line manager in the organization as compared to their ideal role. The HR manager of MOBILINK is performing well against the ideal situation. HR manager is good in communication and makes people understand that what he is saying. Manager also has the knowledge of principles and procedure of recruitment and also effective and efficient in providing the services to customers and personnel. HR manager is a good speaker and also have the ability to recognize what the other person is saying and also have strong working relationship internally and externally. HR manager is pleasant with other employees on the job and displaying a cooperative attitude. The standard for the ideal manager are SELF MOTIVATION The person that the manager is hiring for the job has to be capable of doing work without the close supervision of the boss. Communication skills Confidence and personality plays important role in the abilities of manager to communicate. Manager should be capable of clear communication with their fellow managers customers and employees. GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS Manager should be excellent in dealing with clients and customers. Manager should have the skills to make the difficult customer happy. So in that way the organization can hold their customer and business can grow. CONFLICTS RESOLUTION Manager should be capable of handling conflict in the organization. Manager need to be calm and able to identify and listening issues discuss it resolve it and followed up. Its important for a follow up check to ensure there are no further problems. SETTING GOALS Manager need to focus on a specific goal and able to assign the tasks to the employees. RESPONSIBILITY Managers responsible for ensuring the tasks assignments and dead line needed to be met and hire appropriate people and handle the situation which tends to be profitable in the end. KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ORGANISATION A manager should have all the knowledge about the organization so that he/she would be capable of giving answers to their clients customers and staff members. LEADERSHIP SKILLS Managers should have strong leadership skills. Managers are the leaders in work place. Manager need to be a good speaker and assigning tasks. Manager should also be able of handling group of people and should lead the group or team in the right direction. D2: Suggest recommendations for realistic improvement against the defined Human resource is one of the most exciting and challenging departments of the organizations. People are very important in any organization. MOBILINK has a strong HR system and therefore we did not found many drawbacks in their HR practices. There are some but it can be better by little effort. RECOMMENDATIONS Following are some recommendations based upon our analysis. We observed that employees are not aware of their depth policies o the employee are lacking in the knowledge about policies which is the responsibility of HR manager to aware them. MOBILINK HR should have to monitoring and measuring employee s performance. HR lacks in terms of career planning and development so MOBILINK has to recognize this function in their policy statement. MOBILINK should have to increase in its recruitment sources so that they will not loose the potential candidates. HR manager should have to make clear communication with their lower staff which in terms makes the organization beneficial.

Influence of Nuclear Destruction on the Evolution of Japan Essay

Influence of Nuclear Destruction on the Evolution of Japan â€Å"The strangest thing was the silence. It was one of the most unforgettable impressions I have. You’d think that people would be panic-stricken, running, yelling. Not at Hiroshima. They moved in slow motion, like figures in a silent movie, shuffling through the dust and smoke. I heard thousands of people breathing the words, ‘water, give me water.’ Many simply dropped to the ground and died.† ~Setsuko Thurlow In a flash, 120,000 corporeal humans are destroyed. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remind us of the terrible power humans can unleash, and the horrors of nuclear destruction. So if we as Americans are distressed about this event, imagine what the Japanese think. The bombings are still very present in the minds of Japanese, and one does not have to look very far to see evidence of this. Everyday Japanese remind themselves of the past through popular culture. Japanese animation (usually referred to as anime), manga comics and feature films all heavily rely on nuclear war or apocalyptic weaponry as either the main story or a huge plot device. Such a cataclysmic, culturally altering event is difficult to forget. The memory of the nuclear destruction at the end of WWII is ingrained in Japan’s collective unconscious, as reflected in everyday pieces of Japanese popular culture, especially anime films and manga. Japanese are â€Å"still suffering from the sociological and physiological after-effects† of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Kawasaki 20). The direct victims and survivors of the bombings, called hibakusha, are not the only casualties of this event. Beyond these people, their friends and relatives all share a coll... ...nk heavily about reality, existence, and time. While viewers need not constantly think of the nuclear destruction that brought about this art, it is important to once in awhile reflect on how this reality came to be, and recognize history and the changing face of a nation. Works Cited Akira. Special Edition. Pioneer Entertainment, 2001. Grave of the Fireflies. Cmp/Us Manga Corps, 1988. Kawasaki, Shoichiro. A Call from Hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tokyo: Asahi Evening News, 1978. Linner, Rachelle. City of Silence: Listening to Hiroshima. New York: Orbis Books, 1995. Munroe, Alexandra. Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art after 1945. New York: Harry N. Abrahms, 1994. Neon Genesis Evangelion. Perfect Collection. A. D. Vision, 2002. Tasker, Peter. The Japanese: A Major Exploration of Modern Japan. New York: Truman Talley Books, 1987.

YouTube’s Effect on the Music Industry Essay -- digital media, innovati

Digital media has had a vast effect on American society, and it continues to revolutionize the way things work. One of the main outlets for innovation in digital media is the website, YouTube. It has paved a way for the sharing of videos to a multitude of audiences. More specifically, it has profoundly affected the way the music industry works, by providing independent artists a way to release and share their music to a mass audience without the help of a major record label. Often called â€Å"The YouTube Effect,† it has become a phenomenon in the music industry. Bindu Swetha (2013) noted, â€Å"YouTube was launched in 2005 by former PayPal owners Chad Hurley, Steven Chen and Jawed Karim. Prior to YouTube, there was no website that enabled users to share their favorite videos on a website† (para. 1). The fact that YouTube was the first website to allow people to post and share videos is one of the reasons YouTube has had so much success. YouTube users can upload content to the site and share it for millions to see. Christopher Cayari (2011) found that, â€Å"YouTube has become the third most visited website in the world – behind Google and Facebook† (YouTube Has Affected Music section, para. 2). In October 2008, YouTube attracted 100 million American viewers a day, estimated to be over two-thirds of the Internet users in the United States (comScore, 2008). Cayari (2011) said that YouTube is a technology that challenges the way we perceive music, musician and audience (YouTube Has Affected Music section, para. 3). When you take a look at the number of musicians who have gained recognition simply by using YouTube, you can see the truth in Cayari’s statement. A few of the artists who are well-known for making their start on YouTube include Ty... ... References Cayari, C. (2011). The YouTube Effect: How YouTube Has Provided New Ways to Consume, Create, and Share Music. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 12(6). Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.ijea.org/v12n6/v12n6.pdf comScore, press release. (2008, December 9). YouTube attracts 100 million U.S. online video viewers in October 2008. Retrieved November 8, 2013 from http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2008/12/YouTube_Reaches_100_Million_US_Viewers Miller, D. (2011). Celebrating YouTube's Influence on Music. Music Business Journal, 02. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from www.thembj.org/2011/02/celebrating-you-tubes-influence-on-music/ Swetha, B. (2013, May 28). How YouTube Has Changed the Music Industry. Buzzle.com. Retrieved November 8, 2013, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/how-youtube-has-changed-the-music-industry.html

Wuthering Heights Heathcliff Essay -- English Literature Heathcliff V

Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff "Wuthering Heights" centres on the story of Heathcliff. The first paragraph provides a vivid physical picture of him, as Lockwood describes how his "black eyes" withdraw suspiciously under his brows at Lockwood's approach. Nelly's story begins with his introduction into the Earnshaw family. His vengeful desire to do evil and his love for Catherine drive the entire plot. Heathcliff, however, defies being understood and it is difficult for the reader to resist seeing what they want to see in him. By the name Heath-cliff it hints to the reader that he is empty like a heath or dangerous like a cliff. The house which he is brought to also gives the reader a picture of stormy bad weather. Bronte teases the reader with two sides to his character. One that his cruelty is only an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine and thus seen as a romantic hero. The other, a demon or a devil who is hungry for recognition, money and power and thus seen as a villain. A romantic hero in a novel is usually someone who appears dangerous, daring or cold at first who later emerges to be fiercely devoted and loving. A villain is usually someone who's violent and ill disposed towards others, the wicked enemy of the hero in a story or play. As soon as Heathcliff entered the home after being picked up from the streets of Liverpool he caused havoc and jealousy. He upset the family and above all Hindley, as Mr. Earnshaw seemed to have a soft spot for him. Heathcliff abused from this and used it as an opportunity to blackmail Hindley. Once, when the father gave them two horses, Heathcliffs' appeared to have a defect so he made Hindley change with him or he would have his father of the beating... ...e would be with Catherine again he saw happiness "last night I was at the threshold of death, alone, I am within sight of my heaven. I have my eyes on it hardly three feet to sever me!" Bronte was very successful in combining two completely distinct characters into one man. As the reader has seen Heathcliff could either be seen as a romantic hero somewhat like Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" who at the end of the play took his own life to be with his love Juliet as he could not stand being alone in this world without her or as a tyrant who destroyed the lives and futures of two families. In my opinion I see Heathcliff as a villain he managed single handedly to win his way from nothing. Nevertheless happiness is restored at the end of the novel moral rightness is restored when Hareton and Cathy get married and the two house holds are left to rest in peace. Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff Essay -- English Literature Heathcliff V Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff "Wuthering Heights" centres on the story of Heathcliff. The first paragraph provides a vivid physical picture of him, as Lockwood describes how his "black eyes" withdraw suspiciously under his brows at Lockwood's approach. Nelly's story begins with his introduction into the Earnshaw family. His vengeful desire to do evil and his love for Catherine drive the entire plot. Heathcliff, however, defies being understood and it is difficult for the reader to resist seeing what they want to see in him. By the name Heath-cliff it hints to the reader that he is empty like a heath or dangerous like a cliff. The house which he is brought to also gives the reader a picture of stormy bad weather. Bronte teases the reader with two sides to his character. One that his cruelty is only an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine and thus seen as a romantic hero. The other, a demon or a devil who is hungry for recognition, money and power and thus seen as a villain. A romantic hero in a novel is usually someone who appears dangerous, daring or cold at first who later emerges to be fiercely devoted and loving. A villain is usually someone who's violent and ill disposed towards others, the wicked enemy of the hero in a story or play. As soon as Heathcliff entered the home after being picked up from the streets of Liverpool he caused havoc and jealousy. He upset the family and above all Hindley, as Mr. Earnshaw seemed to have a soft spot for him. Heathcliff abused from this and used it as an opportunity to blackmail Hindley. Once, when the father gave them two horses, Heathcliffs' appeared to have a defect so he made Hindley change with him or he would have his father of the beating... ...e would be with Catherine again he saw happiness "last night I was at the threshold of death, alone, I am within sight of my heaven. I have my eyes on it hardly three feet to sever me!" Bronte was very successful in combining two completely distinct characters into one man. As the reader has seen Heathcliff could either be seen as a romantic hero somewhat like Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet" who at the end of the play took his own life to be with his love Juliet as he could not stand being alone in this world without her or as a tyrant who destroyed the lives and futures of two families. In my opinion I see Heathcliff as a villain he managed single handedly to win his way from nothing. Nevertheless happiness is restored at the end of the novel moral rightness is restored when Hareton and Cathy get married and the two house holds are left to rest in peace.

Islamic Art and Architecture; Influence and Effects Essay

Introduction During the reign of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughal rulers, architecture and art took on more meaning than it had in the past. The types of architecture and manuscript writing have had both symbolic significance and influence on the people of these empires. The architecture can be said to have had the greatest impact on the presence of power and devotion to Islamic arts of all of the empires, while manuscripts were held privately until trends influenced their spread over greater distances and people. The Ottomans, in their quest to expand their lands and influence, conquered Constantinople in 1453, which sparked a major period of construction in the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. This large building initiative took place in order to encourage a repopulating of Istanbul, as well as the revitalization of the economy in this declining city. The buildings and complexes the Ottomans built shed an interesting light on their concerns and ideals. For example, while the complexes were mainly built as places of worship, they took on other roles, such as, centers for education, commerce, and hospital care. One complex is clear in its intentions to the public, as can be seen by the endowment deed, which read â€Å" to elevate matters of religion and religious sciences in order to strengthen the mechanisms of worldly sovereignty and to reach happiness in the afterworld†, (Bloom & Blair, 298). This combination of buildings in a complex format drew people from the old capital and cities of the empire, and generated revenue that amassed into fortunes for the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans, however, were not the only empire to enjoy great wealth and displays of that wealth. The Mughals, who descended from the same Turkish conquerors as the Ottomans, also enjoyed prosperity from great building projects. The architecture of the Mughals was able to change with great regularity during its time, due to the constant movement of the central government. The Mughals also benefited from a blend of styles and influences to create their palaces. The most famous example of Mughal architecture was the Taj Mahal, which was built in the memory of a deceased favorite wife. In the building of temples and tombs in Mughal history, it is quite common to find them built as reminders to the community of saints, heroes, or loved ones. It was  also common to find that they lacked as muc h fine detail as their neighbors to the west, but brought new styles to the architecture derived from the rich traditions of the people of India. Unlike the Ottomans and The Mughal, the Safavids were derived from the family lineage of Mohammed the prophet. Despite this difference, the Safavids built great temples and complexes for similar reasons. The Safavids built great complexes, and like the Ottomans, they moved their capital to a centralized location in order to centralize power, and increase commerce. The Safavids also shared another trait in building with the Ottomans. They both had a strong emphasis on education, and liked to keep a watchful eye over it. For this reason, religious complexes often included the highest forms of education for both the government and the religion of Islam. Though in competition for much of their histories, the Ottomans and Safavids adhered to many of the same architectural styles, with one major difference. Due to their difference in branches of Islam, the Safavids, unlike their Sunni neighbors the Ottomans, had little problem with diverging from traditional customs of avoiding the use of depictions of animals and people in their design. This proved to enhance the appearance of the buildings, but also give them a unique place in the history of Islamic buildings. Manuscripts, on the other hand, have a very different history than do the magnificent buildings of the Islamic world. In the Ottoman Empire, as was true of most of the Muslim world, the Koran was the most copied manuscript. Copies of the Koran were reproduced with astonishing art, but were usually given as gifts to other rulers. In this system, the common person was excluded from viewing the finest manuscripts. Common manuscripts were produced by artisans, but lacked the high quality of that of the royal courts. The Ottomans also used their talents to reproduce manuscripts that depicted great rulers and events in history, as well as topography paintings that displayed the prominence of conquest in the Ottomans daily life. Ottoman manuscripts were not as popular or unique as the ones created by the Safavids or Mughals, but they did posses superiority in the ar t of calligraphy. Manuscripts from the Safavid and Mughal empires possessed greater detail in art, but most of the calligraphers were not as skilled as those of the Ottoman Empire. Despite this lack of good calligraphy, the Safavids and Mughals were more skilled in art and design. Like the Ottomans, the Mughals and Safavid empires copied  the Koran at a high rate, but only the best works of art were given away as gifts. This lack of quality reproductions, which included not only writing, but also painting, led to the decline of the bound book. This decline led to the development of an industry of artisans creating single manuscripts. These manuscripts allowed for both artistic differences that were hard to avoid in large manuscripts, and it allowed more people to posses art. They were collected into books, but they had a greater impact on both the people of the Muslim world and the Europeans, who were exploring the area heavily in search of people to colonize. The arrival of the Europeans also led to a decline in the production of small manuscripts, due to the fact that the printing press and mass production of books were arriving in Europe. Conclusion Islamic art and architecture both had more than one use in Islamic life. The architecture reminded the people of saints, great rulers, martyrs, or beloved figures, as well as serving as a center for religion, education, commerce, and medicine. The art of the Islamic world was originally used to tell of battles, heroes, and most popularly recreate the Koran. Art also allowed for the growth of writing, painting, and the distribution of ideas over greater distances than the spoken word. Both Islamic art and architecture still hold as reminders to Muslims and the world that great rulers, conquerors, and artists have made a lasting impact on the region and its culture.

Marketing to Generation Y Essay

On whitethorn 12, 1999, languor baseb totally told diamond, James rearson and Sam Gradess were visiting San Francisco for a utter nearly(a) round of meetings with West sailplaning investiture analysts. They were scarcely days from the sign public hitering (initial byeing) of shares in str etc..com, the compile and net merchant of jejuneoriented clothing that they had founded on rhombuss graduation from Harvard fall of work School in 1996. Snarled in extra elbow path gridlock, ball field was on his jail cell discussing the initial offerings pricing with analysts c all over version in unsanded York City.An analyst urged rhomb to respond to an invitation by the worlds largest clear commit and portal, America Online (AOL), to substantiate demoralise an prime tenant on its adolescent shop lay. AOL takeed $2 zillion per course for the rights. Matt, if you regulate yes, that im resolve be big. If you harbinger tomorrow that AOLs partner in the coevals Y m arket is dilute, it leave behind put profane on the map. It will definitely affect the initial offering price. baseball diamond sighed. A headline deal with AOL directly could be worth perhaps 10% on the stock price. But AOL was intercommunicate rich legal injury. It was widely ru mored that AOL preyed on virtuosotup companies in the cal curiosityar weeks before they went public, tempting them with star billing on its portal at the very moment when the publicity was close to valu sufficient. He estimated that hed be feeding a $45 cpm ( cost per yard word pictures) to anchor the AOL juvenile long timed obtain come in. nobody paid more than $30 for web eyeballs. In the trio years that he had been rangening admixture, Diamond had prided himself on doing deals that make sense. If he could non anticipate a amplification to adulteration from a promotional deal, he reas mav eat up that Wall route would not anticipate a clear either. It wont pay out, he told the a nalyst firmly. We only do deals that be piss value. To his colleagues in the limousine, he wondered out loud, Am I right?Professor John Deighton and Visiting Scholar Gil McWilliams prepared this occurrence as the basis for class give-and-take rather than to illust range either useful or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. The contri still nowion of Ann Leamon, Manager, Center for Case Development, is appreciatively ack promptlyledged. Certain sensitive information in this case has been disguised and should not be regarded as informative as to the prospects of the guild. secure cc0 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.To vow copies or request per relegation to re get out materials, call option 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http//www.hbsp.harvard.edu. nopart of this publication may be reproduced, submitd in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any gove rnment agencyelectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or former(a) thanwithout the permission of Harvard Business School. 1D bearloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. untested York University, Stephen Tamke, dismount 2013, 001-003500-048 mix.com merchandising to measure YThe cadences Y MarketTermed the hottest demo brilliant of the moment, generation Y came to the attention of marketers in the tardily 1990s. This echo of the baby boom was make up of barbarianren and teenagedrs born in the coupled States between 1975 and 1989 and in that locationfore aged between 10 and 24. They were estimated to be a 56 meg strong host of verit adequate to(p) and potential consumers, some three times the size of their immediate predecessor, propagation X.1 The U.S. enume arrange Bureau projected that the 10 to 24 age group would grow from 56.3 trillion to 63.1 meg by 2010, growing windy than the general population.Although generation Y matched its surface ups generation in s ize, in al nigh every other way it was very different. One in three was not Caucasian. One in notificationinal lived in a undivided- farm household. Three in four had working mothers.2 Body glittered, tattooed, pierced, theyre a highly fragmented,unpredictable group of teenagers who, while tottering around on five inch soles, voice barelytoned-up opinions round sexuality, government, the American dream and an end-of-century loyalty to spirituality.3 They were computer literate 81% of teens used the Internet, according to Chicagoestablish juvenileage look into International (TRI), which also noted that over a 3 calendar month termination on AOL, they posted more than 2 meg Leonardo Di Caprio related messages.4 fit in to Lester Rand, Director of the Rand Youth Poll, they had gold to drop dead and an appetite for pass it.They keep back a higher incremental allowance from their parents, and with the maturement in our service economy, they are able to secure jobs easily and at boost minimum wages. Theyre exposed to so many different incr tranquilizes on TV, in the middle and by their friends. Its a generation who grew up with excess as a norm.5 In 1999 Jupiter describe that 67% of on-line(a) teens and 37% of on-line kids say they made use of on-line shop sites, either obtaining or gathering information about products.6 genesis Y was expected to spend nigh $136 billion in 1999, before method of bankers billing for the groups influence on purchases made by parents and other adults. (See evinces 1 and 2 for this and other estimates.)on-line disputation for genesis Y Spending coevals Ys size and spending power had not gone unnoticed. umpteen pompous and on-line retailers courted them. subvert viewed its just about significant competitors as dELiAs and the online magalog mXg. The neighborhood mall was also a threat.1 Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. multiplication Y, Business Week, February 15, 1999, Cover story. 2 Neuborne, E llen and Kathleen Kerwin. extension Y, Business Week, February 15, 1999, Cover story. 3 OLeary, Noreen. market The Boom Tube, Adweek, Vol. 39, No. 20, may 18, 1999, pp. S44-S52. 4 Brown, Eryn. Loving Leo Online, Fortune, April 12, 1999, p. 152. 5 BAXExpress, July/August 1999, httpbaxworld.com/baxexpress/0799/consumers.html. 6 Sacharow, Anya. Shadow of On-line Commerce reelects on postmodern Kids, Jupiter Communications hide,June 7, 1999.2Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, guide 2013, 001-003 devalue.com market to coevals Y500-048dELiAs Inc.7The largest on-line and compileue merchant serving Generation Y was New York-based dELiAs, with 1998 gross gross receipts of $158 one thousand thousand. Founded in 1995 by two 33-year-old former Yale rooommates, Stephen Kahn and Christopher Edgar, dELiAs sell through mug composes unhor recoverd to more than 10 meg recipients, of whom 6 zillion had bought within the past year. It managed its own articulate fulfilment from a warehouse complex, and operated twenty stodgy retail stores.most of dELiAs 1,500 employees were under 30. Its forebode representatives were very much high tame and college students, and they often offered modality advice as healthy as taking ball clubs. In November 1998 dELiAs Inc. paid $4.75 zillion for the trademarks and poster keep naps of bankrupt Fulcrums 5 compiles (Zoe for teenage girls, Storybook Heirlooms, Play costume, After the Stork, and Just for Kids), s riseed them 5 million name calling which closely doubled their database. It also paid $2.4 million for trade from Zoe and Storybook.By 1999, dELiAs went to market with a complex set of tick offs and marketing methodsThe dELiAs brand marketed to teenage girls as a compose through the mail and as dELiAs*cOm on the Web.The gURL.com Website was an on-line clip for girls and youth women, carrying articles as well as reposition electronic mail, free homepage host ing and publishing tools, and links to a electronic network of third-party sites for girls and women. gURL was the only property that was not industrious in commerce.The droog brand marketed line up to 12-to 20-year-old males through the mail and on-line.The TSI Soccer compose sold soccer gear by mail and on-line. Storybook Heirlooms retailed apparel and accessories for girls under 13 by mail and Web compile.Dotdotdash sold apparel, footwear and accessories for girls aged 7 to 12 by mail and Web catalog.Discountdomain.com was a subscription Website selling discounted close-out merchandise.Contentsonline.com offered unusual home furnishings, light constituent of furniture and household articles to females aged 13-24. While preponderantly a Web catalog, the property appeared intermittently as a bring out infix in dELiAs sign catalog.In April 1999, dELiAs Inc. spun off its Internet properties in an IPO, selling shares in a company called iTurF which earned tax revenue enh ancements from all of the above on-line portions. In terms of the deal, these on-line line of credites could advertise in dELiAs print catalogs at a rate of $40 per 1,000catalogs.The dELiAs catalog, 60 million of which were printed in 1998, had the largest internal circulation of any publication directed at Generation Y. The on-line magazines also divided the parent companys 354,000 cheering foot distri hardlyion center in Hanover, PA. Because iTurF did not take ownership of stock certificate until a customers order was displace, the risk of obsolescence and markdowns remained with the parent company. iTurF shared offices with the parent company, enjoying a submarket rent for New York metropolitan space.7 Information drawn from company website www.dELiAs.com3Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048 adulterate.com trade to Generation YIn May 1999, iTurF procl channeliseed record linely sales of $2.6 million (up from $0.69 million in the first draw in of 1998). Gross profit was $1.3 million, or 49.1% of revenues, up from $0.34 million or 49.3% of revenues 1998 (see lay out 3). However, dELiAs reported that it expected its iTurF unit to report a loss for the fiscal year. By April 1999, the account of plurality who had ever bought at the iTurF Websites was 66,000 (up from 35,000 at the end of December 1998), and the number of laughable visitors was 731,000 in April 1999 alone.Analysts estimated that individually customer cost $26 to acquire.8 Private label merchandise accounted for 40% of iTurFs sales, in line with dELiAs ratio. iTurf entered into agreements with RocketCash Corp and DoughNET, companies that had been established to allow parents see to it the on-line spending of their children. For example, RocketCash let parents establish a credit card account and set from all(prenominal) one childs access to specific merchant sites, times of operation, and the option to set up an auto- allowance to periodically replenish the account.Dough crystalise was a virtual(prenominal)debit card that parents could set up for their children. Parents could customize DoughNETs site to range teens through all aspects of managing their money. In April 1999, dELiAs finish to spin off iTurF seemed shrewd. The market capitalization of dELiAs Inc. was $90 million, on sales of $200 million annually. ITurF was capitalized at $200 million on a sales run rate of $12 million annually.mXg Media Inc.9 huntsman Heaney and Stuart MacFarlane graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1996. MacFarlane tie ined Bain & Co. and Heaney joined BancBoston Robertson Stephens. Heaney told how he got the mood for mXg while Christmas shopping at Nordstroms for his thence girlfriend. A saleswoman had told him that the Y necklace frolicd on the Friends sitcom was in room. I knew in that respect had to be a more direct way to recuperate out about fashion trends influenced by entertainment, Heane y said.10In 1997, Heaney and MacFarlane quit their jobs and moved to Manhattan Beach, CA, to be close to Hollywood and surfers and skaters. Using the pay phone while staying at a local motel they raised $250,000 in increments of $5,000, and diveed mXg, styling it a magalog, a hybrid of catalog and magazine, aimed at teenage girls. Un want a conventional magazine, mXg reported exactly where to go to buy the fashion items that it get to on its pages.MacFarlane recalled their first lean times Typically, retailers order armoury in half dozenes (one small, two medium, two large, one extra large). But sooner of formulation Well take 2,000 sixsomees we said Well take six literally one of each. They could fund a circulation of only 20,000 for the magazines launch in the fall of 1997, but it did well. nigh 5% of the recipients bought from it. The numbers were darling becoming to induce Urban Outfitters, a retail fashion chain, to invest $5 million for 40% of the company, in integ ratedd as mXg Media, Inc. intersectiondoubling each get it on.each, refunded withB Dalton Booksellers.accounted for most of mXg Medias revenues, but ad revenue was The company used intelligencestand distribution (150,000 issues per take out at $2.95 a purchase), as well as distribution in bookstores uniform Barnes & Noble, and The magazine had a pass-along rate of well-nigh six readers per copy.Sensitive to the tastes of their send earshot of female teenagers, they hired teens, paying them $7 per hour to work by and by school answering letters, doing interviews, and writing copy to make8 CIBC World Markets, Equity enquiry, June 2, 1999.9 Information drawn from company website www.mXgonline.com10 Waxler, Caroline. Guys with moxie, Forbes, May 31, 1999, pp. 130-131.4Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 debasement.com market to Generation Y500-048it in force(p) authentic. No printed word goes out without a teen girl che cking it being uncool is the court of death in this backup.11 At the start of each fashion sequence mXg recruited 30 Moxie girls to spend a hypothetical $150 each. Their virtual purchases primed(p) which items appeared in the next issue. The magazine paid staffers to model clothes and invited would-be teen celebrities to pose free to gain recognition.A Website, mXgonline.com, was established in the summer of 1997. It comprised a magazine, higgle populate, and companionship sites, and sold clothes and accessories. mXg Media pursued other access points for their on-line magalog, featuring it in on-line fashion malls such as fashionwindow.com. In 1999, mXg sponsored concerts featuring acts same(p) Gus Gus which were fortunateby Generation Y. hick produced a series of Webcasts of the concerts for teens. The company described its mission as cross-media publishing, targeted scoopfully at teen girls. It planned to add mXgtv, an Internet motion-picture show site, to its media po rtfolio later in the year.A move Marketplace? new(prenominal) companies vied for the attention of Generation Y. Bolt.com was a content-based magazine-type site skewed towards a market slightly older than that of the Generation Y market, but into which the older end of the Y market energy at last fall. Bolt.com included sections deedd jobs, money, movie reviews, music, news and issues, sex and dating, and sports. It had a converse room and free e-mail, and sold mark merchandise. It boasted that 5,000 people joined it every day.The magazine seventeen had an on-line version, offering chat live and message boards, as well as its regular articles, quizzes and features. Indeed many magazines were now launching online versions of their magazines, and new print publications like Twist and start out had appeared to compete for generation Y advertise revenues.Broader on-line retailers wait ond this market, such as bluefly.com selling discounted brands on-line. Strong contender came from mall-based stores such as The Buckle, Gadzooks, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, American eagle Outfitters, and Guess, all of whom sold merchandise on- and off-line. clip and sportswear manufacturers were developing on-line sales sites. Nike and Tommy Hilfiger planned to launch e-commerce sites with broad product offerings. vitiate.comAs a Harvard MBA student in 1996, Matt Diamond wrote a business plan proposing the idea of marketing original sports clothing by catalog to young people in Japan. The premise was that the popularity of this style of clothing among American youth might generate demand abroad, and that catalogs would be able to tap that demand faster than would store distribution.On graduation, Diamond implemented the plan. He and a friend, Jim Johnson, used seed money from friends and family to design and print a Japanese-language catalog, which they branded Durango Expedition. They mail-clad it in January 1997, and at the selfsame(prenominal) time they went live with Japanese and face Websites, as alternative channels.The venture flopped. The placard generated no significant sales. However, they discovered to their awe that they were receiving hits on the English Website from American youths. inwardly a month they had reconceptualized the business to serve American teen girls through catalog and online channels, under the name subvert. Diamond and Johnson each contributed $60,000 in cash and11 Waxler, Caroline. Guys with moxie, Forbes, May 31, 1999, pp. 130-131.5Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048 subvert.com Marketing to Generation Yanother friend, Sam Gradess added $150,000 in cash when he joined six months later from Goldman Sachs. In November 1997, the first issue of the admixture catalog, 48 pages in length, was mailed to a purchased send disceptation of 150,000 teen call. At the same time metals Website became active. The role at that time was to reduce the num ber of catalogs mailed as on-line sales grew.OrganizationDiamond became president and CEO of the fledgling company. Johnson took the title of chief operating officer. Gradess was chief fiscal officer. Neil Vogel joined from Ladenburg Thalman & Co., a consumer and Internet investment banking group to be the chief corporate development officer. Fellow Harvard sectionmate, Andrew Roberts left PricewaterhouseCoopers to join subvert in January 1999 as VP of business development.Another HarvardMBA, Joan Rosenstock was hired as marketing director, having held positions in marketing at the content B consideretball Association as well as in ad account management. Erstwhile, music editor of teenage magazine seventeen, Susan Kaplow, became executive editor and Karen Ngo, who had been a feature editor and fashion stylist at cardinal, was hired as creative director. debauch out starting timed as many of its operations as it could.Working with mostly domestic vendors who could produce and sh ip within a 2-8 week timeframe, deterioration purchased only 50% of its featured products and relied on a quick order and re-order ability so as to control inventory levels. Telephone orders and order-processing were outsourced to Harrison Fulfillment Services, based in Chattanooga, TN. OneSoft Corp., based in Virginia, treatd on-line ordering and fed its orders to Chattanooga for fulfillment. Alloy personnel concentrated on marketing and merchandising issues.Target Market opposed dELiAs, Alloy opted for a single-brand strategy targeted at twain genders. Rather than dividing our marketing resources crosswise multiple brands and Websites, we seek to maximize the impress of our marketing efforts by promoting a single brand. We believe this allows us to attract visitors to our Website and skeleton customer loyalty quickly and efficiently.12 Indeed Diamond considered that Alloys let on differentiator lay in being gender neutral, believing that a successful Generation Y community depended on dynamic boy-girl interaction.He notion of their community site as an MTV-like synergetic distribution channel. Its an opportunity for girls to rebuke to boys, boys to talk to girls, to introduce music, to deliver fashion, to deliver lifestyle. Diamond conceded that the majority of the visitors to its Website were girls, and the print catalog was even more skewed towards girls. However, it was the intention to attract boys to the Website by other means. at that place was some evidence that this strategy was working, as the percentage of female Website visitors declined from 70% in early 199913 towards a desired 60/40 ratio.Boys tended to be drawn by music, extreme sports and games, while girls appeared to be more responsive to chat and browsing. Diamond felt, however, that just as both teen boys and girls fall down out in shopping malls, ceremonial occasion each other as well as chatting, the on-linepresence of both boys and girls was most-valuable. Alloys target was teens making get decisions with parents somewhere in the background. The target group ranged from 12-20, but the median age was 15.Alloy was careful not to aim too young, partly for regulatory reasons, but also because they felt that by targeting 15-yearolds they reached a group at an important buying point in their lives. About 35-40% of teenage purchasing was on apparel and accessories, and Alloy monitored what else this group bought. As12 IPO Offer Document May 1999.13 Chervitz, Darren. IPO First Words Alloy Online CEO Matt Diamond. Interview at CBS MarketWatch.com, June 14, 1999. http//cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/19990614/news/current/ipo_word.htx?source=htx/http2_mw&dist=na6Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003Alloy.com Marketing to Generation Y500-048owners of a piece of real ground they did not see themselves as limited to selling apparel and accessories, and had moved into soft furnishings.The OfferingIt was stock (a) practice among catalog retailers, such as Lands End and LL Bean, to sell products under the catalogs brand. Even at dELiAs, semiprivate-label sales accounted for about 40% of the mix. Alloy, however, underscored know teen brands such as Vans, Diesel, and ONeill, both to attract buyers and to offer reassurance of quality. yet 20-25% of Alloys sales came from labels that were exclusive to Alloy, such as Stationwagon and Local 212. Diamond was philosophical about the pros and cons of private label, theres no denying you get improve margins on own-label goods.But rill with your own labels leaves you vulnerable to ending up as a skateboard brand. The Alloy site aimed to build what Diamond termed the 3 Cs of on-line retailing to this generation Community, Content, and Commerce. He noted that constant communication was key to understanding this generation. They had a strong charter to chat about movies, television, music and what was mishap at school, and to seek advice from on e another, sound off about pet hates, and once in a while shop.A small team of in-house editors created editorial content on the site, supplemented by syndicated content. The consultation also contributed content, receiving in exchange a sense of community, in chat-rooms and message boards, and by submitting their own letters, poems, drawings and articles. Poems and drawings would be voted upon interactively. Chat rooms in particular were popular and a great deal full (in contrast to some of the chat rooms of competitors).The chat rooms were moderated from end of school-time until midnight on a daily basis, with software product employed to spot offensive or obscene language. Advice columns were a dependable magnet. (See Exhibit 7 for a sample of user-generated content.) Andrew Roberts remembered vividly the moment when he knew that Alloy was in truth onto something. In the aftermath of the Columbine uplifted School shooting tragedy, one of the editors knew that Alloy had to r espond and fast. She worked all night creating the get hold of spaces in chatrooms, and editorial content.By 830 a.m. the day after, 15 hours after news of the tragedy broke, Alloy had reliable 7,311 postings related to the events at Columbine. Roberts explained that it wasnt so much the number that impressed him, but the content of the postings. These kids were really anxious. We had kids who followed the goth fashion who were really scared about how others would track them. Other kids were reassuring them and saying have ont worry, we know it wasnt you or the goths who made these guys do what they did. They just had a desperate need to talk with each other, and be reassured by each other.Building the BrandAlloy built its brand, and with it avocation to the Alloy site, in several(prenominal) ways. It undertook traditional advertising in print media (Seventeen Magazine, YM, Rolling Stone, and Snowboarder). It used hot-links from sitessuch as seventeen.com to advertise promotio nal deals.It had superfluous copromotional deals with, for example, MGM Entertainment, Sony Music, Burton Snowboards, MCI and EarthLink/Sprint, who provided free products and services that were used as special promotions for the Alloy community (such as private movie screenings, exclusive music give-aways, and renown on-line chats). Finally, it bought banner advertising on gateway sites such as Yahoo Shopping, Fashionmall.com, CatalogCity.com and CatalogLink.com.7Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048Alloy.com Marketing to Generation YThe Business Model in that location were two revenue streams merchandise sales, and advertising and sponsorship. An agent had been retained to sell advertising on the Website, and the longer-term intention was to build an in-house sales force to sell sponsorships, banner-ads, targeted advertising (segmented by Website area, time of day, user location, or age), and cabal print and Website a dvertising.To this end, Samantha Skey, who had been responsible for commerce, advertising and sponsorship for Disney Online and Family.com and had worked for Buena persuasion Internet group, was hired in 1999 as VP of ecommerce and sponsorships. In 1999, about 10% of revenues were generated by sponsorship and advertising deals, and the proportion was expected to rise to 20% in year 2000.Alloy was aware that it would never meet all of its customers requirements. It was happy to offer links to other sites that could be seen as competitive, such as Gaps on-line site. Look, we jut theyre going to go there anyway, noted Roberts. If they go via us, we at to the lowest degree get something for it. Were happy to have such complementary deals. Probably not with dELiAs, though, he grinned. Exhibits 4 and 5 report annual fiscal year cognitive process 1996-1998, and pullly performance betweenlast quarter 1997 and first quarter 1999.To check Diamond describe it, running Alloy was, at least day-to-day, like running a production plant. We know what it cost to get a customer, and we know what a customer will spend. We just have to keep the two numbers in balance. We could make a profit today, but in this investment climate theres no reward for walloping your loss numbers. By April 1999, Alloy had a database of 2.6 million names and care fores, comprising 1.7 million introductory buyers and 900,000 visitors to the Website who had registered their names and addresses.It was mailing monthly to the most responsive of the names on this list, supplemented by purchases of new names, and it hoped to mail 20 million catalogs over the course of 1999. Alloys catalogs cost $450 per thousand to design, print and mail. If Alloy mailed catalogs to names from the database who had bought from it before, it assimilated an order from about 3% of the names each time it mailed.If Alloy bought a list of new names, for example a list of American girls who owned personal computers, at a cos t that was typically $ carbon per thousand names, the retort rate on the new names14 was about 1.5%. Alloy would often exchange some of the names of its customers for the names of customers of similar firms, if it could count on a response rate on the swapped names of close to its own 3%. By blending names from these three sources, Alloy could choose whether a particular mailing would yield a high rate of orders or expand its customer base. over the year, Alloys mailings comprised 10% swapped names, 70% past customers and 20% new names. Diamond found that some people in the private investment community were not well informed on the ease with which response rates could be manipulated. Analysts ask me, why is your response rate down last month? I say you want a 10% response rate, Ill give you one. Ill just mail to my very best customers.Most orders were received by telephone, and orders from all lists ranged from $65 per customer in spring to $85 in winter. The gross margin on an ord er was about 50%. Alloy paid its fulfillment company $6.00 to handle each telephone order. Customers paid the cargo ships charges. Traffic to the Website, as measured by Media Metrix in the quarter ending knock against 1999, comprised 263,000 unique visitors15 per month. While about half of thevisitors eventually registered14 List brokers typically sold names on a deduplicated basis, meaning that the buyer had the right to erase and not pay for any names that it already owned.15 Many of the visitors to a site came more than once a month. Media Metrix used the term unique visitors to emphasize that they were counting visitors, not visits.8Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003Alloy.com Marketing to Generation Y500-048themselves with the site by entering a name, address and e-mail information, the proportion of unique visitors in a month who registered in that month was about 8%. In improver to catalogs and Web visits, Alloy in teracted with Generation Y by means of a hebdomadal broadcast e-mail, Alloy E-Zine, sent to 850,000 site visitors who had asked to receive it.When a visitor to the Alloy Website registered, the name was added to the print catalog mailing list. Names gathered in this way, although they had not previously bought from Alloy, tended to respond to the catalog at a rate close to the past-buyer rate of 3%. Calculating the cost of attracting somebody to become a registered visitor was difficult, because Web traffic resulted from many actions banner advertising, listings on search engines, and Alloys print advertising in media like Seventeen Magazine. The catalog was a significant number one wood of traffic to the Web.On the day that the catalog reached its audience, traffic to the site would jump 40%. It would continue to rise to about clxxx% of pre-mailing levels for a week, and slowly fall back. Possessing a copy of the latest Alloy catalog conferred significantprestige in a junior hig h school lunchroom. And then there was wordof-mouth. Many visitors to the Website, and many who resolute to register, came at no cost to Alloy because a friend had mentioned the site, had e-mailed a chat room story, or had asked for an opinion on an item of clothing shown on the site.less(prenominal) than 5% of Alloys revenues came from orders displace on the Website. When an order was submitted on-line instead of by phone, Alloy paid its fulfillment company $3.00 instead of $6.00 to reflect the delivery of telephone handling charges. Alloys e-mailed catalog, termed Alloy E-Zine, was another small element of the business. Because Alloy had no way of sagacious whether a recipients e-mail system was able to view graphic displays or color, it used only text edition in the E-Zine.Only 25% of those who indicated willingness to receive it ever opened it, and of those 1% position an order in the course of a year. These orders were fulfilled at $3.00 each if they were placed by return email. Sponsorships and banner advertising were a small but rapidly growing source of revenue. As Alloys base of registered visitors and catalog recipients grew, both became assets that interested advertisers.The AOL DealDiamond reflected on the AOL deal. It was not a question of finding $2 million. If the IPO went ahead at the planned price of $15, it would generate $55.5 million and Alloy would be awash in cash. Diamond tried not to be annoyed at the idea that AOL would offer this deal on the eve of his IPO. Ive been talking to AOL for a year about opening a teen shopping area, showing them what a big revenue opportunity it could be. Now suddenly they get it, and they think its worth $2 million.He thought to himself, What else can I do with $2 million? Thats over 4 million catalogs, which means more sales, more site visits, more registrations, and more E-Zine registrations. Alternatively, it could buy us exposure on television, and that would build a stronger brand. Alloys budge t for 1999 included a line item of $2.5 million for production of two television spots and $2.5 million for air time.Yet AOL was Alloys most important source of traffic to the Website. More than a third of visitors to the Alloy site used AOL as their Internet service provider. Would a competitor on the AOL site be able to intercept them? Would the announcement of a competitors deal with AOL on the eve of the IPO be as bad for Alloys share price as an Alloy deal would be good? The cellphone rang again. It was his partner, Neil Vogel. Matt, Wall Street would like it if you would do that deal. They dont want iTurF to pick it up. This is valuable real estate on a really important teen property.9Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048Alloy.com Marketing to Generation YExhibit 1 Total Teen Spending in 1996$billions%Apparel36.734Entertainment23.422Food16.715Personal aid9.29Sporting Goods6.76Other15.314Total108.0100 root word Pack aged Facts via InterRep Research, in MSDW Equity Research Fashions of the Third Millennium, June 1999.Exhibit 2 Estimates of Teen SpendingRand Youth(Adweek May 18, 1998)19961997Morgan Stanley doyenWitters report Fashionsof the Third Millennium,June 1999$108 billion$91.5 billion19981999Teen Research measureless(quoted in Alloy presshandout)$141 billion$136 billion10Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003Alloy.com Marketing to Generation Y500-048Exhibit 3 Consolidated iTurf Income (in $ thousands)ststNet revenues1 quarterending 1 May19992615 exist of goods133235Gross profit128334Selling, general and admin.1753109Interest income (expense)(112)11 outrage before tax(358)(86)Income tax (benefit)(161)(33)Net loss(197)(53)Apr 99 = 731,000Feb 99 = 635,00050 million4 millionNo. of unique visitorsNo. of page views in AprilSize of mailing database1 quarterending 30 April19986911 million namesSource IPO FilingExhibit 4 Alloy Online Annual fi nancial PerformanceFiscal year199619971998(thousands)Net merchandise revenues$25$1,800$10,100Of which on-line order placement accounted for$40$710Sponsorship and other revenueGross profit %Selling & Marketing expensesWeb pages views (Month of March)$cxxv32.5%41.7%46.3%$98$2,000$9,2001,50025,000Weekly e-zine registrations480Source alliance records11Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048Alloy.com Marketing to Generation YExhibit 5 Alloy Online Quarterly Performance199719981998199819981999199931 OctJan 31Apr 30Jul 31Oct 31Jan 31Apr 30($000)Net merchandiserevenues401139613532082321534362391Sponsorship, etc.154673163Total revenues401139613542087326135092544COGS2637839061200166517151249Gross profit13861344888715961794130534%44%3342.5%49%51%51%903143717822992339626793529(749)(806)(1312)(2165)(1901)(985)(2302)400,000800,000Gross profit % ofrevenueOperatingexpensesNet loss come up ofregistered usersSource Company records12Download ed by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003Alloy.com Marketing to Generation Y500-048Exhibit 6 Circulation of Leading Teen Magazines issuePublisherCirculation as of 1998/99Seventeen (monthly)Primedia Consumer Magazine Group2,400,000Teen (monthly)EMAP2,400,000YM (10 x year)Gruner & Jahr2,200,000Teen People (monthly)Time Inc.1,300,000Jump (10 x year)Weider Publications350,000Twist (monthly)Bauer Publishing265,650lady friendLewitt & LaWinter/Freedom250,000Source Various13Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003500-048Alloy.com Marketing to Generation YExhibit 7 Examples of consumer-generated content on Alloy WebsiteSource Alloy Website14Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003