Michael Jackson :: essays research papers

Michael Jackson is one of my favorite singers. He is very famous, so most of all people in the world know him, at least his name. I began to listen to his songs because I was recommended them by my friend, and I was really attracted by them. I have two reasons why I like him. One of my reasons is that I like his voice and performance as well as his songs, as both "Michael Jackson" and "Jackson Five". Michael Jackson sings songs very well in his particular high-pitched tone as it can be proved by the big hits of his songs, for example, "THRILLER", " BILLIE JEAN" and "MOTOWN 25" etc, and by the many prizes he got, for instance, the first prize of male pop vocalists, of records and of R&B singers on Grammy in 1984. Besides, he entertains us with his sharp dance great performance like " moonwalk". When I listen to his songs in the morning before I go out, I can feel cheerful and powerful. I am a fan of Jackson Five as well. Before he began to sing by himself, he was the main vocalist of Jackson Five. When Michael was eleven years old, their first single CD, "I Want You Back", was released, and it was a very big hit all over the world. Michael was still little and cute, but his voice was very vigorous and rhythmical. His songs make me happy and energetic. Another reasons why I like him is that I am interested in his behaviors. There are always some topics around him. For example, he was under suspicion he treated a little boy cruelly, who was ten years old and Michael's best friend. Michael insisted on his innocence, but he paid 26 million dollars for reconciliation finally. Though he asserted he paid just to settle the commotion, people said he admitted he was guilty. Moreover, it is said that Michael has the longing to be a white, though he said in a TV program he suffered from the disease that pigment in his skin decolorized. When I saw these news, I considered the problems about child-abuse and human race. How does child-abuse hurt the child's heart? His or her hurt will not disappear forever. Which human race is inferior or superior?

Advertising and Its Effect on the Demand Curve

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND ECON7002 Markets in Action Advertising and its effect on the demand curve Markets in Action Advertising and its effect on the demand curve Advertisement has always been an important market strategy for firms to accomplish their goals. From cereal companies to airline companies, it is inevitable to go through the process of advertising. However, what purpose does advertising serve for consumers and suppliers in the market? In this report, it is to examine the relationship between advertising and the market demand curve.Moreover, the impact that advertising brings toward the consumers and the company supplying the product or service. It is no doubt that peoples’ income is always limited relatively to peoples’ wants. Consumers therefore have to make choices among different products and services (P&S) to satisfy their unlimited wants with limited income. Firms take advantage of this issue by advertising the P&S they produce to increase their pro fits. There are two primary motives for companies to advertise their products and services.The first motive is to shift the demand curve to the right, meaning an increase in market demand for a product/service. The second motive is to lower the elasticity of the demand curve, meaning the demand for a product/service is less affected when the price of that product/service changes (Sloman, Norris & Garratt 2010). There are a number of reasons that causes a demand curve to shift to the right. In the case of advertisement, changing the preferences and tastes of the consumers can have a significant effect on demand.By enhancing the taste and preference of consumers, it draws new and inexperienced customers to purchase the product/service (Acharyya & Mukherjee 2003). Therefore, advertising brings a firm’s product/service to more people’s attention and increases the people’s desire for purchasing it. Advertisements can also eliminate the possible limitations in the kno wledge of consumers and familiarize them with new information about the product/service. Consumers can not review the qualities and values for most products and services in the market until it is purchased, such as kitchen appliances or automobiles.With providing information about the product/service by advertisements, the firm aims to influence the purchasing decision and raise the willingness to pay of the consumers (Erdem, Keane & Sun 2007). For example, SONY can change the consumer’s purchasing preference and taste by conducting a computer technology exhibition that displays the relevant technology information about the computers. Another example is McDonalds creating a television commercial about shaker fries to inform customers about this new product. Below is a figure illustration that shows the effect of advertising by a rightward shift in the demand curve.With the supply curve unaffected, it can be seen that the quantity demanded increases from Q to Q’ when th e demand curve shifts to the right. As for the price of the product/service, it increases from P to P’. Figure1. Effect of advertising by a rightward shift in the demand curve Price elasticity is the responsiveness of consumer demand when the price of the product/service rises or falls. Firms therefore use advertisements to affect consumers purchasing decisions by compelling people to buy their product/service over competitors. This means to make their product/service highly inelastic relatively compared to their competitor’s substitutes.So what factors influence the price elasticity of demand? In this report, five determinants are examined. The first factor is the number and closeness of substitute product/service. For companies that have monopoly power such as oil and electricity, an advertising scheme is usually unnecessary as consumer demand are already consistent regardless of a change in price. On the other hand, firms that have competitors attempts to use advert ising plans to create product differentiation. The second factor is the proportion of income spent on the product/service.Product/service purchases which have a small portion to total expenditure tends to have a lower elasticity, since consumers has less difficulty with the extra expenditure when prices go up. For example, salt and pepper. The third factor is whether the product/service is a luxury or a necessity. Products/services which are necessary goods tend to be more inelastic as they are used to fulfill the basic needs of a consumer even if the prices go up. Whereas luxury goods are more elastic as purchases can be postponed to the future. For example, laundry detergent is a necessity and Tiffany & Co jewelry is a luxury.The forth factor is whether or not the product/service is addictive. Products/services that are habit forming tend to be inelastic as they are required to satisfy the habit of the consumer. For example, cigarettes and alcohol beverages are addictive goods. Th e last but not the least factor is the amount of time consumers have to respond to a change in the price. With a longer time period, the elasticity of demand is more elastic as consumers have more time to adjust their purchasing habit (Welker 2010). In a competitive industry such as electronic products and clothing, the demand curves are most likely elastic.Advertising attempts to make the demand curve of the product/service more inelastic by utilizing the first and third factor in the previous paragraph. Creating more product differentiation to their substitutes and making their products as a necessity. A major method of product differentiation is to instill consumers with brand loyalty. With brand loyal consumers, they are willing to purchase at higher price for the intangible effects of the product/service. Slogans and Logos are popular schemes to familiarize consumers with brand names and increase brand loyalty (Patti 1977).For example, â€Å"Because you are worth it† by L’Oreal Cosmetics and â€Å"Buy it, sell it, love it† from eBay (Oak 2011). Advertisements can change the consumer’s relative evaluation of substitutes by leading them to believe that the substitute brands are inferior. For example, commercial battles between Apple and Blackberry. Nowadays, persuasive advertisements have reshaped the purchasing habit of consumers with culture and life background, leading consumers to think products/services are a necessary good such as cereals for breakfast (Acharyya & Mukherjee 2003).Next page is a figure illustration that shows the effect of advertising by a decrease in elasticity in the demand curve. With the same price rise P to P’, it can be seen that the quantity demanded decreases by a larger amount from Q to Q1 when the demand curve is elastic (curve D). On the other hand, the more inelastic curve (curve D’) has a relatively smaller quantity decrease from Q to Q2. Figure2. Effect of advertising by a decreas e in elasticity in the demand curve Figure3. Effect of advertising by a change in the demand curve With both a decrease in elasticity and a rightward shift in the demand curve, sales are increased from Q?P to Q’? P’. This is due to firms can now charge a higher price in a less competitive environment. So how do companies advertise their products/services? Firms advertise advertisement through a number of mediums, including emails and mails such as Dominos pizza, magazines such as Marc Jacob, bulletin boards such as Billabong, Radio announcements such as AAMI, television ads such as Optus and Yellow pages etc. Companies spend a significant amount of capital and time to plan a strategy to persuade people to purchase products.Some common strategy techniques includes celebrity testimonial, claiming that their products is desirable and consumed by many people, authority endorsements, slogan and logos etc (Gladen 2008). An advertising strategy of Apple is to gain brand loyal ty of consumers while charging at a higher price. Apple posts new advertisements continuously on the internet with branding strategy that focuses on peoples’ emotion such as lifestyle, imagination, aspirations, passion and dreams. It also uses advertisements to show an indefinable â€Å"cool† element associated with every new innovation devices that they produce.The demand for Apple products will therefore inevitably be increased by bringing in new customers and increasing the desire of purchase. Another technique is to show that competitors such as Microsoft PCs and Blackberry phones are an inferior product. For example, Apple created the ad â€Å"Mac vs. PC (Deny or allow)† to indicate that it is worth paying higher price for a virus-free Mac then a Microsoft PC (Marketing minds, 2011). For cosmetic brand Cover Girl, one of their strategies is to create a slogan to facilitate brand recognition. This leads to product demand curve becoming more inelastic.Almost all firms create a unique slogan to bolster and augment its business branding. Cover Girl uses â€Å"Easy, Breezy, Beautiful, Cover Girl† as their slogan in advertisements. Moreover, they use celebrity endorsements including Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Jennifer O’Nell and etc. as the face of their brand. Cover Girl also has a $100,000 US contact with America’s next top model every season (the most global popular modeling reality TV show). Celebrity enforcements work in a way that consumers identify themselves with the celebrity in the advertisements, and are mostly likely to increase demand in targeted consumers (Wikipedia, 2011).Advertisements have both advantages and disadvantages towards the consumers and the company supplying the products/services. The advantages for consumers include alerting people to products/services that fulfills the niche requirements they have such as tastes, preference, lifestyle and etc. Moreover, consumers have better access to the prod uct/service information and guidance. On the other hand, disadvantages include overstating the effectiveness of the product/service and mislead the consumers to make bad purchasing decisions.It also creates dissatisfaction for some people as their income cannot afford the desired product. Advertising appeals can also affect people’s health by promoting alcohol and cigarettes. For companies that supplies the products and services, advantages include increasing the exposure and awareness of the new developed products/services to consumers. Increase sales and profit if advertising scheme is successful. The form of online advertising using YouTube and other video sharing websites decreases the costs of supply.However, disadvantage includes spending excessive money on celebrity endorsements or on AFL half-time broadcast with no significant profit gains (Akrani 2010). Successful firms have a good understanding in who purchases their products, why consumers purchase their products a nd what advertising strategy to utilize to influence consumers purchasing decision. From this report, it can be seen that companies use a variety of advertisement plans to increase the demand of their products/services as well as to reduce the elasticity of the products/services.By changing the demand curve with a rightward shift and with a steeper slope, the main goal that firms are trying to achieve is to increase the sales and profits. Some advertising strategies might induce disadvantages to consumers and suppliers, but with suppliers applying the most suitable strategy by research and evaluation, it is more likely that both parties will benefit from the advertising result. Reference Sloman, J, Norris, K & Garratt, D 2010, Principles of economics, 3rd edition, Pearson Australia, NSW Australia Acharyya, R & Mukherjee D 2003, ‘Advertisement and Markets’, Economic and political weekly, Vol. 8, No. 50, pp. 5236-5239 Erdem, T, Keane, MP & Sun, B 2008, ‘The impact o f advertising on consumer price sensitivity in experience goods markets’, Quant market economics, Vo. 6, pp. 139-176 Patti, CH 1977, ‘Evaluating the role of advertising’, Journal of advertising, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 30-35 Welker, J 2010, The role of advertising in determining price elasticity of demand, viewed 27 Sep 2011, http://welkerswikinomics. com/blog/2010/10/04/im-proud-to-be-a-canadian-and- i-like-beer/ Oak, M 2011, Famous commercial slogans, viewed 27 Sep 2011, http://www. buzzle. com/ articles/famous-commercial-slogans. tml Gladen, NR 2011, Advertising and persuasive strategies, viewed 28 Sep 2011, http://naomi- rockler-gladen. suite101. com/advertising-persuasion-techniques-a52647 Marketing Minds 2010, Apple’s branding strategy, viewed 28 Sep 2011, http://www. marketing minds. com. au/branding/apple_branding_strategy. html Wikipedia 2011, Cover Girl, viewed 28 Sep 2011, http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/CoverGirl Akrani, G 2010, Advertising-Advertisi ng management features and benefits, viewed 29 Sep 2011, http://kalyan-city. blogspot. com/2010/07/5-ms-of-advertising-advertising. html

Sylvia Plath Quotes

Sylvia Plath is a controversial and passionate figure in American literature. A prolific writer who started writing before the age of 10, Plath is best known for her semi-autobiographical novel  The Bell Jar  and poems such as The Colossus and Lady Lazarus. Even as her words touch us to our very core, they also spur so many questions and debates. How could a woman who was filled with such beautiful and passionate words also be torn by such inner torment? She offers such a personal look at her life, love, and demons. Do we dare look away?   For a glimpse into Sylvia Plaths enduring works imbued with imagery, raw emotion, and haunting words, here is a list of quotes by the Pulitzer-winning poet.   Love and Relationships How we need another soul to cling to. Can you understand? Someone, somewhere, can you understand me a little, love me a little? For all my despair, for all my ideals, for all that - I love life. But it is hard, and I have so much - so very much to learn. I do not love; I do not love anybody except myself. That is a rather shocking thing to admit. I have none of the selfless love of my mother. I have none of the plodding, practical  love.-  The Journals of Sylvia Plath I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me. My loves not impersonal yet not wholly subjective either. I would like to be everyone, a cripple, a dying man, a whore, and then come back to write about my thoughts, my emotions, as that person. But I am not omniscient. I have to live my life, and it is the only one Ill ever have.-  The Bell Jar I lean to you, numb as a fossil. Tell me Im here. I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it.-  The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Kiss me and youll know how important I am. Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences.-  The Bell Jar There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.-  The Bell Jar What did my arms do before they held you? Death Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above ones head, and listen to silence. To have no  yesterday,  and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace. -  The Bell Jar Self-Doubt And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worse enemy to creativity is self-doubt.-  The Journals of Sylvia Plath I am supposed to be having the time of my life.-  The Bell Jar I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited. Inner-Tension I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad ricocheting in between.-  The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again. If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then Im neurotic as hell. Ill be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.- The Bell Jar Life has been some combination of fairy-tale coincidence and joie de vivre and shocks of beauty together with some hurtful self-questioning.- The Bell Jar Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing. Exuberance I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery - air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, This is what it is to be happy.-  The Bell Jar There must be quite a few things that a hot bath wont cure, but I dont know many of them. Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all Ive taken for granted. Thats one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.- The Bell Jar Despair and Melancholy I talk to God but the sky is empty.-  The Bell Jar The silence depressed me. It wasnt the silence of silence. It was my own silence.- The Bell Jar The trouble was, I had been inadequate all along, I simply hadnt thought about it.- The Bell Jar There is something demoralizing about watching two people get more and more crazy about each other, especially when you are the only extra person in the room. Its like watching Paris from an express caboose heading in the opposite direction--every second the city gets smaller and smaller, only you feel its really you getting smaller and smaller and lonelier and lonelier, rushing away from all those lights and excitement at about a million miles an hour.- The Bell Jar To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is a bad dream.-  The Bell Jar