Human Immunodeficiency Virus And Its Population - 2423 Words

Assignment 6c - Research Paper November 29, 2014 Alex Pungello rpungello@knights.ucf.ed Richard Pungello No modern nation is immune from the effects of Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV, on its population. The Republic of Italy is no different. To understand how the Human Immunodeficiency Virus has taken shape within the Republic of Italy, it is first important to define and understand what this virus is in general terms. Human Immunodeficiency Virus is quite similar to other viruses, including the viruses that cause influenza –the flu- or the common cold. There is an important difference, however; over time, an individual’s immune system can clear most viruses out of the body. That unfortunately is not the case with HIV; the human immune system cannot rid itself of this virus. HIV inflicts this damage by contaminating immune cells in the body called CD4 positive T cells; these cells are vital to the body for fighting infections (Douek, Roederer Koup, 2009). Human Immunodeficiency Virus, in essence, converts the CD4 positive T cells into manufacturers that produce even more of the HIV virus; these go on to infect other healthy cells, eventually destroying the CD4 positive T cells (Douek et al., 2009). As CD4 positive T cells are lost and the individual’s immune system deteriorates, a person will become more prone to illnesses and common contagions (Douek et al., 2009). AIDS is diagnosed when an HIV-positive person has one or more of theseShow MoreRelatedHuman Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )1359 Words   |  6 PagesThis paper explores the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as well as the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). The virus has infected two million adults and children by the year 2005 already. The virus continues to race around the world, and new HIV infections are at 50,000 per year (Martine Peeters, Matthieu Jung, Ahidjo Ayouba) (2013). The final outcome of the HIV infection is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). There are many treatments that have developed to help the large numberRead MoreModern Day Methods Of Contracting1113 Words   |  5 Pagesthe SIV virus from these non-human primates is discussed as well. As a result of these transmissions, the human immunodeficiency virus is brought to life. In this paper, this virus and its journey throughout history will be explained. Also, HIV and the different subfields this virus can be classified in are discussed throughout the research. As well as the where this virus was contracted, about the time when, and how it was possible. Also, the modern day methods of contracting this virus are listedRead MoreHuman Immunodeficiency Virus And Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome1477 Words   |  6 PagesHuman Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome In 1981, the first cases in the United States of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) developed in Los Angeles and New York (Fraser, Burd, Liebson, Lipschik, Peterson, 2008). The illness presented itself among several homosexual males who developed rare opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and Kaposi’s sarcoma (Sharp Hahn, 2011). At the time, medical professionals deemed the infections to beRead MoreHuman Immmunodeficiency Virus Research Paper1147 Words   |  5 Pages Human Immunodeficiency Virus and its Impact in Urban Areas Nakeria Cook California University of Pennsylvania Health Systems Management Archish Maharaja December 15, 2017 Abstract The purpose of this research is to provide insight into the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in urban areas, particularly those who are at an economic disadvantage. This research will provide background on what HIV is, its history and the result that have been concluded based on the researchRead MoreThe World Since The 1980s1154 Words   |  5 Pagesthe 1980s. A deadly virus emerged and spread faster than common sense could keep up, fueled by fear, paranoia, and prejudice. The disease was first dubbed GRID, an acronym for Gay-Related Immune Deficiency since it seemed to prey primarily on homosexual men. As it was observed that blood transfusion recipients and intravenous drug users were also contracting it the name was replaced with Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and its precursor Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). As the decadeRead MoreThe Origin of HIV/AIDS Essay803 Words   |  4 PagesHuman Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was once considered a taboo di sease that made its appearance in the United States around the late 1970s. Little was known about the virus and it was originally thought to just be found in the gay male community. As more and more research has been done people now understand the virus and realize that it affects men and women as well as all races, ages, and sexual orientation. It is believed that HIV is a mutated form of the Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) thatRead MoreThe Human Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )1529 Words   |  7 Pages Human Immunodeficiency Virus Typing Template for APA Papers: A Sample of Proper Formatting for the APA 6th Edition Sheela Jose Grand Canyon University: HIV Known as a Communicable Disease A communicable disease is known an illness that results from an infectious agent that occurs through transmission either indirectly or directly, from an infected individual. The human immunodeficiency virus is considered a communicable disease, and will be explored further in relation toRead MoreHuman Immunodeficiency Virus ( Hiv )1349 Words   |  6 Pages Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a retro virus that causes AIDs by infecting the T Helper cells of the body’s immune system. The AIDS virus is the final stages of the HIV virus. HIV is a lentivirus genus, which is a subgroup of the retrovirus that causes the AIDS virus. Even with proper treatment, an infected person has a life expectancy of less than ten years.As the virus weakens the human immune systems, this effectleaves the patient compromised and at risk to opportunistic infectionsRead MoreHuman Immunodeficiency Virus Type 21523 Words   |  7 PagesHuman Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 HIV-II Discovered and Isolated In 1985, serological evidence was presented which suggested a virus closely related to simian T-lymphotropic virus type III (STLV-III) infected a man in Senegal West Africa (Barin, M’Boup, Denis 1985). At that time, Senegal, West Africa was a region where AIDS and AIDS-related diseases had been observed (Barin, M’Boup, Denis 1985). The results of the serological evidence suggested that certain healthy Senegalese people were exposedRead MoreHiv And The Immune System948 Words   |  4 PagesWhat is HIV HIV , stands for human immunodeficiency virus, it is a virus that attacks the immune system, the immune system protects the body against infection and illness .If the body does not have a strong immune system, It may not be able fight off disease. The virus and the infection it causes are termed HIV. White blood cells are the part of the immune system that is important as far as fighting off infection. When a person catches HIV it infects and destroys certain white blood cells called

Personal Narrative The Story Of My Life - 935 Words

I woke up on a cold, torn up mattress. I try to stand up, struggling since I was tied to the wall behind me. My head was throbbing and my wrists and ankles burned from the rope. That s when I heard you walking down the stairs. My heart was pounding out of my chest. You then slowly unlocked the cage. For the first time I couldn’t save myself. You leaned over me, you stunk of stale cigarettes and booze. I knew I could survive the things you would do to me, I just didn’t know if I could ever get out. â€Å"Morning† you mumbled with a thick southern accent. I didn’t answer you, but you seemed to not care, I wanted you to care. You pulled out a granola bar from your pocket and gave me water, I was scared because I knew you wouldn’t do this if you†¦show more content†¦The woman was breathing heavily, but under her breath I could hear â€Å"why would Mike do this?† I started to wonder if she was his wife I heard him talking to the day befor e. What if she found out about me and threatened him by calling the authorities? â€Å"Are you okay?† I stuttered nervously, â€Å"What did he do to you?† she asked with concern. I had told her the story of the night he abducted me, she was told he had to work late. They were married for only 4 years. â€Å"I had started to notice psychotic tendencies in Mike but I thought he was just overwhelmed with work or something like that.† she rambled while I dozed off. I woke up she was passed out in the corner. A few weeks passed and because of my good behavior, I was fed more often. Unfortunately, the woman who had been the only other person I have been in contact with except for Mike was gone, she disappeared one night and I didn’t hear of her since. I’ve gotten closer to Mike, we talk occasionally and he even let me out of my cell for a good 20 minutes yesterday. While I was out, I had gotten hold of a spare key to my cell. I hid it in a book he had left me, I would hopefully escape within the next week. On the day I planned to leave, he woke me up with a cooked breakfast. I hadn’t eaten real food for what feels like years, the heat of the freshly cooked food tasted like it was made of gold. Part of me felt sorry since he seemed like an innocent guy, but I had to remind myself of all theShow MoreRelatedPersonal Narrative : My Life Story1043 Words   |  5 PagesMy love story is full of feelings of sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and saltiness, but, in my mind, memories of the day that my husband left me alone in Viet Nam still engraved in my mind. The fear of losing someone I have treasured created a storm in my chest. Struggling with many obstacles, choosing in many options, preparing for a new future lead my life to my situation at this time. I also made a storm in my husband’s chest too. Or to go back: My husband immigrated to the United States withRead MorePersonal Narrative Story In My Life968 Words   |  4 Pagesan incredibly normal summer day. The sunlight on my skin was a euphoric distraction from the everyday stress of my life, the sound of the waves coming off Norway Lake a rhythm that nearly had me sleeping. The sand stinging my back and legs was a cruel reminder that the nirvana I was experiencing only came from forgetting what was really going on around me. My best friend Justin was going to be showing up soon. I had to work later that night, and my mother had a court date early in the morning theRead MorePersonal Narrative : The Story Of My Life1953 Words   |  8 Pagesnow I could see the light reaching for my hands. I felt that someone has finally helped me to wash away the suffering I ve been through. Pray and continued praying until this war against me and the devil is over, forever more. I believe in every problem there s always a way. This loud voice is screamin g in my head. How are you feeling? Are you okay?. She asked me with that soothing voice in hers. I haven t heard that soft voice in my entire life since my suffering and depression. As she keptRead MorePersonal Narrative : My Life Story2268 Words   |  10 PagesMy life story: †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨My life story begins on April 25, 1975. †¨I was the first born daughter to Larry and Debbie Goss in a small town called Fort Payne Alabama. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨Looking back over my life I ve known from a very small age that God has a great plan and a purpose for my life. I can also see how the enemy has tried to destroy that purpose from the beginning. †¨Ã¢â‚¬ ¨On April 25, in a little county hospital my mother is taken to the hospital to deliver there first child. Little did she know the pain and agonyRead MoreNarrative Is The Root Of Some Fields1510 Words   |  7 PagesNarrative is the root of some fields which includes education, rhetoric, literature, religion, law, history: culture (Wilson, 1989). I t can be seen as a tool to create traditions and symbols as means of communication and it is a source to understand and strengthen the identity of the organisation (Kroeze and Keulen, 2013). As a conceptual theme, narrative becomes a self-conscious system and a reflexive field. In other words, the role of narrative in personal lives is to show how it can be utilizedRead MoreIllness Narrative Essay929 Words   |  4 PagesMy Illness Narrative Sharing and listening to the illness narratives in class is an experience that I do not think I could ever forget. Listening to people share their raw emotions and stories of struggle and illness was eye opening, My own illness narrative could be described as a quest narrative and more specifically an automythology. This is because as I stated in my presentation, I became a better person, adopted skills that helped me deal with my father’s illness, understood what it is likeRead MoreThe Narrative Theory / Paradigm1477 Words   |  6 PagesThe narrative theory/paradigm states that everything we do can be laid out as a story (Fisher, 1984). The main points of the theory/paradigm are the following: humans are essentially storytellers; decisions that humans make are based off of good reasons rather than proof; what we do and how we think is swayed by accounts of history, biography, culture and character; our rationality is determined by our sense of probability (the coherency of the narrative) and narrative fidelity (whether the storyRead MorePersonal Commentary On The Lives Of People Different From Ourselves1454 Words   |  6 Pagesunderstand the way someone else sees the world. This is why personal narratives are such an important piece of writing. They allow us to gain an understanding of things that we may never experience ourselves. This allows us to gain insight into the lives of people different from ourselves. By listening to the life stories of other people, we learn to better communicate with others. Every human on this planet has a unique and distinct story that defines who they are. This becomes most true in regardsRead MorePatient Narratives1708 Words   |  5 PagesNarratives or stories have been used throughout the history of the human race to allow and help people to express themselves in ways that promote personal growth and enhance physical well-being. Even in the simplest of contexts, narratives are a core factor in the advancement of the humanity/society and all of its facets. An illustration of this can be seen in the transfer of a family s lineage, history, and values from generation to generation. This allows for the recipient of this informationRead MoreStructure of Personal Narrative797 Words   |  4 PagesCLRC Writing Center Structure of a Personal Narrative Essay â€Å"Narrative† is a term more commonly known as â€Å"story.† Narratives written for college or personal narratives, tell a story, usually to some point, to illustrate some truth or insight. Following are some tools to help you structure your personal narrative, breaking it down into parts. The â€Å"Hook† Start your paper with a statement about your story that catches the reader’s attention, for example: a relevant quotation, question, fact

Strategic Marketing Planning for Non Profit Organization Free Essays

string(403) " the answers to these questions together for a nonprofit like Population Services International, a \$350 million organization working to improve health in the developing world, and you get something that looks like this: PSI \(Who\? \) is a global nonprofit \(What\? that works to improve the health \(What need\? \) of the poor and vulnerable in 60 developing nations around the world \(For whom\? \)\." Georgetown University Center for Public Nonprofit Leadership Marketing Communications in Nonprofit Organizations David Williamson Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program  © 2009 Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership Georgetown University Georgetown Public Policy Institute Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 2 Marketing Communications in Nonprofit Organizations: It Matters More Than You Think David Williamson Marketing gets no respect in the nonprofit world. Program people tend to hold the most senior positions in nonprofits and accordingly have the most status. Fundraisers are often viewed as necessary evils, as are operations staff, including those who labor in the communications and marketing departments. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Marketing Planning for Non Profit Organization or any similar topic only for you Order Now Several factors account for the suspicion or disdain with which many nonprofit managers view the marketing function. Mostly, it’s a matter of ignorance. Usually trained in other disciplines, nonprofit leaders often fail to understand what marketing can and can’t do for their organizations. Consequently, they hold some strange assumptions (e. g. â€Å"Our good work will sell itself †), unrealistic expectations (e. g. , demanding to be in The New York Times once a week) and arbitrary funding theories (i. e. , when fundraising is down, cut the communications budget). Compounding the challenge, few nonprofit managers recognize their lack of expertise in these areas. The same people who would never contradict a financial expert or ignore a scientist don’t think twice about overruling marketing professionals on audiences, messages, tactics — the very essence of marketing strategy. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule, primarily advocacy or social marketing enterprises where the core program involves communications, outreach and marketing. But in the main, the basic lack of respect accorded marketing comes as no surprise to anyone who tried to apply marketing to mission or build a nonprofit brand — we’re used to it. After all, why is this chapter near the end of this book? Forward-looking nonprofit leaders, however, will recognize what their counterparts in the for-profit sector understood long ago: marketing is essential. And although the marketing function masquerades under many names within nonprofit organizations — Communications, Advancement, External Affairs, Public Relations, or Brand Management — the primary objectives are pretty much the same: to define and then defend an organization’s position, and move it closer to success in its mission. Marketing answers the questions: How is our program distinctive? What do we want to be known for? Why is our work relevant? With the competition for philanthropic resources and public attention fierce, these are absolutely critical considerations for every nonprofit. While the benefits of investing in marketing may not be obvious to nonprofit leaders, the costs of failing to do so are becoming increasingly clear. With nonprofits coming under increasing public and regulatory scrutiny, organizations no longer can afford to relegate communications and marketing to second-class status. It’s a matter of survival. When the investigative reporters are circling your organization (think of the recent unpleasantness that befell the American Red Cross, United Way, and Smithsonian Institution, among others) you will wish that you had a robust, professional communications department to handle the incoming slings and arrows. An expensive outside public relations firm is a poor substitute for people who know your organization and command the trust of the staff. moral: Show marketing some respect. It is essential for mission success, but if you wait around until the need is obvious, it will already be too late. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Douglas Meyer in preparing this manuscript. Note: The anecdotes herein are intended to illustrate larger themes, and not as critiques of individual organizations. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 3 The Elevator Test Through the years, marketers have invented ever-more sophisticated ways to develop organizational position statements. Lots of these methodologies work, and you can spend big money with consultants on finely crafted and focus-group-tested positioning statements. At the same time, for nonprofits, the simpler approach advocated by the marketing savant Harry Beckwith may achieve much the same result at considerably lower cost and effort. I think of Beckwith whenever I find myself confronted with a classic â€Å"elevator test† moment. You strike up a conversation in an elevator, on the subway, in the line at Starbucks and the question soon arises: What do you do? The challenge is how to answer that question in an interesting, compelling manner that invites further questions about your organization, but that does not bog down in jargon or too much detail. You don’t have much time — maybe two sentences at most. So what do you include? What do you leave out? What’s your answer to the elevator test? Lest you think this exercise trivial, recall that everyone on the staff of your nonprofit gets asked the â€Å"what do you do? † question, in various forms, every day. In that sense, everyone on staff is a marketer, albeit rarely trained as such. Do you know how your staff is responding? Do you have any confidence that everyone on the team — program staff, receptionists, board members — shares a common sense of the organization’s brand position? Are they communicating a consistent message? Many nonprofit organizations fail this test. Happily, Beckwith prescribes a very simple formula that nonprofits can adapt readily to their needs in developing an elevator test that can double as a position statement. (Note that the elevator test is not a mission statement, nor should it read like one, but instead tries to distill the essence of the organization into relevant, accessible language for the particular person with whom you are speaking. ) The Beckwith formula starts with six basic questions: ho? What’s your name? what? What kind of organization are you (scale and sector)? for whom? Whom do your programs serve? what need? What pressing social problem does your program address? what’s different? What is distinctive about your program? so what? Why should they care? String the answers to these questions together for a nonprofit like Population Services International, a $350 million organization working to improve hea lth in the developing world, and you get something that looks like this: PSI (Who? ) is a global nonprofit (What? that works to improve the health (What need? ) of the poor and vulnerable in 60 developing nations around the world (For whom? ). You read "Strategic Marketing Planning for Non Profit Organization" in category "Essay examples" Combating diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria that kill millions around the world (So what? ), PSI saves lives by using the power of the private sector to distribute and market health products to the neediest people. (What’s different? ) Three red flags about elevator tests. First, ruthlessly eliminate jargon. Every sector has a specialized language, but don’t use it in your elevator/positioning speech. Second, avoid laundry lists of activities. Nonprofits are wonderfully inclusive organizations, with a great sense of fairness and equity between their constituent parts, but this makes for disastrous marketing. The entire point of an elevator speech is to boil your enterprise into a message that is simple, consistent, and most of all distinctive, so make hard choices and focus on the things you do particularly well. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 4 Second, and perhaps most important, put some real thought into answering the question: So what? It’s the payoff piece of the speech, the call to action that makes the programmatic work of a nonprofit relevant. And to change policy and behavior, to raise money and build a strong institution, most organizations simply must find a way to make their mission relevant to a broader constituency. Figuring out a compelling â€Å"so what? † response is a good place to start. Third, try to make it â€Å"sticky. † Is what you have said memorable? In their book, Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath identify the common currency of memorable ideas, a good story. And, specifically, they note the importance of simple, true stories with concrete details, unexpected twists and emotion. Does your elevator speech tell a story in a way that helps the listener remember it? For the leaders of nonprofits, the elevator test also can serve as a shrewd diagnostic tool for determining differences within the management team. Have everyone sit down and simultaneously craft an elevator speech — give them no more than five minutes — and then have people share the results. You will learn a lot about the attitudes of your senior managers and how they are portraying the organization to the outside world. he audience; not coincidentally, that’s why lots of marketing pieces tend to start with the word â€Å"you. † Looked at another way, marketing is a â€Å"pull† strategy that meets the audience where it is, and then tries to steer the audience to the desired action or behavior through incentives or other inducements. Marketing, it has been said, appeals to the heart. Communications, on the other hand, typically appeals to the head. Representing the institutional perspective, sentences in communications materials usually start with the word â€Å"we† or else the organization’s name; ook at any nonprofit annual report for a case in point. Communications also tend to be declarative, laying out a statement of opinion, a detailed factual case, or an institutional position, and then try to connect those to the audience’s interests. These are classic push strategies in action, with the organization pushing out information (and misinformation! ) about its activities or agenda. Best-practices nonprofits combine the best aspects of both these approaches, and appeal to both the heart and the head. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one of the most effective advocacy groups of modern times, is famous for the powerful emotional appeal of its advertising campaigns and legislative testimony, which prominently feature the victims of drunk drivers. But supplementing these classic marketing techniques, MADD also deploys equally classic communications strategies — position papers, voter’s guides, legislative briefing books, and on-line advocacy, for example. Together, this combination of disciplined marketing and focused, issue-oriented communications has made MADD a political force in every statehouse and on Capitol Hill. And it’s not just MADD. Effective organizations of all stripes are taking advantage of both sides of the coin to get the message out about their issue, cultivate donors, and impress policymakers. Take a look next time you go to the web site or get direct mail from the National Rifle Association, the American Heart Association, or CARE. You’ll see a blend of marketing and communications, things to pull you in and also to push out. It’s not by accident. moral: Marketing is the only job shared by everyone in the organization. An elevator speech makes sure your people have a compelling story, they stick to it and it sticks with their audience. Marketing Isn’t Communications, and Vice Versa Nonprofits tend to use the terms marketing and communications interchangeably — another indication of the overall lack of sophistication about these issues inside the sector. But there are substantive differences between the two, none more significant than their very different points of departure. Effective marketing generally starts from the point of the view of the audience, or customer, and seeks to anticipate and address their needs. It’s all about you, moral: Don’t just communicate. Market. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 5 Marketing and Communications for Fundraising Fundraising can be the fire alarm that awakens the leader of a nonprofit to the need for marketing and communications, though, chances are, the initial interest will be less focused on strategy, and more focused on stuff: glossy brochures, pretty pamphlets and verbose newsletters that they can use to â€Å"sell† the organization to major donors. Mike Coda, the best fundraising strategist I have ever known, was famously contemptuous of this type of marketing material. All that collateral is just a crutch for a poor fundraiser,† Mike would say. â€Å"It’s no substitute for developing relationships and listening to donors. † Of course, he was right — but only to a point. The marketing and communications functions can play an important role in helping execute a comprehensive fundraising plan, and th e truth is, the marketing/ communications shop can produce stuff to help raise money. But a word of caution here about a lot of the â€Å"stuff† that currently comes out. More than anything, pressures from development account for the proliferation of publications across the nonprofit sector. Our organizations are clogged with annual reports, magazines, newsletters, case statements, working papers and brochures targeted at planned givers, annual givers, alumni givers, givers of every sort. The arrival of the electronic age has not reduced, but instead added to the volume of potential fundraising collateral. Now prospective donors are besieged with slickly produced DVDs as well as blogs, virtual communities, interactive websites, and more. I have always been surprised how few organizations conduct honest assessments of the costs and benefits of producing all this fundraising collateral. It’s not just that it costs a lot to design, print and create it; the real issue for nonprofits is the investment of time. The true cost of a piece of fundraising collateral must reflect the amount of energy and agony that went into its development and often more painful, approval by management and the board. Everybody has a favorite story about absurd bureaucratic hurdles they have encountered to get something approved. One CEO, for example, used to require the signatures of 17 different managers to approve text for use in direct mail solicitations. Needless to say, the impact of the language was much attenuated by the time it went through so many editors, reducing the return on investment as well as diverting senior managers from their real jobs. Globally distributed organizations, like the World Wildlife Fund or Save the Children, face particularly tough challenges in getting their colleagues overseas to sign off on collateral materials or joint announcements. It is the job of the marketing and communications function to bring discipline and reason to this process. Smart marketing managers will resist the steady drumbeat from the fundraising staff to deliver new and different materials. Instead, they will put the ball back in the court of the fundraisers by asking some tough questions: Who is your audience and what do you know about them? Why do you believe this is the best way to reach that person? What is the shelf life of this piece? What else could you spend this money on? We will come back to these important questions later in this chapter. An honest recognition of the need for fundraising is required, but so, too, is a healthy skepticism about the demands for fundraising collateral. Certainly, it makes life easier for fundraisers if they have attractive, compelling materials that reinforce the institution’s key messages. But then remember the boxes and boxes of attractive, compelling fundraising materials from previous campaigns gathering dust in your organization’s basement. Once you decide to move forward with a piece of fundraising collateral, however, don’t try to save money by cutting corners. Good marketing materials can be expensive, and you should be prepared to pay to get the kind of products that will send the right message to Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 6 your donors. At the same time, you can often mitigate the budgetary impact by substituting quality for quantity. As so often is the case in nonprofits, the key is to focus on the few things that you can do that will have the greatest impact. moral: Fundraising is often a core component of marketing and communications, but not all fundraising collateral translates into more money raised. The success of this campaign can be measured first in lives saved. Drunk-driving deaths are down about 50 percent from all time highs. Perhaps even more enduring, the key concepts of this campaign have permeated the public lexicon. Designated drivers. Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. Drink responsibly. When the beer companies spread your message for free in their massive TV advertising campaigns, you know that you have succeeded. Lots of fine organizations run social marketing campaigns aimed at changing public behavior on a large scale: the American Legacy Fund and its anti-smoking efforts; the American Cancer Society, which emphasizes early screening in all its marketing initiatives; and the American Heart Association and diet. Choose to Save seeks to promote personal savings; the Presidential Fitness Challenge to promote personal fitness. The unifying element is the focus on changing behavior, on getting people to stop doing something they presumably like and start doing something else. Nonprofit marketing often aims at behavior change, and social marketing was made to do just this. Marketing and Communications for Mission Impact After a discussion of the way in which marketing and communications can help with fundraising, the opportunity often arises to bring up the potential for it to have a direct impact on mission. Remember the movie Arthur? Dudley Moore plays an affable drunk who spends his time getting in hilarious fixes, many involving driving his convertible while three sheets to the wind. The movie was one of the big hits of the early 1980s — coincidentally about the same time that two housewives in California were forming a new nonprofit called Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Fast forward a quarter century. Do you think that a movie like Arthur, with its tacit endorsement of drunk driving, could possibly be made today? I think not. The prevailing moral winds have swung hard against drinking and driving, making anathema what was once socially acceptable. And the reason for that is MADD. MADD is not only an exceptionally effective advocacy organization that seeks and often secures legislative victories. It also excels at social marketing — using the full grab bag of tricks and techniques from the marketer’s playbook to achieve changes in individual behaviors and social norms that also were directly in line with its mission of ending drunk driving. In the case of MADD, that means orchestrating a sustained, national marketing campaign designed to change the behavior of Americans when it comes to alcohol and automobiles. ase in point: the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which was founded in the early ‘90s to tackle the surging levels of teen pregnancies. A small organization — only $5 million — but with powerful friends, the National Campaign thought hard about best way to change the behavior of teenage girls, the target audience. Research showed that teenagers tended to romanticize parentho od, and did not understand the impact that caring for an infant would have on their lifestyle. But how to communicate this lesson to an elusive audience that is already deeply suspicious of adults? The National Campaign cleverly threaded this needle by reaching out to the producers of the afternoon TV shows targeted at teen girls. With a little persuading, the producers agreed to write into the scripts of these shows storylines that made it clear what a drag it was to have a baby: it ruined your figure, ruined your social life, cost a lot of money, and so forth. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 7 If the same messages had been delivered to the same audience but in the form of a public service announcement, the impact would have been marginal. But by merging the message with the content of these shows, the National Campaign managed to get the attention of these kids in a far more effective way. A lot of factors go into the sharp drop in teen pregnancies over the last decade, but certainly some of the credit needs to go to the National Campaign for a textbook case of social marketing in action. Social marketing can’t advance every mission, and is not for every organization. It can be expensive and requires significant expertise, both in-house and out. But it works, and must be part of your marketing and communications strategy if changing the world for your organization involves changing the behavior of people: health habits, purchasing choices, social norms, voting patterns. This is one of those inescapable, brutal facts about the nonprofit world, and thus bears repeating: most people have never heard of your organization, and they probably don’t care much about what you do. And this is even when the work being done is undeniably â€Å"good. This is a hard pill for many nonprofit people to swallow, because we all do care, passionately, about our causes and we want others to feel the same way we do. But you can’t let that passion blind you to the objective realities of trying to carve out a position for your nonprofit organization with your most important audiences amid the clutter of so many competing priorities and so much background no ise in multiple media. Strengthening that position — defending your organization’s reputation, the one irreplaceable asset of any nonprofit — is the essence of branding. The key is being disciplined in articulating the distinctive set of attributes that collectively define an organization’s position in the marketplace for funding, ideas, and influence. Komen for the Cure — formerly, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation — provides a great example of the power of nonprofit branding. It’s remarkable enough that this organization has grown in less than 25 years into the largest support group for breast cancer survivors, raising almost $1 billion for breast cancer programs. Even more impressive, however, Komen (and other initiatives, like Avon’s pioneering breast cancer walks) have helped bring this once-taboo disease into mainstream and make it a top public health priority — even though there are other diseases, less well-funded, that kill more people every year. In the process, Komen has turned pink ribbons into instantly recognized symbols of support for breast cancer victims and even managed to co-opt the word â€Å"cure. † No one asks any more, â€Å"Cure what? † In today’s context, pink plus â€Å"cure† has become shorthand for â€Å"cure breast cancer. Little wonder, then, that when Komen revised its name and logo in 2006, the word â€Å"cure† took center stage. And what an upgrade! Komen ditched its foundation moniker, which was always a bit confusing to donors and supporters because it did not speak to the organization’s programmatic efforts to support grassroots networks of survivors, pr omote early screening, and moral: Your mission should drive your marketing. If you are trying to change individual behaviors or social norms it’s time to invest in social marketing. Marketing and Communications to Build the Brand The best of the best are thinking not only of marketing for fundraising and mission impact, but also for brand building. Brands are powerful stuff. Apple, for instance, evokes immediate associations of hip, cool, innovative products with excellent design. Coke and Pepsi have spent decades (and billions in advertising) staking out their relative brand positions: real thing or next generation? Nike has even managed to transcend its name, evolving into a universally recognizable logo. If you work for Apple, Coke, or Nike, you don’t have to explain to anyone what your company does. Everyone knows, both in substance and style. But not so the typical nonprofit employee. Maybe you’re lucky and work someplace like the National Geographic Society, which has name recognition numbers to rival IBM and Starbucks, but the chances are that few people have ever heard of your organization or care particularly about your mission or approach. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 8 improve patient care. The words â€Å"breast cancer,† with all their negative baggage, also disappeared from the name. Instead, Komen has adroitly repositioned itself as the leading force focused on a finding a cure — a positive, future-oriented message that appeals to donors, the public, and breast cancer victims alike. Komen’s rebranding has been successful because its new brand positioning rings true with the organization’s core values, mission, and programs. This illustrates an important point about authenticity for any nonprofit trying to strengthen its brand. In the eyes of your stakeholders, it’s fine to change the various attributes of your brand — your name, logo, messages, and programmatic emphasis — as long as what you’re changing to passes the authenticity test. (Imagine Komen moving into an issue such as prostate cancer — they simply would not enjoy the same credibility and clout that they have earned in the breast cancer arena. The lack of authenticity also helps explain the failure of so many high-profile corporate rebranding efforts; call it Phillip Morris or the Altria Group, in the public mind both are merchants of death, and no new logo can change that. As marketing guru Seth Godin might say, Komen is an example of the tremendous power to be found in telling an authentic story in a low-trust world. So be careful about undermining the existing equity in your nonprofit brand. The National Audubon Society learned this lesson in the early 1990s, when the organization’s new leadership decided that Audubon needed to take a much more aggressive political posture. They ditched the revered whooping crane logo (â€Å"the bird image hurts us,† the CEO said at the time), fired the veteran editor of their signature magazine, and launched the kind of political activists campaigns usually associated with the Sierra Club. But that wasn’t what Audubon members wanted. They were birders. They liked the crane. They wanted the magazine full of handsome photographs of warblers, not partisan screeds on toxic waste. The defections were swift, and Audubon’s membership and fundraising dropped sharply. Finally the board had to act and the CEO was ousted in 1996, only three years after launching the revolution. The new CEO wisely returned to the focus on birds, but even so, Audubon has never recovered its peak membership of the late 1980s. Despite the importance of branding and reputation, nonprofits are notoriously poor brand managers. Building a brand can be difficult and very expensive, and the results are typically hard to measure or not immediately apparent. As a result, nonprofits rarely invest the necessary resources to secure top-flight marketing talent, to produce outstanding marketing materials, to engage the media, to implement a consistent and appropriate visual identity system, and to do all the other supporting activities that fall under the heading of â€Å"branding. † To be sure, branding is no longer a dirty word in nonprofit circles, as it was in the 1990s, but this type of advanced marketing is still the first thing that gets cut when the funding is tight and the last item in the budget to be restored. Such foolishness wouldn’t last long in the private sector. When sales are down, do Ford and General Motors reduce the advertising budget or slash the marketing department? Regrettably, about the only thing that compels nonprofit leaders to pay attention to branding is when something goes spectacularly wrong at a high-profile peer organization. And some of the marquee brands in the nonprofit world have taken a real battering in recent years: the American Red Cross, United Way, or the Smithsonian Institution, among others. Ask any of these nonprofits how much their brand is worth to them — and what kind of damage they have suffered and how it could have been even worse. Then you might think twice before taking a red pencil to the marketing budget. moral: Your brand defines your organization to the outside world. Take the initiative and define yourself, before one of your enemies tries to define you. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 9 Developing Successful Marketing and Communications Strategies With the desire for fundraising, mission impact and brand building understood, the key question becomes one of strategy, taking you from where you are to where you want to be. And strategy is fundamentally about making choices. This scares the hell out of the typical nonprofit employee. After all, making choices means that you might not choose me! As in Lake Woebegone, we in the nonprofit sector believe ourselves to be all above average, somehow special and immune from the laws of supply and demand that govern the rest of the world. The nonprofit culture — often conflict-averse, participatory, and given to consensus decision-making — further complicates the task of making real strategic choices. No wonder so many decisions inside nonprofit institutions end up as compromises. But making tough choices is not optional when it comes to developing communications or marketing strategy. The reason is simple. No matter who you are, it costs too much for nonprofits to compete in this realm. Even Coca-Cola has to make hard choices about whom it targets with its marketing dollars. For nonprofits, operating with only a fraction of the resources of corporations, discipline and focus become all the more important in developing effective communications strategies. Your chances of success depend both on well-conceived strategy and on the quality of your implementation plan. Brilliantly conceived marketing concepts have failed because of disconnects between planning and doing. A good marketing or communications strategy should flow in a tight logical sequence, starting with a very explicitly articulated objective or goal, all the way through the tactics and accountability. The more measurable the goal, the better — get the state legislature to fund this or that program, reduce teen smoking rates, raise attendance at the museum. You may not be able to avoid such amorphous goals as â€Å"raise awareness,† but you can ensure that your communications plan is driving toward a specific outcome. The real guts of a high-quality marketing and communications plan follow directly from the goal. As long as it’s aimed at a measurable result, the time-honored â€Å"audience, message, vehicle† formula has lost none of its relevance: audience: Which individuals or institutions do you need to reach and/or influence to achieve your programmatic objective? Can they be identified according to demographic or geographic, personality or lifestyle characteristics? Are they already aware of your issue and organization? message: What message will motivate each of your vehicle: What is the best means of delivering the arget audiences to take the required actions? After all, awareness matters not if nothing changes. message to the target audience? What combination of tools and vehicles work best? What individuals can serve as effective messengers? Not very complicated, right? And if it’s as simple as that, then how come marketing consultants continue to earn handsome fees fr om nonprofits? First of all, it’s not that simple. Crafting a communications plan for a nonprofit that will cut through the background noise requires skill and ingenuity. But compounding the problem, nonprofits infrequently take the time to do this right. Impatient executive directors tend to focus on tactics, obsessing on such things as their column in the organization’s newsletter or signing off on all direct mail copy. Audience research and message testing can be expensive, so often nonprofits will try shortcuts or simply close their eyes and do something even more dangerous: assume. And belaboring the whole process can be the immense self-absorption of so many nonprofits. Mission-driven organizations, with their singular focus on a cause such as human rights or the environment, can come across as cults of the self-righteous, demanding that supporters drink their proverbial purple Kool-Aid. Their communications and marketing materials will ask for buy-in to a full set of beliefs, rather than support for a single solution to an identifiable problem that matters to their audience. This can lead to big problems. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 10 Developing tightly integrated marketing and communications plans with a focus on a measurable goal, and a clearly identified target audience thus can serve as the perfect antidote for the congenital lack of discipline and self-referentialism of so many nonprofits. It will ensure that you spend what you need to spend — and not any more. It will ensure that whatever you do spend will be aimed toward a pre-determined result (and evaluated accordingly). moral: You can’t go far wrong in communications if you stick to the Holy Trinity: Audience. Message. Vehicle. In addition to the general public, a few other hardy perennials seem to pop up onto most nonprofit lists of priority audiences. There are â€Å"policymakers† — as if county, city, state, federal, and international institutions were all the same. This phrase lumps together elected officials, appointed officials, and legislative staff; the executive, judicial, and legislative branches; and often the media elites, academics, and other key influencers as well. Then there are â€Å"major donors† and â€Å"foundations. † These too are highly idiosyncratic audiences, requiring discrete messages and careful handling. Specificity matters when identifying and prioritizing audiences. The more general and broad the audience, the more difficult it is to tailor and deliver a powerful, compelling message that will resonate with that audience. Political campaigns see this dynamic all the time whenever a candidate has to reach out beyond his or her base. The red meat issues that so inspired the faithful don’t always translate well when packaged for a wider audience. The same logic applies to the nonprofit sector. The narrower the audience you choose, and the more audience appropriate your approach, the higher the probability that you can move that audience to action. Selecting and ranking your audiences is a bit like solving a puzzle. Start with your objective. Who do you need to make progress? In other words, what group of people (or institutions) will have the necessary clout to make a difference — either to block what you want or else to make it happen? The answers to these questions cannot be based on wishful thinking or guesswork; rather, it requires a clear-eyed and sometimes coldblooded analysis of the world of the possible. I learned about the importance of figuring out the right audience years ago, when I was involved in a campaign to protect the desert tortoise, whose listing as an endangered species threatened to shut down realestate development in Las Vegas. The key to the whole deal was getting the local Board of Supervisors to put up a bunch of money to acquire habitat for the tortoise way out in the desert. It didn’t take us long to focus like a laser on the target audience of our campaign — the nine members of the board of supervisors. About Audiences I still get splenetic when my nonprofit clients list the â€Å"general public† as one of their target audiences. I remind them that there is no such animal in today’s sophisticated marketing universe, no one — not Proctor Gamble, not General Motors, not Unilever — tries to sell to the â€Å"general public. And certainly no nonprofit can be in the business of trying to appeal to such an amorphous and diverse audience. Yet all too many nonprofits persist in the fantasy that they can reach and then mobilize a broad audience. If you are the AARP, to be sure, you can easily roust your membership of 35 million to action whenever there is a political attack on Social Security or Medicare. But even if they were to get all 35 million, that’s still barely a tenth of the country, and hardly representative of the â€Å"general public. An exceptionally savvy and politically astute institution, AARP instead makes careful, informed judgments about what political coalition they need to achieve their legislative goals, and then methodically reaches out to those audiences. That’s a far cry, and far more strategic, than trying to spread the word about your cause through every possible channel to every possible audience. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 11 But we really didn’t even bother with all nine. Three of them were on our side already, and three opposed. To get a majority, we needed to target the two undecided supervisors — an audience of exactly two. I am happy to report that both of these fine elected officials were deeply impressed by our poll of voters that showed strong public support for protecting the tortoises. They agreed to support the appropriation we were seeking. Today a healthy population of tortoises thrives at a wildlife refuge created for them in Searchlight, Nevada. The poll that broke the political logjam cost around $10,000. If we had been less careful in choosing our audience — if, say, we had targeted the voters of — I have no doubt that we would have spent a lot more money and accomplished less in terms of conservation. The alternative would have been expensive and timeconsuming grassroots campaign, with no guarantee of success. With inherently limited means, nonprofits, therefore, should be ruthless in narrowing their target audiences to the greatest degree possible. What’s the irreducible minimum, the smallest audience I can reach and still achieve my objective? It could be two people, as in the Las Vegas case, or it could be thousands. The numbers matter less than going through the exercise of drawing an explicit link between the audience and the desired outcome. At the very least, this keeps you from spending time and money trying to engage people who aren’t interested in what you do, and never will be. I’m all for being on the same page. That’s why highimpact nonprofits have a position statement and elevator speech, an organization-wide mission and unifying goals. But don’t confuse or conflate these framing elements of your organization’s positioning with the messages that you are trying to deliver to your target audiences. Certainly, there will be considerable overlap, and messages must be consistent with the overall brand. If you fall in the trap of starting with your message first, you will never really succeed at marketing or communicating about your organization. Instead, the needs of the audience dictate the message. Nonprofits often miss this point and believe that the message should be about them. But it most emphatically is not. More than just slogans, messages should be designed to motivate the target audience to go beyond awareness and take action — to vote one way or another, make a donation or sign a petition, to stop smoking or exercise more. What’s more, messages have to speak directly to the needs, desires, and aspirations of the audience. What’s in it for them? Why should they care? And how might your messages lessen the perceived costs or highlight the perceived benefits of taking action? Messages can evoke emotion (fear or hope, for example) or appeal to reason (using statistics or anecdotes) but in either case, the message needs to address a top-of-mind concern not for you, but for your target audience, and do so in a simple, compelling way. Obviously, the more you know about your audience, the better you can devise messages that will scratch their particular itch. Market research, consequently, plays a critical role in communications and marketing campaigns. Research helps you understand your audience’s attitudes and concerns, their priorities and where your issue stands relative to others for them. Meanwhile, research into language — testing specific words and phrases — can ensure that messages will resonate with the target audience. And market research also plays a role in figuring out how to deliver your message. What are the common characteristics of those in your target audience? How does your target audience get information? Who do they trust for accurate data? What do they read? Do they all watch the same TV shows? moral: There is no such thing as the general public. Find the audience that matters most to your mission, and focus on them like a laser beam. About Messages About 45 minutes into the first meeting on developing a new communications strategy, someone — usually an long-time employee from the program side of the organization — will express frustration with all the attention being pent on audiences. â€Å"Let’s just get our message straight and go from there,† this person will say. â€Å"We all need to be on the same page. † Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 12 Brevity is the second success factor in developing effective messages. The more clear and compelling the message, the greater the likelihood of moving your audience to act. In the desert tortoise case, for example, the message couldn’t have been clearer — your constituents overwhelmingly support this. In short, it is a votewinner. By contrast, once you branch out into a more complex message, especially one that requires context, it’s easy to lose the thread and hence the audience. The environmental community had this problem for years with the issue of global warming, which until very recently was a hard sell to policymakers because the story wasn’t being told well. Finally, let me reiterate that effective messages incorporate an explicit call to action. A message without an explicit â€Å"ask† may help build awareness of a particular issue or cause, but awareness by itself rarely results in positive social change. The Lance Armstrong Foundation discovered the importance of this lesson when to their astonishment the yellow rubber â€Å"LiveSTRONG† bracelets exploded in popularity by the tens of millions. Within months, the market was awash in different colored bracelets: white, pink, red and so forth. Armstrong’s cause — promoting cancer survivorship — was lost in this technicolor jumble, and not least because they were unprepared to channel the immense initial interest in their work into a simple ask. The â€Å"ask† also has to align with the problem or product. The famous â€Å"Got Milk? † campaign, for example, also got a ton of attention for its innovative approach — hip advertising with milk mustaches on celebrities — and the ask was obviously there, but it initially and famously failed in its goal of increasing milk sales. It turns out people loved the ads because they were fun and clever, not because they presented a compelling argument to go out and drink more of the same old boring milk. It took better alignment with the actual product — new bottles, different flavors — before milk sales were affected. Back in the nonprofit world, the Lance Armstrong Foundation is now aimed at turning the â€Å"LiveSTRONG† awareness (wear a yellow bracelet) into an ask for united political action (vote for cancer funding), and achieving far more tangible results, such as the recent passage of a $3 billion bond initiative for cancer research in Texas. When the message aligns with the interests of the audience, by contrast, possibilities abound. To rejuvenate membership and participation, in 2000 the Girl Scouts ditched their stodgy Brownie image and adopted a message hierarchy organized around the theme â€Å"where girls grow strong. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy reached its teen audience by stressing how having a baby resulted in the loss of social status and the addition of many new responsibilities. But the gold standard for effective messaging in the nonprofit world revolves around the â€Å"Truth† campaign, an initiative designed by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to reduce teen smoking in Florida. Conventional anti-smoking messages aimed at teens asserted that smoking wasn’t cool and stressed the health risks, the smell, and the cost. They preached responsibility and just saying â€Å"no. † And as anyone with teenage children could tell you, those messages were doomed from the start. When you are immortal, like all 17 year olds, you don’t care about developing lung cancer at 65. You also deeply resent insults to your intelligence, so being lectured that smoking isn’t cool just doesn’t fly. Rebels smoke, and always have: Bogart, Bacall, Dean, Che. The â€Å"Truth† campaign started from a whole different place. The ads, funded with tobacco settlement money, were written and produced by teens. Instead of telling kids that smoking was bad for them or somehow uncool, the teenagers in the Truth ads openly acknowledged the right of their peers to make their own decisions about smoking. (Independence being a key motivator for teens. ) Instead, the ads zeroed in on the tobacco companies, and, in particular, charges about tobacco advertising intended to lure children and teenagers into smoking. In essence, therefore, the message in the â€Å"Truth† ads was all about manipulation: did you know that the adults at big Tobacco are trying o manipulate you into smoking? Again, parents will recognize immediately the huge leverage in this message: the only thing kids hate more than sanctimonious adults are manipulative adults. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 13 And â€Å"Truth† worked. Florida was one of the few states that actually experienced a drop in teenage smoking rates . Most telling, the tobacco industry absolutely loathed the Truth campaign and did everything in its power to stop it. When you have attracted the ire of the master marketers at Phillip Morris and RJR, you can be sure that you have honed a pretty effective message. moral: Figure out what motivates your audience. That’s the basis for your message, not what the board, management, and staff want. About Messengers and Vehicles When SeaWeb and other ocean advocacy organizations became concerned about the rapid decline of the swordfish and other species known as much for their popularity on our plates as their populations in the oceans, they decided to enlist top chefs, rather than movie stars, as their main messengers. Why? Their research showed that the public looked to chefs for advice on seafood. And Paul Prudhomme already had exemplified the way that a top chef, with a catch phrase and heavy seasoning, could take the relatively bland redfish, and create a dining sensation while unintentionally driving a species closer to the point of extinction. The hope was that those who set the nation’s menus would take a step in the opposite direction, and stop promoting a popular fish that was now in trouble. The organizations enlisted hundreds of leading chefs from across the nation in a campaign to â€Å"give swordfish a reak. † The media liked the messenger, picked up the message, and policymakers listened, taking action to protect swordfish back in the sea. The messenger alone is not enough, but the right messenger carrying the right message can do wonders to motivate an audience. Of course, that message also needs to reach the audience in a way they trust. For SeaWeb and the swordfish, t he focus was not only on the media outlets that reached the policymakers who controlled fishing regulations, but also on arranging one-on-one meetings directly with those policymakers. With the advent of the Internet, the number and variety of arrows in the marketing and communications quiver has increased exponentially. Once an audience is identified, there are now more paths than ever to their proverbial doorstep. While personal meetings, printed materials, earned media and advertising remain important in many cases, increasingly the centerpiece of an effective marketing strategy is no longer offline, but online. The best web sites have evolved from being simple online brochures to nodes on larger networks. Blogs offer an opportunity to send and receive more sophisticated and nuanced messages, especially to those who follow your issues with rapt attention. And email systems are becoming so cost effective that savvy organizations can now do the sort of differentiated marketing and information exchanges with large groups in a way that they once had to reserve only for use with VIPs. The catch, of course, is that for organizations to make the most of these new tools, they need to relinquish some control and allow the public to participate. The networked nature of the Internet is at the core of a small â€Å"d† democratic revolution in the creation of distribution of information. In keeping with the title of Jed Miller and Rob Stuart’s influential article, network-centric thinking certainly is a challenge to ego-centric organizations. If a nonprofit leader still wants to employ a 17-step approval process for every bit of information going out the door, that organization will simply not thrive in the Internet age. moral: Put the right messenger in the right vehicle and let it fly. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 14 Managing a Communications Crisis The recurring nightmare of every communications manager starts with a phone call. â€Å"I’m calling from 60 Minutes,† the nightmare begins. â€Å"I’d like to come over and ask you a few questions about your organization. † These words typically trigger a series of immediate reactions on the part of recipient: panic, a sinking feeling in the gut, the sweats. And with good reason. When you hear from investigative journalists, it’s generally not because they are interested in all the good work you do. To the contrary: their job is to expose what you aren’t doing well. To paraphrase a reporter who covers the nonprofit sector for a leading newspaper, â€Å"‘Foundation gives grant’ is not news. ‘Nonprofit helps people’ is not news. ‘Nonprofit misuses foundation money’ — that’s news. † This attitude infuriates the boards and staff of nonprofit organizations. It’s so unfair, they wail. Journalists don’t understand all the great work we do on behalf of our mission. Why don’t they go get a â€Å"bad guy†? Rather than indulge in self-pity and anti-media resentment after the fact, nonprofits would be wise to prepare themselves in advance for communications crises that may never come. Planning and forethought represent your best, perhaps only hope for mitigating the institutional damage that comes from a full-blown reputational crisis. When it hits the fan, you won’t have time to do anything but react, and by that time, you will have already lost. At the same time, how can you prepare for something that hasn’t happened yet or that you don’t know about? Nonprofit staff, just like their peers in the private sector and government, are loath to acknowledge error and in many cases do their best to bury mistakes far from the light of day. How can the poor communications director possibly know which of these little disasters is going to burrow out of the bureaucratic morass and land on the front page of The New York Times? Two kinds of stories in particular seem to agitate the media when it comes to nonprofits. The first has to do with the compensation and behavior of nonprofit managers. Much of the mainstream media has unfortunately bought into the idea that those working in the charitable sector deserve to be paid much less, and should act much better than their private-sector counterparts, and thus the spate of stories in the press about lavishly compensated nonprofit CEOs or a personal indiscretion that would go unnoticed in the for-profit world. Whether these criticisms are valid or not is irrelevant. The fact, the appearance of nonprofit â€Å"profiteering† or inappropriate behavior remains a huge red flag for the press. Hypocrisy is the second big trigger. If the media finds out, for example, that your anti-smoking coalition has been accepting money from tobacco companies, your reputation is basically toast. No explaining that decision away. The same holds true for children’s programs that actually benefit adults or when a high-profile televangelist is discovered with his pants down. The press holds nonprofits and others working in the charitable sector to a higher ethical standard, and when organizations violate that trust, the journalistic response is usually swift and merciless. So what can the nonprofit marketing professional do? Is the only choice to take the punches? Actually, that’s not such a bad strategy, depending on the severity of the media attack and the depths of your organizational culpability. If you don’t argue — if you just admit that you made mistakes and assure your stakeholders that the problem is being fixed, oftentimes the press will get bored and move on to a new story. It’s no fun picking a fight with someone who refuses to fight back. This kind of institutional jujitsu works best for dealing with cases of employee fraud or theft, accidents, or other isolated incidents. Higher-stakes assaults on your reputation — ones that suggest a pattern of inappropriate behavior — merit a more aggressive response. No one has thought more deeply about this than Lanny Davis, who helped Bill Clinton fend off media inquiries into White House Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 15 fundraising practices. Frustrated both by the lawyers inside the White House, who fought releasing any information to the public, and the press, who were convinced of a massive cover-up, Davis conceived a set of three simple rules for handling crisis communications: Tell it all. Tell it early. And tell it yourself. tell it all: Since Watergate, generations of media relations professionals have cleaved to the mantra that the cover-up is always worse than the original sin. The reason is simple: nothing keeps a story in the news more than having information dribble out slowly, with each new revelation allowing the press to rehash everything that has gone before. What’s worse, each new revelation only confirms the suspicions of the press that you aren’t being straight with them. So why do so many organizations violate this basic tenet of crisis communications? First, as noted earlier, no one likes to admit error. For nonprofits, which depend on voluntary contributions, there is also real fear that owning up to mistakes will damage their reputation and thus hurt their fundraising. Even more fundamental, though, it’s often very difficult to gather and get straight all the facts about a tricky situation in time to meet the deadlines of the press. This leads to incomplete or evasive answers that often have to be â€Å"corrected† later — with predictable results. Who can ever forget Richard Nixon’s press secretary saying â€Å"that information is no longer operative†? The only possible defense against accusations of a cover-up is to get to the bottom of the issue internally and then make a complete and frank accounting externally. Even the most embarrassing details are better told up front than leaking out later. Or as Davis says: tell it all. But the most important reason to tell it early is so that you can control — or attempt to control — how the issue gets framed. If something has gone terribly wrong inside your organization, you want to be the person announcing it to the press, rather than the other way around. It gives you a chance to play a little offense, not only to reveal the transgression but also to announce what you’re going to do about it. In such circumstances, your best hope of avoiding a media feeding frenzy is to acknowledge the full extent of the error (tell it all), take full responsibility for what happened (passing the buck infuriates the press), and lay out a series of action steps to prevent recurrences. tell it yourself: There’s no guarantee, of course, that telling it all and telling it early will suffice to call off the media. Some will always question whether you’ve taken strong enough action, or whether the responsible people have been appropriately disciplined. But the alternative — waiting for your dirty laundry to be aired in the press — is invariably worse. And make no mistake: your unsavory organizational secrets will eventually come to light. Bad news is too juicy and has too many avenues for escape. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was running communications for The Nature Conservancy. Disgruntled with the new directions of the Conservancy’s president, at least three different people from inside management were leaking documents to The Washington Post. This is every reporter’s dream: multiple sources with access to inside information — and a grudge. As a result, the Post spent months asking questions to which they already knew the answer, hoping to catch the organization in a contradiction. You can’t just worry about an errant employee, though. Even if you believe down to the depths of your soul that your organization is beyond reproach, both in its mission and its actions, there is, without doubt, someone out there who would like to see you stopped in your tracks. Identify those potential enemies in the same way you would identify your potential allies, and be prepared for when they come knocking. tell it early: In the public mind, stonewalling equals guilt (just as most people instantly interpret the classic â€Å"no comment† as an admission of error). The longer you wait to respond to charges, the more validity those charges assume. These factors alone provide a powerful incentive for nonprofits to get their side of the story out fast. moral: Don’t pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel. Instead, learn to take your medicine and follow the Davis Rules. Essays on Excellence Lessons from the Georgetown Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program Advocacy in the Public Interest 16 About the Author David Williamson is Managing Director of the consulting firm of Bernuth Williamson, serving nonprofit clients in the areas of strategy, marketing, and communications. He previously served for 13 years in senior management positions at The Nature Conservancy, the nation’s 10th largest nonprofit, including six years as Director of Communications (1997–2002) and terms as Vice President for Marketing and Director of Conservation Marketing. He is an adjunct professor of business administration at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and has lectured on nonprofit management at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School, and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, among others. Williamson, a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, serves in leadership positions on three nonprofit boards in addition to his work with clients. David Williamson How to cite Strategic Marketing Planning for Non Profit Organization, Essay examples

Little Piece of Me free essay sample

As far back as I can remember my mother has always been telling me that I have three strikes against me. I am a female, I am Hispanic, and I am from the Bronx. Although it is not necessarily a crime for being all such things, it is surely enough to keep me from getting ahead. At least thats what Ive been brought up to believe about this game I like to call life. There are rules, some of which arent fair and hold you back from your true potential. There are guidelines, which are experiences and wisdom passed on from others. And of course there is the never-ending sensation of competition lingering within. My whole life has been a vast routine led by my parents, pushing me as hard as I could take it to be an ideal person all so I could succeed in life. So many times have I heard Sweetie, you want that nice car when you grow up? That big house? Well youve got to work at it, work harder then any other kid out there. We will write a custom essay sample on Little Piece of Me or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page You know why? Because you have three strikes against you, which is something all those other kids dont have. Can you imagine being 5 and having your mom pull you aside and tell you this on your first day of school? It can be pretty intimidating. Fortunately the intimidation would fade away as the same old lecture became more and more routine. Every bad grade, un-hung shirt in the closet, shoe left by the door and unwashed dish in the sink resulted in the lecture . It was kind of like a broken record, annoying at times but then you remember that you used to like the song it played. That song was something you thrived on for a while; it was a piece of you. But like all one hit wonders, another one usually comes along later down the line. When it came time for me to apply to high school I wanted to go somewhere that was different from what I was used to. My two acceptances were Bard High School Early College and Lehman High School . Deciding to attend B.H.S.E.C had to have been one of the hardest decisions of my life. Do I go to a school that has everything I want, will challenge me, is miles from home and will probably make my grades drop? Or do I attend a school with no curriculum, 10 minutes from home, will not teach me anything whatsoever and I will without a doubt continue to get straight As in? My final choice was obvious and up until this day I never regretted my decision. B.H.S.E.C took the place of my mothers lecture, shaping and motivating me in ways I never thought possible. To be honest my middle school never prepared me enough to attend B.H.S.E.C. Every day I have pushed myself to stay afloat in this sea of over achievers and Im proud that I have managed to do so. At B.H.S.E.C the lessons I have learned are in my eyes far more useful then calculus and biology. I learned how to open up and use my voice to share with people every single idea that runs through my mind. I learned how to develop these ideas and turn them into something tangible and more concrete that I could share with my peers and the world. Furthermore I learned how to work with and challenge my peers, whose ability to efficiently use their vast knowledge in a classroom setting was very foreign to me at first. When I was a freshman I used to want to stay in a little comfort zone where I was sure of myself and didnt take risks, but thats not me anymore. I look back on who I was 4 years ago and that person is unrecognizable. Ive grown and look forward to a triumphant college career. B.H.S. E.C taught me to be my own person and to not worry about everyone else, just yourself. So yes, I may be a Hispanic female from the Bronx but I wont let that determine the life that lays ahead of me. Life is a game, and its my turn now, the odds of striking out wont keep me from playing.

Speak Essay Example For Students

Speak Essay A Voice for the Hurt High school is supposed to be a fun, new, and exciting experience. The novel Speak is about a social outcast named Melinda and her struggles to fit in in high school. She doesn’t have any true friends because no one stays around long enough to hear her story. The book is written by Laurie Halse Anderson. Throughout the novel Melinda shows her emotional discomfort through actions instead of speaking out. In the end she speaks up for herself and she finds a happier state of being. In the beginning of the novel Melinda enters high school being shunned by all of her old friends and even people she has never met before because she called the cops at a party at the beginning of the summer. Melinda hides her feelings and doesn’t speak out about what really happened that night. Instead of speaking she silences herself by her actions. An example of this is how she constantly bites her lips. The fist example of this is right in the beginning of the novel when Melinda’s ex best friend mouths â€Å"I hate you,† to her from across the room. Melinda bit her lip and tried not to think about it (Anderson 5). We will write a custom essay on Speak specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now She continues to do this to remind herself to stay silent throughout the novel. Melinda silences herself many other ways too. One of the most intense ways of this is when she cut herself with a paper clip. She says, â€Å"I open up the paper clip and scratch it across my left wrist. Pitiful. If suicide is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? (Anderson 65)† When her mom sees the cuts all she says is that she doesn’t have time to deal with it. This shows how Melinda is trying to speak through cutting herself doesn’t help. Her mom doesn’t care. Her whimper for help is not heard. She needs to speak up about how she was raped. At the end of the novel Melinda finds a happier state of being when she decides to finally speak. There are many factors that lead her to speak. One of ways she finds her voice is by standing up to Heather. Also she tells Rachel about how Andy Evans had raped trying to protect her, but Rachel doesn’t listen to her. After she wrote in the bathroom stall other girls also wrote about how much of a creep Andy is. This gives her confidence to speak out about Andy because she knows that she isn’t the only girl going through what she went through. At the very end of the novel when Andy tries to rape her again she finds her voice and says no. Once others hear about what happened they understand her story. In art a seniors asks her if she id OK and says way to go (Anderson 197). Speak is a powerful novel about a young girl who was raped. Melinda silences herself through her actions. She bites her lip as a constant reminder not to speak out. Also she cut herself with a paper clip as a whimper for help instead of just telling her parents and friends the truth. In the end she finds her voice and simply speak.

Minimal State Liberals Active State Liberals A Critical Discussion

Minimal State Liberals Active State Liberals A Critical Discussion Both welfare and neo-classical liberals share some similarities arising from the fact they were born from the same set of ideals, but they also have their differing viewpoints that to a large extent stem from their divergent reactions to the social effects of the Industrial Revolution.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Minimal State Liberals Active State Liberals: A Critical Discussion specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In similarities, it is clear both welfare and neo-classical liberals believe in the value and promotion of individual liberty and a desire for a more open and tolerant society, not mentioning that they are guided by the twin elements of individual rational self interest and competition in their attempts to promote self interest (Dolbeare Cummings, 2009). Extant literature, however, demonstrates that the two political ideologies differ on very key issues that were pushed into the limelight by the social effects of the Industrial Revolution. Borrowing heavily on Darwin’s Theory of evolution, the neo-classical liberals, also referred to as minimal-state liberals, argue that people should not invest too much power in the government as such a move would obstruct the realization of individual liberty. Indeed, the neo-classical liberals suggest that â€Å"†¦the state or government should be nothing more than a night watchman whose only legitimate business is to protect the person and property of individuals against force and fraud† (Dolbeare Cummings, 2009 p. 71). Arising from this description, it is also clear that neo-classical liberals support minimal regulations in the pursuit of economic competition. The welfare liberals (also called the active-state liberals), however, argue from the perspective that the government should play a bigger role in ensuring the liberty of people by rescuing them from social ills such as poverty, ignorance and illness. Addi tionally, while neoclassical liberals reinforce the perspective that the strongest, smartest and most fit will survival in the competition at the expense of the poor and the weak, the welfare liberals are more concerned with ensuring that every person in the society enjoys an equal opportunity in life (Dolbeare Cummings, 2009). In the United States, it is clear that these differences led to the formation of the republican political ideology arising from neo-classical liberals set of ideals and democrat political dispensation arising from the welfare liberals set of idealsAdvertising Looking for critical writing on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It can be argued that the neo-classical liberals are more conservative than the welfare state liberals due to their quest to put in place a society that leans more toward the protection of property and its propensity to argue from the social Darwinism ori entation that only the strongest and the hardest working will survive. Neo-classical liberals come out strongly as more conservative than active-state liberals as they seem oriented to ‘conserve’ or ‘preserve’ the status quo by fighting for minimal government interference with private property. In a sense, it appears correct to argue that neo-classical liberals seem to hold a much higher value on private property and material wealth than on guaranteeing that people are assisted to achieve their liberty and full potential by providing them with a totally new framework and political dispensation to deal with a multiplicity of social ills bedeviling society, including poverty, ignorance and illness (Dolbeare Cummings, 2009). Lastly, it is correct to argue that neo-classical and welfare liberals exercise ideological and political philosophies that are clearly different from classical conservatism. While both neo-classical and welfare liberals believe in ration al human behavior guided by the value and promotion of individual liberty, classical conservatives are of the opinion that political society develops over time out of custom and human society, and that people’s capacity to reason is severely limited. Reference Dolbeare, K.M., Cummings, M.S. (2009). American political thought (6th ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Press.

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Report - Essay Example This project discusses the bank’s reasons for establishing itself in the Peruvian economy and the appropriateness of its strategies to do the same. HSBC started operating in Peru as a Greenfield project. The reason to choose Peru for starting the project was that it would be free of any constraints arising from prior activities. It had not operated in this place before. There were also very few other financial service providers. Thus there would be fewer possibilities of restrictions and constraints. The organisation has also undertaken a number of successful Greenfield infrastructure projects since 1997, making investments of more than $15 billion (HSBC-g, 2010, p.2). The strategy was implemented beginning with the opening of Commercial and Global Banking services. In the next year it was followed by opening of the â€Å"Personal Financial Services† (HSBC-b, 2009). The market entry strategy began with the opening of the retail branch network in Peru. The most common st rategies confronting the organisation would be establishing start-ups or joint ventures. However the strategy chosen by HSBC was establishing a start-up retail branch in Peru. This is because the region has very few financial service providers. This method is also preferred because it would allow the organisation to keep control over its foreign venture. On the contrary the company’s major step undertaken in China was in the form of joint ventures. This is because it has operated in the Chinese economy for a long time. This strategy is not recommended for HSBC in Peru because it has minimum expertise with local knowledge which would allow it create maximum benefits for its customers (HSBC-f, 2010). Its strategy is to contribute to the economy and bring tangible benefits in the market in which it operates. The revenue generated would be used to pay dividends to shareholders, make payments to the global suppliers (INCR, 2008, p.5). The following table gives the pre-tax profit g ained by HSBC in 2008 and other geographical regions. Figure 1: Pre-tax profit by HSBC in Latin America and in other geographical region (Source: INCR, 2008, p.5) An important strategic step taken by HSBC in alignment with its objective was to increase the number of customer accounts in Latin America. This was primarily meant to maintain high liquidity levels in the organisation. The amount of loans and advances made to the customers has been presented in the following diagram (HSBC-e, 2010, p.13). Peru has also represented as one of the most liberalized regions for attracting foreign investments. This was the reason for HSBC to establish banking operations in the region. In Peru the MNCs are also protected against discrimination and are provided easy access to every sector in the economy. Moreover, MNCs are also free to remit profits and capital. The banking sector is also regulated and supervised by â€Å"Banking and Insurance Superintendency operating in the retail sector under the category of universal banking† (Yi, n.d., p.8). This provided insurance for opening new establishments in a foreign nation as a step towards global expansion. HSBC decided to establish a retail branch network as an attempt to further expand its franchisees in Latin America. It has also received approval for the same. It has been authorised by â€Å"the superintendent of banking and insurance in Peru† to establish 10 retail branches in Lima. The first step towards

Answer to discussion board post Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer to discussion board post - Assignment Example ers aiming to effectively relay knowledge, it would be appropriate therefore, to assess the general or predominant learning styles of the students to provide the learning strategies that would maximize the students’ potentials to learn. This would also entail teaching applicable study skills like â€Å"active listening, reading comprehension, note taking, stress management, time management, test taking, and memorization† (Education Corner, 2011, par. 2), as needed. The strategies for applying study skills could be different depending on the subjects, such as English, science, history or mathematic classes since the subjects have diverse thrusts, learning objectives and focal points; but the study skills remain the same. For instance, English classes aim to develop students skills in grammar, writing, reading and comprehension which requires study skills that would develop proficiencies in these areas (note taking, reading comprehension, time management). On the other hand, for mathematics, skills could be apty developed through practice and provision of visual learning aids, such as flashcards, charts, or graphs, as needed. History requires a lot of reading and science subjects need both reading and applications, where active listening, note taking, time management and memorization would assist students in enhancing their potentials to learn. It is a matter of using the most appropriate strategy to apply the study skills deemed needed to impro ve learning and academic performance of

Ethanol Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ethanol - Essay Example It was mostly used industrially and for lamps until 1862, when the U.S. Congress placed a $2 per gallon tax on it to help fund the Civil War. In 1896, Henry Ford built his first vehicle, a Quadricycle, which ran entirely on pure ethanol. The first hybrid flexible engine was also built by him for his Ford Model T; made from 1908 until 1927. It could run on ethanol, gasoline or kerosene. As World War I and the depression created a need for more fuel, more research was done to provide the necessary means for energy when gasoline was not readily available. During the prohibition years, extensive taxation made it impractical to produce alcohol, although in the 1920's, the Standard Oil company started using ethanol as a fuel additive to reduce engine knocking and raise the octane of the fuel to enhance performance issues with automobiles. As the advancement of the combustion engine progressed, so did the need for ethanol research. It was also at this time that Brazil discovered a way to us e the ethanol made from sugar cane in their automobiles. It was in the 1930's that gasohol; fuel comprised of 6-12% ethanol was first used. Brazil passed a war time law in 1943 requiring automobile fuel to contain 50% ethanol, in order to reserve petroleum resources for the military use. They have continued to develop that technology into a world class economy today. Due to the oil embargo, in 1974, the U.S. began doing extensive research regarding turning organic materials into ethanol. In 1980, the U.S. placed foreign excise tax on all foreign made ethanol in an attempt to stimulate the domestic economy and reduce flooding the market with cheap imported ethanol. That tariff remains in place today, securing the place for the U.S. as the number one ethanol producer in the world. By that time, Brazil was considering fuel rationing, when Fiat built the first, ethanol only, modern car; within three years, 90% of the cars in Brazil were ethanol vehicles. Today, Brazil continues to be th e leading sugar cane ethanol producer, refining more than 40% of that country’s domestic ethanol. By 1992, the Energy Policy Act passed, requiring automakers to create and sell cars capable of using alternative fuels; also giving tax deductions to those selling those cars or ones capable of being converted with a special conversion kit. This kit made adjustments to the fuel-to-air ratio through the use of fuel sensors that determined how much ethanol was in the system to prevent engine damage. Ethanol as a fuel additive can be derived from many organic sources, such as corn, wheat, sugar cane, sugar beets, sweet sorghum, sweet potatoes, switch grass, and miscanthus. There is research constantly being conducted to search for new sources of feedstocks to produce this valuable renewable source of energy. Potential non-corn feedstocks include cotton stalks, and trees as well as certain forms of algae. This would require a special and complicated process to separate cellulose from the sugars for the fermentation process and much more research is needed in this area. There are many other uses of ethanol than just for car fuel. It is also used to make industrial compounds and solvents, antifreeze, vinegar, perfume, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, paint, and alcohol wipes and antibacterial hand sanitizers. The grain alcohol that is used for human consumption is of a much higher quality and therefore a different product entirely. One

A Study Of Customer Service At Morrisons

A Study Of Customer Service At Morrisons The aim of the research project is how Morrisons create advantage through the customer service. Analysis and evaluate the company by use business models also applications. High standard service will increase customer satisfaction, and meet their expectation. Objectives: This project provides advice and an opinion on mechanisms to enhance customer service in Morrisons. The purpose of work is to analyse strategy and by using lean production system to explain how Morrisons works efficiently and benefits customers also improve performance. Porters five forces will help the retailer compete with other large supermarkets, such as Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA and Waitrose. Methodology: The research project included a detailed review of literature and the result of customer service questionnaires. Major strategies at Morrisons: Offer the high quality of customer service by best trained staff to attract more customers shopping in Morrisons. HOT service has introduced to colleagues in all stores. Motivate staff work as a team; support each other to achieve goals. The company benefitted low cost from its own farms and factories. Morrisons background Morrisons was found at Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1899, by William Morrisons, a retailer of butter and egg. Son of William, Ken Morrisons was awarded a Knighthood for food retailing services in the 2000. The firm developed from market stalls to counter service, a small town shop centre was opened by the year of 1958. It was the first shop to offer self-service, also have prices on products in Bradford. (NGfL CYMRU, 2004). The first supermarket opened in 1961, named Victoria, converted by a cinema selling meat, grocery and others, offered free charge car park. 1967, Morrisons became a public company, over 80,000 investors tried to buy shares. After takeover of Whelan Discount stores, Morrisons has developed in Lancashire for the first time. Wakefield 41 located near the M1 motorway was the first distribution centre of Morrisons, opened in 1988. Two years later, Wakefield 41 was expanded to storage chilled and fresh food. Cheshires Gadbrook Park became the frozen food depot of Wakefie ld 41 in late 1990s. (Morrisons, 2012). The south of England in Erith (Greater London) store was opened in October 1998. After one year, Morrisons had been founded for a 100 year, celebrated the 100th supermarket started operating at Nelson. April 2001, Morrisons joined the financial Times Stock Exchange 100 for the first time after a successful 35 year sales records and increase revenue since the firm become public in 1967. March 2004, Morrisons takeover of Safeway, become the 4th largest retailer in the UK. To serve the enlarged group, Morrisons acquires and additional fresh produce pack house and distribution centre at Thrapston in Northamptonshire. (Morrisons).since then, Morrisons has reduced over 13,000 prices down in Safeway. Sir Ken Morrisons retired after 55 years of service in 2008; The Retail Week Awards honoured him with an Outstanding Contribution to Retail. Morrisons today, over 470 stores throughout the UK, more than 300 stores have petrol station and customer cafes. 132,000 staff served 11 million customers in Morrisons every week. The revenue was  £16,479 million in 2011. There are over 20,000 different products in stores (Morrisons, 2012).Morrisons strategies are continuing growth, provide better quality, service, value, and offer fresh food. Fresh choice for you, this is the TV advertising of Morrisons, to achieve this target, fresh food processed in its own manufacturing facilities and transported in temperature-controlled warehouses and production lines inside the UK and overseas. To saving costs, the company chooses local producers, also built own farms. Morrisons have more skilful bakers, butchers and fishmongers than other competitors. This project focus on Morrisons customer service, how it is different with other major large supermarkets of the UK, encourages and motivates staff to improve company performance, expand the business. A SWOT analysis was completes. Please see appendix 1. The importance of customer service What is customer service? Why is it so important for a business? Customer service is the service offer to consumer before, during and purchase products or goods. (The Times 100) For example, a consumer bought a camera, the retailer charges the wrong price, or this consumer wants change the mind. He or she went to customer service request to refund. This is the service to dealing with consumer requests. Through the customer service to improve the level of customer satisfaction, high service meets the expectation of consumers. The result of bad customer service could receive more complaints and lost sales, consumers may not come back for shopping again, and they will choose different retailers. It is a long way to build long term relationship with consumers; the business has to offer good quality of service that benefits them. In addition, satisfied consumers would help business growth. High standard customer service is hard to achieve, business need more endeavour to meet their needs. Morrisons costumer service has competitive advantages compared with other large retailers in the UK. How Morrisons implements Customer Service strategy How can Morrisons be different with other large supermarkets in the UK? Compared with Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA and Waitrose. Develop customer service is Morrisons plan, a simple strategy. To prove the high standard service, Morrisons have well trained staffs who works at fresh food departments, such as Oven fresh, pie shop, meat counter, fish bar and delicatessen. Morrisons has spent long time on training staff to gain high quality of customer service past 2 years. The result was satisfied as more than 11 million customers shopping in Morrisons each week. To motivate staff, Morrisons have a buddy board shows colleagues photos who have done great customer service, these colleagues as models to encourage others. There is also another board in staff room, colleagues can leave a note on that board when they saw others who helped customers and met high standard customer service. Morrisons has invested in new IT facilities to continue improvement in 2011, old computing system had been served for many years, and Morrisons replaced all old checkout monitors. Customers has spent less time at tills, new computing system works very efficient, save the time and easy to use for colleagues. On the other hand, Morrisons bought new ovens for oven fresh department; these new ovens help staff reduce the cooking time, also convenience. These changes showed customers who shopping in Morrisons more satisfied with its focus on service, freshness, efficiency and new facilities, they feel valuable in Morrisons. Kids Smart Range products offered for children, help them eat healthy food, without Artificial Flavours, Hydrogenated Fats and Artificial Colours. Every product strict controlled sugar, salt and fat. Parents can easily find Kids Smart food for their children in store, such as fruit, cans, fish, meat and other items. (Morrisons, 2012) Customer service consists by 4 main factors: information, convenience, and the service after purchase, knowledge and skills. (The times100, 2011) Information: customers can check information through the Morrisons website, includes special offers, new products. Ask staff for information and details. Signs and direction given in store by different categories, customers can find products what they need easily. Brochures and leaflets available at each till include latest offers and information, even discount. Convenience: at least 300 stores have petrol station and cafà © shop in Morrisons, convenient for customers to fill their cars, also buy water and fast food. At Morrisons car park, 5% parking areas devoted to blue badge holders with disabilities. Parents with toddler have special area for ease and parking. Knowledge and Skills: in Morrisons, best trained specialists must give accurate suggestion to customers, especially fishmongers and butchers who suggest different fish or meat for cook it correctly. The service after purchase: this service includes after shopping, such as refunds, guarantees, complaints from customers, package problem and change the products. Morrisons experienced colleagues provide great service to meet customer satisfaction. Morrisons HOT service HOT means Hello, Offer, Thank you. Every colleague participates in this service at all stores. The purpose of HOT is build closer relationship between colleagues and customers, to achieve higher quality of customer service in communication. Chat with customers to help them feel that they are important for us, like a member of family. Encourage staff engage with customers by deliver great service, compete with other major supermarkets take a lead. HOT offiers a warm, natural and friendly service for customers. In 2011, Morrisons has achieved a 21% raise the degree to customers would recommend Morrisons to others, the praise rate went up by 56%. (Morrisons Annual report, 2011) Application of Lean production in Morrisons to enhance service Lean production originally developed from Japan and increase efficiency, include 4 key elements, just in time production, time based management, total quality management (TQM) and continuous improvement (kaizen). Lean production aim is reduce waste by use less materials, worker, time and space. (The Economist, 2009) Morrisons applied lean production to keep the costs down, also benefit customers. Just in time (JIT) is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on investment by reducing in process inventory and associated carrying costs. (Aldi case study, 2011) Just in time was created by Toyota, the method also called Toyota Production System. Morrisons uses just in time production to keep sufficient stocks, avoid waste, by hold less stock to increase working capital. To provide freshness experience for customers, Morrisons established its own farms and factories; shrink the delivery time offer them the freshest food and great taste. In recent years, new IT facilities have invested in all stores, self service checkouts towards work efficiency. The benefit to the customer is less waiting time at till, simplified instruction convenient to each user. One staff can operate 6 or 8 self checkouts; help business reduce the costs of labours. The aim of time based management is decrease the time waste of business. Since May of 2011, fresh counters closed early from 10pm to 8:30pm for reduce labour costs, this decision involved in pie shop, delicatessen, meat counter and fish monger. To meet customer expectation, Morrisons has extended the opening time from 10pm to 11pm to benefit consumers who shopping late, also help company to make more profit. Total quality management is a popular quality management concept. It is not just focus on assuring product or service quality. There is a phrase often connected with TQM, doing the right things right, first time. Quality involves everyone; it is an important business strategy. Morrisons seeks to leverage strongly with customer communications and remain it as core. In 2010, the firm became the first retailer to move to 100% free range eggs. Committed to quality, from field to fork. Build strong relationship with suppliers, buy food directly from them, Morrisons can control the quality and keep the price down, bring fresh food faster on shelves. In its own processing plants, every stage of the production process has been checking to ensure the high quality. To concern customers health and food freshness, fresh food such as bread, pies, chickens and pork must be reduced clear by the end of the same day; shoppers receive the valuable products, even less than half price. Motivation and investing in people People are assets of business, through the training programme and develop their skills to create better shopping experience for customers. Morrisons has long term partnerships plan by supporting people to gain qualifications and learning new skills which will benefit them for whole life. In Salford store, more than 70% colleagues who from poor backgrounds have a change to progress their careers. A series of new programmes have created to support all different levels, such as apprenticeship, leadership and young people. In 2010, 48,000 colleagues gained the QCF (NVQ) level 2 Retail Skills qualification to help them improve understanding of serving customers skills. The Morrisons Academy associate with several academic institutions, such as Bradford Business School and Bradford School of Management, who offer degree course and management training, the partnership helps colleagues from school leaver and graduate to senior roles. (Annual report, 2011). 70% managers from internal recruiting lead to efficiency. Morrisons training interventions are valuable, build on the unique culture for grow sales. People development based on three elements, communication, training and coaching. Communicate with colleagues improve their awareness of benefits and changes. Encourage and motivate staff to deliver high standard of customer service quality by training them. Coaching means support and guidance colleagues cooperate with Leeds Metropolitan University and Leeds Carnegie to help deliver improved service to customers. One team concept, work together as one to deliver the best service; help each other share a common target. Rewards profit sharing and discounts for colleagues who have been working many years. By the year end of every March, every one receives bonus to celebrate success of the business. (Morrisons, 2009) Maslows hierarchy needs analysis By applying Maslows hierarchy needs to identify consumers satisfaction, these theories will analysis the needs of customer in Morrisons. Physiological needs: these are important needs for sustaining the human life. Food, water, medicine are the basic physiological needs. These needs have to meet customers satisfaction from Morrisons. Safety needs: these are the needs to be free of physical danger and psychological safety concern for customers. As a provider, Morrisons offers high standards products on its shelves, including organic food, nutritional and fresh foods. For example, fresh food such as chickens and pies use by one day only. In Morrisons own farms and factories, the quality control checked by every process. (Anon, 2006) Social needs: by offer HOT service, help customers feel they are fit into Morrisons family, they need to love and to be loved. The firm awareness of this need and always providing a pleasurable shopping experience for consumers. Esteem needs: according to Maslow, once people begin to satisfy their need to belong, they tend to want to be held in esteem both by themselves and others. This relate to personal dignity, confidence. Customers want feel they are very important for supermarkets, the retail must be regard them superiorly. (Anon, 2006) Porters five forces analysis The five forces model was developed in 1979 by Michael Eugene porter; he is a strategist and professor at the Harvard Business School. These forces are based on Rivalry, Supplier power, Substitution, Buyer power, and Threat of new entry (Harvard Business School, 2008). By applying porters five forces to conduct a situation reviews to advice W Morrisons Plc., analyse the current marketing environment for the company; identify and analyse forces that affect an industry. Rivalry: the UKs retail market is oligopoly; this industry has high competition, big 4 have already occupied most markets across the country, including Tesco, ASDA (America owner Wal-Mart), Sainsburys and Morrisons. Tesco is market leader, which has 30.7% market share, followed by ASDA with 17.6%, Morrisons at the 4th position with 11.9% market share (The Guardian, 2012). Tesco and ASDA have almost 50% market due to their sizes; both of them are international companies who have business worldwide. The threat of rivalries extremely high. Threat of New Entry: global competitors have penetrated into the UK retail market, ASDA owned by Americans, French retailers. German giant Lidl has opened many stores in UK cities. However, Lidl only shared 2% market; the threat is low at the moment. On the other hand, there are also internal competitions, cooperative plans expand their business by open more shops to gain market share, Waitrose do so. The threats of new entrenchers are high for Morrisons. Buyer power: customers will compare the prices with other big supermarkets, Morrisons has price strategy to keep the price down and satisfy customers, hundreds of products offered great deals, such as special offer, buy one get one free, half price and reduce to clear. Its own brand products much cheaper than others, for instance, one bottle of coca cola is  £1.98, but Morrisons coca just 50 pence, the competitive price will reduce the power of buyers, HOT service also help to satisfy consumers. To attract new customers who come from different countries, most stores have ÃÅ'’ world foodsÃÅ'â€Å" section include Kosher, polish, Caribbean, halal and Indian goods. The firm had increased Asian World Food such as oils and rice, even special items like whole mung beans and mango pulp. In this case, buyer power is low. Substitution: nowadays, individual and franchised groceries could be challengers, such as londis, budgens, it is convenience for buyers. The companys own brand goods to be able to substitute other brands of products, some of them have low quality. For example, Morrisons has replaced pork sausage rolls from its own built factories, the taste is not satisfied, also shrink the size, and remaining the same price. Substitute level is low to medium. Supplier power: Morrisons have own manufacturing factories and farms, which can help reduce the power of suppliers. By build great relationship with suppliers to ensure the costs lower. However, this threat is very low. Literature Review This review of the literature on the companys annual reports (2011), analyses and the information relate to market share and share prices are the main indicators of companys success or failure. Through the high quality of customer service to build up competitive advantage, grow the profits and attract more customers. Group turnover was  £16.5 billion, 1.1 billion higher than last year. Profit before tax was  £874 million, compared with 2010  £858 million. Underlying profit before tax went up 13% to  £869 million. Statutory basic earnings per share were 23.9p, 5% higher than previous year. In 2011, total dividend per share reached to 9.6p, increased in 17%, making dividend cover 2.4 times. Morrisons delivered a strong performance in 2011. By continuing focus on quality fresh foods at great value made Morrisons a natural destination. In 2010, average customers numbers shopping in Morrisons were 10.5 million, the number increased 500,000 in the following year. (Morrisons annual report and financial statements 2011) Methods By using quantitative research methodology aims to review the customer service in Morrisons. Design questionnaires to collet feedback from customers, the survey will be carried out in one of Morrisons store. What is the buyers opinion? How satisfied are they? Evaluate the quality of service; has companys service reached customers expectation? This was random survey, 14 questions designed in total. The table represents service quality of staff, including ability, knowledge, helpful, friendly and polite. The survey took place in Morrisons of Acton High street 302, London. As a result, 11 customers responded my questionnaires. The table shows feedback below: Research limitation Due to time limited, it cannot interview more people, the date may inaccurate and unreliable, because of low quantity of samples. Furthermore, print questionnaire expensive if require large size of surveys. Many people refuged to fill the form, targets were unwilling to answer the questions. Conclusion Morrisons strategy based on provide high quality of customer service, good feedback from customers will motivate colleagues turn to positive side, encourage them deliver even better service. Buddy board shows staff photos who have done great service to inspire the others achieve the same target. People development successfully helped staff to improve their skills and performance to achieve consumers satisfaction. By offer HOT service to help buyers feel part of the family. The firm chose fresh foods as aim to be the best retailer, this unique strategy take advantage on its competitors, became the leading supermarket who produced the freshest products in the UK. Morrisons own controlled distribution centres and farms provided high standard products to give buyers the best experience. New IT facilities reduced every ones waiting time, lead to efficiency. Due to finance crisis, the retailer has decided do not recruit staff for save the cost, the impact of this decision, more complaints received from customers about inefficient service, spend long time in the queue. The company has not done adequate effort for non-food products, the offer is limited. For example, there is no laptop, DVD player, TV and cloth. Consumers will choice other alternative supermarkets instead Morrisons. Local convenience store just beginning, rival companies have occupied most High Streets and strongly challenged Morrisons. Design new online shopping website will help the retailer makes more profit and meet customers expectation. Appendix 1 Evaluate Morrisons by SWOT analysis Strengths: Morrisons is very different with other supermarkets in the UK, because of fresh food. It has own fresh produce distribution centres with fast delivery. Focus on customer service is other strength, the visiting numbers has been steady increased compared with past 4 years. Many buyers chose Morrisons regard to their price strategy, by offer cheaper prices than any others. Weakness: as the 4th biggest supermarket, it does not provide online shopping system, other large retailers have already benefited from their online websites, and this is also convenience for consumers. All Morrisons branches built on large size or super stores, in addition, many stores located in remote areas. It is difficult for buyers to access them. Due to long distance, they may chose local small shops instead to go to big supermarkets. Tesco has around 3000 stores in the UK; over half of them are Tesco express. As a result, Tesco has increased in market share to 30%, became the number one retailer of nationwide. Sainsburys locals are taking advantage either (Anon) Morrisons lacks of non-food products, such as electronics, clothes. By contrast, ASDA and Tesco have already successful in these areas. Opportunities: Morrisons has to focus on non-food products, the offer is limited. At the moment, home leisure and health beauty are still key business. This is the great opportunity to develop electronics and clothes, it will help the company to expand the business, give customers more choices. The first Morrisons local convenience store was opened in IIkley, Yorkshire in 2011. It was the first time to trial local format, also compete with rivals. The M local strong focus on fresh food and competitive price, it will be 4-11% cheaper than other local shops such as Tesco express and Sainsburys local (Morrisons, 2012). The new strategy will build smaller local stores to gain more market share. Morrisons has behind other large retailers for online shopping system, it is the time to design new website, and expect to grow profit in the next a few years. Threats: the retailer has very slow reaction to improve its business, include online service, non-food products, and local shops. Rival supermarkets benefited from these areas, Morrisons still not even start yet. The company must compete with two giants of the world, Tesco and ASDA. Morrisons does not have globe business, only in the UK market. ASDA plans to open smaller stores and threat key territories of Morrisons. Appendix 2 (Interpretation) Most respondents chose Excellent and Good, but question 2, 5 did not meet customers expectation, the rate less than 50%. In total, 7 QuestionsÃÆ'- 11 People (each question) = 77 People. 12 people chose Excellent, 38 for Good, 21 for Average and Fair received 6. Customer satisfaction = (Excellent+Good) à · total= (12+38) à · 77= 65%. The rest 7 questions relate to Morrisons, most respondents live nearby, only 10 to 15 minutes by walking or bus to arrive the supermarket. The products prices are valuable for money, but consumers still shopping in other local shops, such as Tesco, ADSA and Sainsburys. 10 of interviews would recommend Morrisons to their friends, 1 person is unsure. However, there are some negative sides for the company, respondents suggested that recruit more staff for counter departments, people who work in delicatessen and oven fresh always have heavy work to do, and buyers were queuing for quite long time. On the other hand, colleague should improve the knowledge for products. Some staff cannot deal with shoppers request; they do not know where the certain product is either. Overall, the companys customer service level is medium; it could be achieve higher score in the future to meet consumers expectation. Morrisons reputation is excellent; over 90% interviews would recommend their friends to shop here. They do have alternative choices, which go to rival supermarkets.