Why is there such an abundant use of irony in poe's the cask of Essay

Why is there such an abundant use of irony in poe's the cask of amontillado What thematic purposes does it serve - Essay Example The main character, Fortunato, is portrayed as an important and cultured man. His name can be interpreted as "the man of fortune", but the irony is that he is faced with bad luck to have wronged a man with a deathless memory and a commitment to "not only punish, but punish with impunity" (Poe 848). The irony is that Poe does not tell readers the exact offense he has committed, and can make no evaluation upon whether Montressor's revenge is justifiable. "Revenge is a dish best served cold" (Poe 541).Readers cannot analyze and evaluate Montressor's right for revenge. An abundant use of irony is evident in contrasting characters of Fortunato and Montressor. Poe does not directly state that Fortunato is nave or Montressor is a very cunning man. Readers can guess and predict that these characteristics are probably true. Fortunato's ability to assess and judge situations accurately is questioned at the beginning of the story when he insists upon leaving his family and friends to descend into a damp wine vault in order to answer Montressor's challenge at judging the worth of a cask of wine. Montressor describes: "Putting on a mask of black silk, and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person, I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo" (Poe 848). His pride is great and he feels he alone is capable of making this evaluation; he pays a terrible price for this arrogance. The uniqueness of the short story is that Poe links two stylistic devices: humor and acute irony which leads to change from what is expected. As the two men proceed along toward Fortunato's ultimate resting place, Montressor's sarcastic remarks and exclamation add ironic details and black humor. He asks Fortunato about his health and long life, reveals his mason trowel when Fortunato mentions that he is a member of the secret Mason society, plays with the Fortunato by telling him that he intends to provide him "all the little attentions in my power" (Poe 852). Also, the irony is that Fortunato is dressed in the suit of a clown to join in the celebration of carnival. This detail gives some hints to readers about true nature and personality of this character. The irony is evident in the setting of the story. During the carnival season, Montresor encounters Fortunato and reports that he has purchased some Amontillado. It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much" (Poe 846). Fortunato becomes anxious to sample the wine in question and deliver an opinion as to its merits; so he is easily led into a niche where he is fettered with chains and immured by Montresor, who has both a trowel and some fresh mortar handy. Fortunato, who has been drinking and coughing, quickly becomes sober and begs to be released, but to no avail. An abundant use of irony is evident when Poe unveils life and destiny of Montressor. Through this character, Poe's portrays a fanatical person who has spent the best part of his life first planning and then executing the murder of Fortunato. Fifty years later, Montressor is still thinking about the corpse that has been quietly

Work of Art History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Work of Art History - Essay Example At the same time he was developing his own style, Rodin was joined by Realists and Impressionists who brought new perspectives to painting, and thus public perception of art changed as well. In 1907, Rodin crafted The Hand of God, which he had modeled around 1896. The sculpture shows a single hand as its central subject, and it holds within it a raw stone. This stone also features the smooth figures of man and woman, who are being fashioned into organic forms from the rough material, showing God in the process of creation much as the sculptor goes through such a process. In analyzing this sculpture, it is first necessary to use one's eyes to see what it presents—the content, the subject matter, the forms and shapes. The sculpture, as mentioned, features a large, strong hand, set apart from the body so that the hand itself is the subject. The hand juts forth from a rough base, an uncut and unpolished piece of stone marble. Within the hand, we see a smaller version of the same c ontrast—there are two human bodies, intertwined, one man and one woman, and they are attached to a backdrop of raw marble with no deliberation alterations. Examining the sculpture from different angles reveals different contrasts, as one side shows only the fingers gripping the stone, while another angle would put the focus on the human figures within the stone and the hand. The texture of the human elements is smooth and curved, while the rest of the marble is straight, jagged, and not at all organic. The sculpture can be seen as divided into three parts—the largest part being the hand, the next mot important being the two human figures, and then the backdrop of uncut stone being the supplementary part. As a sculpture, color is not used, but form doubles its centrality by gaining a third dimension that is not quite present in any painting. The artist was able to create a center of a attention with ease by having the hand sit squarely in the center of its base and come upward, with the fingers slightly curled in order to create a cylindrical shape that also suggest motion. The lack of rigidity in the hand gives it a more lifelike appearance, just as the somewhat fetal and relaxed human forms of the man and woman give an impression that they are alive and movable, rather than striking any sort of pose that lacks life and flexibility. The artist also creates a contrast between the live and non live parts of the sculpture by having a deep groove between the body parts and the rough stone. In a way, there is a sort of trench, and this has the effect of making the body parts pop out from the stone, not specifically separated but still having a clear gap and change of depth. This is his way of establishing an aesthetic difference between the two elements, while the scale is used to develop a difference between the bodies and the hand. The texture of the body parts helps to create a beauty that is set apart from the stone as well, so the viewer clearly considers the difference between the two and realizes which is more attractive. The meaning of the sculpture is rather easy to interpret on the surface, but perhaps has deeper parts. Foremost, it shows symbolic process of creation of humanity by the more powerful and larger â€Å"hand of God†. The difference between textures shows that life comes from something raw, and God cleaves life out of what is lifeless. The lack of body for God shows that the hands are the focus, as the hand of God is the doing and creating part of him, the tools that he used to change earth into man. On top of this basic theme of creation by God from rough material into life and beauty, we also get a second meaning of creation—that of the artist or the sculptor. The symbolism about divinity is displayed in

Truffles Case Essay Example for Free

Truffles Case Essay Mushrooms, in general, and truffles, in particular, occupy very important place in modern art of cooking. In cuisines of many countries mushrooms are used as competent and delicious substitution for meat. Mushrooms are great with potato and pasta; also they are used in salads and in different soups. Truffles are extremely delicious and popular. The most famous French food lover and bon vivant Jean Brillat Savarin called them â€Å"diamonds of the kitchen†. (Wikipedia) Truffles are special and unique mushrooms, because they grow up and can be found only underground, in symbiotic relationship with some definite species of trees. Truffles are mushrooms of spherical irregular shape, which diameter varies from 5 to 20 cm. Despite of long lasted difficulties with cultivation of this fungus, now truffles are grown in Europe, Africa, Asia and Northern America. The best season for picking truffles is from May to September. Truffles have rather long history. Their origin is unknown: once they were found and started being used for making meals more delicious and tasty. But there are numerous historical recordings about attempts to cultivate truffles. Many rich people dreamt about big truffle fields, which could bring incredible profits and fame, but the majority of early attempts to domesticate truffles failed. First recordings about the truffles are left from the times of Roman Empire. Actually, the Romans used a terfez mushroom, which was similar to truffles in shape, but had slight rose paleness and specific taste. Terfez came to Roman Empire from Greece and the territories of the Middle East, that’s why it was sometimes called as â€Å"desert truffle†. It had unique property to intensify the other flavors of meals, so it was really great for bright and spicy cuisine of Roman times. In XVII – XVIII centuries the truffles were very popular in France and Italy. It was still quite hard to cultivate truffles, and that’s why they could be afforded only be wealthy people, including the courts of French Kings. In those times culinary specialists used to cook different types of meals with truffles, but the peak of the art was truffled turkey. Besides, truffles were known not only for their excellent taste, but also with their aphrodisiac and medical qualities. (Savarin) There is a great variety and diversity of truffles. A number of similar subterranean fungi is called â€Å"false truffles†, which look and taste quite similar to real truffles, but can be poisonous. There are only three species of real truffles, which have the greatest commercial and culinary value. Generally, there are black truffles (Tuber Melanosporum) and white truffles (Tuber Magnatum), which slightly vary depending on their taste and place of cultivation. It is supposed that the best black truffles are being cultivated in the south-east of France, though there are also big territories of truffle production in Spain, Italy and other European countries. French black truffle is from 2 to 15 cm. It is cultivated on special fields and can be collected from about 20 cm underground. The researchers found out that truffle produces special chemical substance, which is similar to steroids of male pigs. That is why pigs and specially trained dogs help people to find truffles below the soil. Recently the amount and quality of truffles produced is decreasing, that is why specialists started mentioning so called â€Å"cycles of truffle cultivation†. In the end of XX century France used to produce 30-60 tones of truffles every year, but recently the production is considerably lower. The main reason for it is, certainly, worsening of environmental conditions, which is characterized by de-forestation and acid rains. That is why recently some lack of investments into truffle cultivation industry takes place. The best time for collecting black truffles is January, because at this time truffles are at the peak of their taste and perfume properties. The price for truffles on French market varies from USD 110-330 per pound, depending on season. There are also so called summer black truffles, which are very close to winter truffles in their taste properties. The best white truffles are cultivated in northern Italy. They are supposed to be superior to French black truffles in taste and aroma. That is why Italian white truffles are much more expensive: in autumn, when they appear at the market, their price can reach USD 2000 per pound. There are some legendary unique Italian truffles, which are sold in luxury auctions. In the year 2005 a 2.6 pound truffle was sold for USD 112,000, considerably surpassing the price for truffles at previous auctions. In 2004 a truffle weighing 1.9 pound was sold for USD 50,000, but shortly after it got decayed in refrigerator due to incorrect preserving. Two types of truffles are cultivated in China. Chinese products are called Tuber sinensis and Tuber himalayensis. Their taste and aroma qualities are much poorer. Also, these sorts of truffles are much less pungent than their European analogs, and their texture is rather different: Chinese truffles are much softer and rubbery. That is why Chinese truffles are much cheaper at the market. Frequently, Chinese smugglers import such truffles to Europe and illegally sell as high-quality truffles. Also, some types of black truffles are being successfully cultivated in New Zealand, Tasmania and Australia, Northern Africa and the Middle East. In the USA first truffles Tuber gibbosum were found in the end of XIX century in California by Dr. H.W. Harkness. Nowadays, there are two most advanced places of producing truffles in the United States: in Texas and in Oregon. Recently, there are about 60 species of hypogenous mushrooms are grown in our country, and some of them are absolutely new for science. Oregon truffle plantations are the most advanced and profitable: here truffle cultivation started in 1985, when a tree farmer tried to inoculate Tuber species close to specially planted trees. First attempts to cultivate truffles this way proved to be successful, and soon the harvest reached 200-300 pounds per acre. Oregon truffles do not have intense aroma of European ones, but instead they have very special flavor. There are many truffle lovers and admirers in the United States, who enjoy eating these miraculous mushrooms. Also, a number of organizations, like Oregon Mycological Society or the North American Truffling Society, carry out some special biological and genetic researches, develop new technologies for more productive cultivation, and supply our market with fresh and jarred quality truffles of our own production. These products can be found in many supermarkets, and they are quite affordable. Truffles have to be prepared for cooking as usual mushrooms: they must be washed very carefully, brushed, dried with a towel, and then peeled. Some white quality truffles can be used even raw, because taste characteristics and aroma of white truffles is especially sensitive to any heat. That is why it is better simply to slice fresh peeled truffles onto a salad or other dish. At the same time, it was discovered that white truffles can recollect their wonderful aroma and taste after processing and jarring. Black truffles (both winter and summer ones) are mostly used as a little cooked products. The majority of advanced gourmands do not suggest mixing winter and summer black truffles due to some slight differences in their delicate flavors. But, at the same time, using jarred winter and summer black truffles is absolutely possible, especially for different dishes with white meat and poultry. Many specialists criticize jarred black truffles, saying that their usual taste is lost. But the other specialists, on the contrary, find jarred black truffles to be enriched with special spicy flavor, which is usually absent in fresh ones. Truffles are very easy to be preserved in butter or oil, and they taste incredible both as fresh and jarred. Besides, truffles can become perfect additives for many foodstuffs, as vinegar or butter. Truffles enrich such products with their natural exotic flavor, make them creamy and balsamic, and considerably improve their quality. Italians add extracts from black or white truffles into their premium quality olive oil. Only couple of drops of such divine oil can bring special and piquant taste to any salad or sauce. Exceptional taste of truffles is incomparable accompaniment of different dishes with potato (especially mashed potato), macaroni and pasta, chicken and fish, omelets or dishes with rice (especially risotto). Truffles are perfect components for different salads, sauces and especially fillings. Truffled roasted meat and truffled eggs are real masterpieces of culinary art, along with French cheesy Fonduta with truffles, which is one of the most popular dishes in modern France and Italy. Meals with truffles go especially great with white wine. In addition, truffled food is not only extremely delicious and unforgettable, but it is also very healthy. There are many people, who afraid and avoid eating mushrooms, but some dishes with truffles are really worth to be tried! Eating truffles is quite safe, because they do not cause problems with digestion or any other unpleasant symptoms. That is why for very long time truffles remain among the most desirable and admirable foods all around the world! Bibliography: †¢ Freedman, Louise. Wild about Mushrooms: Truffles. MSSF. Mycological Society of San Francisco. Ed. William Freedman. 2000. 12 Dec. 2005 http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/truffles.html. †¢ Savarin, Brillat. The Physiology of Taste: or Meditations on Transcendental Gastronomy Counterpoint Press, October, 2000, ISBN: 1582431035, 464 p. †¢ Truffle. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Online. 7 Dec. 2005. 12 Dec. 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle.

Role of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making Process

Role of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making Process A FUTURE MARKETING PERSPECTIVE The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of Blog marketing has been born. The use of blogs as a communication tool has the huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. The purpose of this paper is to understand and explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process. Interview technique was used on young adults, as research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). It was identified that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers because it cover specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs. It was identified that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group. Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products. Lastly it was also identified that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities between the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices. INTRODUCTION Ever since the internet was introduced for the general public during the 1990s, people have used it as a source of information. Majority of the population in India use internet in order to get information regarding products and services. However most statistics available does not tell how the consumers use the internet and what kind of information they search for. There are many different sources of information online, for example company web pages, communities, blogs etc. The concept of blogs and blogging is a relatively new phenomenon in todays society and it has not really been explored before. Nevertheless, magazines are today filled with articles on the importance for companies to start blogging and join the communication of the future, if they do not want to loose ground to their competitors (Lindstedt, 2005, November). The major blog search engine, Technorati, shows some interesting facts on the number of blogs and its growth. In October, 2006, Technorati counted 57 million blogs and a growth rate of one hundred thousand new blogs per day. This number is expected to keep growing and double every eight month (Technorati, 2006, November 6). However, when it comes to the number of blogs in India, there is uncertainty. Different articles talk about a wide interval of blogs, starting at around 18,000 (Lindstedt, 2005, August) and counting up to more then hundred thousands (Johansson, 2007). The reason to this wide span is due to the lack of a clear definition on what a blog is and also the fact that the figures are 18 months apart from each other. But the fact is that the tremendous growth of blogs worldwide also is true for India. India contains actors like Twitter, Facebook and MSN spaces whom all contain blogs and allow for a creation of your own blog. As a result of this growth, blog marketing has emerged as a new innovative way to create closer relationship with customers. It has also given the consumers the possibility to discuss amongst each other. Blog marketing allows marketers to establish closer relationships with its segment. Today limited research has been made within the concept of blog marketing. Furthermore, all research that has been conducted has had the focus on how companies can use blogs in order to interact with consumers. Something that has not been considered, and has been taken for granted, is the issue of how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Moreover, how consumers consider the information that is being transmitted on the blog has not yet been explored. The truth could be that consumers use blogs in a way that companies have not thought about. The existing use of blog marketing could thus miss its objectives if companies do not know how their audience perceives it. PROBLEM DISCUSSION The paper focuses on consumer decision making process and tried to explore how consumers use blogs in this process. As there is not so much work done on the area, this increases the importance to conduct such study. Blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers (Wright, 2006). In order to use this communication tool, it is of big importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. The focus on the consumer decision making process in the context of blog is of importance for several reasons. It is today unclear how and in what stages consumers use blogs in their decision making process. An overview of the literature shows that not much research has been done within this subject. Traditional marketing tools such as advertising, sales promotion etc have different impact in the different stages of the consumer decision making process. But it is unclear what impact blogging has in those stages. By mapping out this information, companies can learn how to use their marketing in a new and innovative way to appeal consumers. Moreover, whatever research is conducted is from company perspective. To be successful in blog marketing, activities needs to be shaped in accordance to consumers blog usage. If companies learn how blogs are used, they can benefit in several ways like they can engage in the viral marketing on the blogs to create knowledge of their products, or can listen on why consumers prefer competitors products. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK What is Blog? A blog is a web page that contains regularly posted inlays that are archived and arranged in reversed chronological order (Wright 2006). They are user-friendly, inexpensive, self-publication of content for a potentially vast audience on the web. The entries in the blogs are called blog posts. Blogs are more flexible and interactive than previous publication print and digital formats. They contain numerous hyperlinks that are often accompanied by comments regarding the destination of the link. Blogs are designed to be a part of a network where they are connected to each other through links, which are generally related to the content. The readers then have the possibility to comment on the blog posts. Blogosphere is the term used to describe the global network of blog postings. Blogs can be thought of as a gateway to vast sources of information where users may respond to a blogger by sending comments and links to additional information. In this sense, it is fulfilling many needs (Trema yne, 2007). Type of Blogs Diary blog A diary blog is a web based tool that gives the author the possibility to post information for consumption for others. Also, diary blogs gives the reader the possibility to add comments regarding its content; however, this is not applicable for all diary blogs. The authors that are writing on a diary blog all have different opinions regarding things and express their view of whatever they are writing about. This is a demonstration to the personal and dynamic capacity of a diary blog according to Searles and Sifry (2002). Pomerantz and Stutzman, (2006) describes diary blogs as web pages that arranges discrete posts that contains chunks of information that may contain images, multimedia and text. According to Lamshed, Berry and Armstrong (2002) diary blogs are very personal and if the reader does not like the author and his/her opinion, it may not interest them enough to return. The blogger can use the diary blog for personal enjoyment and archive the happenings in their li ves. Collaborative blog It contains information that is posted by several individuals not just one author. In collaborative blogs, readers have the possibility to contribute with links or posts comments, in order to participate with their opinions, answers and questions. Most collaborative blogs focus on a specific topic, and the authors can be both regular people as well as experts within the topic (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). The collaborative blogs are an online group created by the bloggers in the blogosphere. These groups have focus on certain topics in order to encourage readers to correspond to each other, which is similar to a normal discussion group. The purpose, according to Lamshed et al. (2002), is to break down the barriers between people and to extend the blog to more than just one author, in order to create a discussion among its members. Collaborative blogs have standard rules about participation in order to avoid development of poor quality content, which do not encoura ge new and current readers to come back on a regular basis. Company blog It include two types of blogs, product and customer service blog. Product blogs can consist of different approaches. One approach is to provide updates about the product so customers can receive the latest information. A second approach is to provide customers with insights and information directly from those who are responsible for the products. A product blog that keeps customers updated can build loyalty to the product and the brand/company. The customer service blog is rather similar to product blogs, but customer service blogs focus completely on issues on the already purchased products. The customer service blogs is a channel in order to address the issues on the products to the customers that have purchased the product (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). When the first blogs appeared in the late 1990s, they were primary web pages that contained many links, offering mostly â€Å"personal information† and easy to update. The blogosphere has been expanding rapidly over the last few years. According to the New York Times and Pew Research, nearly one blog per second is created (Tremayne, 2007). The Current Scenario People have blogged long before the term was coined, but the trend gained force with the introduction of automated published systems, especially Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and increase the publishing process. People started using the blogs because they wanted to express themselves about mentioned events. Blogging about events has attracted the attention of the mainstream news media, further contributing to the popularisation and adoption of this new phenomenon of computer mediated communication. Today the blogging in the blogosphere concerns business, for example about markets, customer service, product etc. (Tremayne, 2007). According to the search engine Technorati (2006, November 6) there were more than 57 million blogs available on the internet as of the end of October 2006. Approximately 12% of those blogs had posted comments or links. Research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project presented by Tremayne (2007) also indicates that blog readers today are similar to the early adopters of the internet and other new communication technologies. The bloggers are young, well-educated and more likely to be males. According to Tremayne (2007) the development of blogs seems to follow the traditionally diffusion path of successful new communication technologies and users with great interest in technology. The final step to become a part of the broader public of the internet community is then to shift to the general internet users. The new stage of the development of blogs is the business sector. Business has become a new phase of the communications that appears on the blogosphere today. Bloggers communicate and share information to each other since blogs are the new ways for customers to reach out to the companies. This scenario has made the companies more alert to listen to their customers demands through the blogosphere. Enterprises now have the opportunity to gain new knowledge from the customer and to gain an idea about what the customers are saying about them (Tremayne, 2007). Observations have been done on why internet users connect to blogs. Blogs seem to encourage a sense of community, especially for those who seek more in-depth information than what is available through traditional media. Blog content generally reflects the bias of the blogger, who tends to take one side of an issue. Furthermore it contains a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals. Information seeking is also a reason for accessing blogs. Bloggers provide the latest news and analysis by experts and other with inside knowledge, some of which is glossed over or omitted by the traditional channels. Blog users can also frequently use one certain blog due to they follow a story for a longer period of time than that they would be able to do if the story came from traditional media (Tremayne, 2007). Blog as mode of Communication In business, companies are required to communicate with their customer and have a strategy for the implementation of the chosen approach (Kotler et al. 2005). Communication with customer can take many forms, such as advertising, mailed brochures, sales promotion and personal selling etc. The marketers are often those who conduct this communication. They are often perceived as people with something to sell; they express what is good, great and irresistible with the product/service (Varey 2002). Blog enjoys characteristics of different types of flow of communication like: It enjoys characteristics of One-step flow of communication as: Flow of information from company to the target audience (Fill 1999, Harrell et al 1999, Ottesen 2001). It is non-personal communication since the message is carried without personal involvement by Kotler et al. (2005). All consumers are exposed to the same message at the very same time. It follows the principle of Mass Communication (Fill 1999). It enjoys characteristics of Two-step flow of communication as: In this information goes from the sender to certain receivers, that in turn reach the target audience through interpersonal networks (Fill 1999). Mass communication reaches the target audience, opinion leaders and opinion formers are there to strengthen the influence of the message (Blackwell 2001). Blogs helps the opinion formers and leaders in reaching targets that were missed by the traditional mass communication. It enjoys characteristics of Multiple-step flow of communication as: It overcomes the problem of two-step flow of information that neither allow the information to flow between individuals in the target audience, nor it includes the communication between the original senders, via a consumer, to the opinion leader and then passed on to other consumers. It adds the function of gatekeepers, who are people in a position able to decide whether or not the target audience will be able to take part of the message. Relationship between Blog and Word of mouth (WOM) WOM is defined by (Blackwell et al 2001 p.404) as â€Å"the informal transmission of ideas, comments, opinions, and information between two people, neither one of which is a marketer†. According to them, both the sender and the receiver gains from WOM, which is supported by Fill (1999), who also argues for the above. The benefits for the receiver are rather straight-forward; as they gain lots of information they would not be able to obtain otherwise. The benefits for the sender can be a little vaguer at first glance, but according to both Blackwell et al (2001) and Fill (1999) people like to talk about the purchases for a number of reasons, such as confirmation, satisfaction, status etc; which is what the purpose of blogs. According to Blackwell et al (2001) the affect of WOM has increased rapidly due to Internet. Consumers of today are able to spread the word of something faster and further than ever before. Schindler and Bickart (2005) discuss that the traditional WOM and online WOM differs in the strength of ties between consumers when they are exchanging information between each other. Granovetter (1973) previously argued that the strength of ties between two individuals is a function of the amount of time spent together, the emotional intensity and degree of intimacy in the relationship. Following this discussion, online WOM is characterized by weak ties. Weak ties then provide three possible benefits for the consumer. Friedkin (1982) argues that it first provides a potential input for a decision. Second, consumer information should be more diverse then that coming from stronger ties. Thirdly, it also gives consumers the opportunity to gain access to expertise which they normally would not get access to (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1997). One downside is however, that consumers do not know the motives of the person that provides the online WOM. It can be difficult to access the in formants background and expertise in the topic (Schindler and Bickart, 2005). Consumer Decision Making Process The consumer decision making process provides a general description on how a purchase decision is made. Consumers does not necessarily go through all the stages for all the kinds of decisions they make, and neither do they always go through the stages in the very specific order that is presented below (Blackwell et al 2001). The process consists of mainly five steps (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process) according to most researchers within the field (Blackwell et al. 2001, Statt 1997, Kotler et al. 2005), but there are number of factors that affects the consumer in their purchasing process. Consumer are affected by individual determinants (Blackwell et al., 2001) and physical factors (Harell Frazier, 1999) because they are different, have different experiences and motivations, therefore, they will interpret things differently. Also consumers differ in available resources and knowledge which will further affect thei r decision. Another aspect that affects the consumers is the environmental influences (Blackwell et al., 2001) and societal and social factors (Harell et al., 1999). Here the authors talk about external factors that affect consumer, such as culture, social class and reference groups, but also the influence of the family and other individuals by whom the consumer is affected because every individual strive to some extent â€Å"fit in† heavily affect consumers. Also the information provided by these groups tend to have high credibility, depending on the consumers need to belong. Lastly, consumers are also affected by their degree of involvement (Harell et al. 1999). Involvement is the degree to which the consumers perceive the purchase to be of importance to them, and how complex they find the purchase situation (Blackwell et al 2001). The more complex the purchase, the more effort will be needed from the consumer in order to make a good decision. The involvement in turn affects the way in which consumes will learn about the products. Since a low involvement purchase is fairly routine consumers do not engage in a very extensive information search on the product, they mainly gather their information passively. A high-involvement purchase will demand more from the consumer and they will be more motivated to actively search for information. LITERATURE REVIEW Bickart Schindler (2001) investigated the WOM in online forums on the Internet. They assigned students to look at either corporate web pages or consumer forums about specific products. They found that after one semester, there was a higher interest in the product category for those who used the online discussion forum. They then suggested that a reason for this was because the content posts in the online discussion forums are thought to be more credible and more relevant but also having more empathy among its readers. In another study, Bickart Schindler (2005) tried to explore the consumer use of online WOM. They found three motives for using online WOM a) To gain information on purchase decisions, in which consumer reviews and negative information was of most interest; b) To get support from decision already made in which positive was used most for confirmation of that the right choice have been made; and c) Whether information was searched for fun or not. Another theme they discovered was the evaluation of the content of information in online WOM. They identified, corporate web pages are more biased and untrustworthy. Independent web pages free from corporate marketing, in which detailed information and authentic first person experience was viewed more credible and reliable. A consensus of agreement among consumers in the online WOM also tended to increase the credibility. Finally, they found online WOM disperse more information in all stages of consumer decision-making process. During the nee d recognition, when product was mentioned, it sometimes stimulated interest or problem recognition for the consumer. Other consumers sometimes provide ideas that lead for alternative product to be included, or removed, in the consumer consideration set. Online WOM also suggested important attributes that could influence the criteria of which alternatives are compared. Information from consumers on how alternative rate on those criteria was also of importance when comparing alternatives. After purchase was done, online WOM information could increase the consumers satisfaction of the purchase through positive information. They also discovered that their informants were selective in their information gathering process. This was done to simplify the information but also to help them absorb the information with amount of consumer information about a large area of different products. They continue and suggest that future research should look deeper into what characterise the content in those online WOM consumers choose to read. Bernhad, Bjurling and Ã…hrà ©n (2006) did another study on un-addressed consumer complaints through blogs. They found that the blog is used as a way to express dissatisfaction on companies and their products and services. It is used when the consumer do not get enough amendments from the companies. Blogs then works as a complement to complaints through friends and family, and it is an easy way to ease the consumers experiences and reduce the stress of a distasteful treatment from companies. The consumers have then used blog to warn other consumers on products and companies but also to tell their own story regarding the complaint. Bernhad et al. (2006) discuss that the technical development has reduced the barriers to complain and this had led to increased likelihood to present complains for products of less value. Wallstà ©n (2005) then comes to the conclusion that the collaborative blogs increase the learning process in which people can learn from each other by reading blog pos t. It also gives a shared knowledge base for the participants. In another study by Constant, et al. (1997) weak-tie sources were found to make it harder for consumers to assess the quality of the WOM information they received. Schindler and Bickart (2005) then discuss that the reason for this may be that the consumer do not know the motives of the informant and it may also sometimes be hard to assess the background and expertise in the topic of the informant. RESEARCH METHOD Research approach As the purpose of study is to understand how consumers perceive their own experiences and behaviour which can be best analysed through inductive approach. As this approach allows researcher to have more flexible structure that will permit alternative explanations of the phenomena. This approach is qualitative in nature that begins with data. It develops an empirical generalisation that describes patterns of that data and it seeks to identify or develop a theoretical proposition that is consistent with those patterns (Schutt, 1996). Research Strategy Putting emphasis on the inductive approach, research strategy of the paper is built on an exploratory study, though it also includes a cross-sectional study as interviews were held over a short period of time (Saunders et al. 2003). As the paper does not allow for sufficient time for conducting a longitudinal study and it is not intended to study the effects of change and development of the blogging phenomena on the consumers decision making process, a cross-sectional study is more appropriate. As the purpose of paper is from the consumers perspective, qualitative research method will enable us to get information from the informants and will allow us to understand the meaning that the informants attach to their experiences of blogging. Description is based on the meanings that informants express through words. A qualitative approach will allow getting this non-standardised data without being locked into a standardised set of questions. This is because the nature of the questions will need to be flexible and open-ended in order to explore what emerges during the interview. Furthermore, to get a rich description of this non-standardised data and to get into the thoughts of our informants, the interviews will need to allow a long length of time. Sample selection The sample selection consists of young educated adults; as previous research suggests they use blogs the most. The sample size consisted of nine people within the ages of 21 to 28. Of those nine people, three are females and six are males. Judgement sampling technique was used for identifying the informants who had rich experiences of blogging. The low number of informants can be justified by this as it allows getting a richer description of the phenomena studied. Data collection This primary data has been collected through interviews which are qualitative (semi-structured and in-depth) in nature. Limited research that exists and relates to our study has been used as secondary data. To check the effectiveness of semi-structured interview, two pilot studies were conducted. First semi-structured interview uses too much theoretical jargons that fail in retrieving the information. The second test then avoided the theoretical jargon and explanations. To get a rich description, informants were briefed two days prior on the themes to be covered in the interview. It was ensured that each informant had read the information letter before the interview took place. The informants were interviewed in two different ways -a) 6 informants were interviewed face-to-face in quiet rooms and conversations were recorded; and b) remaining 3 informants were interviewed through Skype because of distance and conversations were again recorded. However, attempt was made to conduct all interviews face-to-face as it enables to establish personal contact which is also important as Saunders et al (2003) argue; qualitative data favours the establishment of personal contact. It was also judged that the face-to-face contact would increase the likelihood of describing and identifying our informants accurately. In all cases, focus was on recording the findings from the interview as the findings emerged naturally. To really understand the informants meanings to their experiences and actions, flexible approach was used within the semi-structured interview. Although questions were bound to the themes, questions were flexible to allow an understanding of the participant. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS Data is presented through sectioning each interview individually. Collected raw data was put into categories and themes that emerged from the interview as need is to have a close understanding to our informants. Information collected and compiled under each category will be compared with other categories. This helps in identifying relationships; in discovering key themes, and recognising patterns and trends. Later on, theoretical framework will be applied on those patterns in order to understand it in a new way. Quotes will be made to simplify the meaning and in drawing conclusions. Empirical Findings a) Interview with Reema Sharma: Reema, 25 years old, was interviewed at her office in Jammu and studying at Jammu University. She uses blogs when she wants to buy something new or wants to find out different type of products available. She also uses blogs for reading travel diaries for fun and to be in touch with people she knows. When it comes to blogging about a future purchase, she reads blogs by people who are in the same situation as her and that have experience from the things she is interested in. She blogs travels but sometimes for electronics products and hiking. She has never used blogs actively, she only reads them. The kind of blogs she uses is mainly product blogs, and collaborative blogs, where she can read and learn more. She does not really read the blogs from companies. Rarely she reads a blog and completely changes her mind. The blog can instead make her choose a different brand. Relationship with bloggers: For her, the blogger is just someone whose blog she happens to find. Reema trusts all the information that is written in the blogs, but she explains that the more detailed description on how the product has been used, the more she relies on the inlay. People whose blogs she reads most often posses greater knowledge then her, within the subject. Need and awareness discovered with blogs:Reema agrees that she discovers a lot of new kinds of products, but this has never actually evolved to a need. This has occurred, for example, when she has blogged about hiking gear, she has learned about many new products and the advantaged with those products, but as she is not very experienced in the area, many of those products are just too complicated. However, the blogs she reads regarding travels could actually create a need sometimes. From these blogs she learns more about possible places to travel to which she might visit later in her life she explains. Blogging for information and evaluation of potential purchase: Reema searches for information about experience from others consumers and their opinions. She looks for new things and assesses which of the product will give most value for her money. For her, price is often one of the most important factors affecting her decision. The reason to why she chooses to collect the information from blogs is because she feels that this is the only place where she can learn about peoples experiences and opinions, and also since this information is more neutral then if it would be from a company. When it comes to evaluating products, she mainly uses collaborative blogs in where many people can express their opinions on things. While evaluating the products she mainly stick within one price category that will offer her maximum value of her money. Bloggi Role of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making Process Role of Blog Marketing in Consumer Decision Making Process A FUTURE MARKETING PERSPECTIVE The phenomenon of blogs is growing rapidly and is expected to increase even in a more rapid pace (Technorati, 2006, November 6). As Wright (2006) discuss; blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers, as customers want to be talked with, not to. Companies have newly started to pay attention to this and as a result, the concept of Blog marketing has been born. The use of blogs as a communication tool has the huge importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. The purpose of this paper is to understand and explore how and why consumers use blogs in their decision making process. Interview technique was used on young adults, as research suggests that this population use blogs the most (Tremayne, 2007). It was identified that consumers use blogs throughout their decision making. Within the consumers decision making, collaborative blogs was mostly used as the consumers because it cover specific topic of interest for the consumers. Consumers were found mainly writing in the blogs when they had knowledge to contribute with or when they needed information that they could not otherwise find in the blogs. It was identified that consumers turned to groups they belonged to, so called normative group, or they turned to groups that they did not belong to, so called comparative groups. These groups influenced the consumer by providing them with knowledge and by giving them positive and negative confirmation on their choice of purchase. However normative groups also persuaded the consumer to buy products in order to belong to the group. Besides this, a pattern of characteristics of the individuals that the consumer blogged with were noticed. Consumers wanted user experiences and thus the vast majority of these individuals they turned to, seemed to be consumers themselves, with relevant product experiences. The consumers also seem to blog more with certain individuals, whose opinions were valued more. These individuals often shared the latest information on products. Lastly it was also identified that consumers seemed to be selective when reading blog posts. The blog posts needed to contain detailed- and up-to-date information. Moreover, consumers wanted blog post to be written by other consumers because they saw them as more credible then companies. The consumers also chose to read blog posts that show similarities between the consumer and the blogger in terms of either usage pattern of product or preference for product choices. INTRODUCTION Ever since the internet was introduced for the general public during the 1990s, people have used it as a source of information. Majority of the population in India use internet in order to get information regarding products and services. However most statistics available does not tell how the consumers use the internet and what kind of information they search for. There are many different sources of information online, for example company web pages, communities, blogs etc. The concept of blogs and blogging is a relatively new phenomenon in todays society and it has not really been explored before. Nevertheless, magazines are today filled with articles on the importance for companies to start blogging and join the communication of the future, if they do not want to loose ground to their competitors (Lindstedt, 2005, November). The major blog search engine, Technorati, shows some interesting facts on the number of blogs and its growth. In October, 2006, Technorati counted 57 million blogs and a growth rate of one hundred thousand new blogs per day. This number is expected to keep growing and double every eight month (Technorati, 2006, November 6). However, when it comes to the number of blogs in India, there is uncertainty. Different articles talk about a wide interval of blogs, starting at around 18,000 (Lindstedt, 2005, August) and counting up to more then hundred thousands (Johansson, 2007). The reason to this wide span is due to the lack of a clear definition on what a blog is and also the fact that the figures are 18 months apart from each other. But the fact is that the tremendous growth of blogs worldwide also is true for India. India contains actors like Twitter, Facebook and MSN spaces whom all contain blogs and allow for a creation of your own blog. As a result of this growth, blog marketing has emerged as a new innovative way to create closer relationship with customers. It has also given the consumers the possibility to discuss amongst each other. Blog marketing allows marketers to establish closer relationships with its segment. Today limited research has been made within the concept of blog marketing. Furthermore, all research that has been conducted has had the focus on how companies can use blogs in order to interact with consumers. Something that has not been considered, and has been taken for granted, is the issue of how consumers use blogs in their decision making. Moreover, how consumers consider the information that is being transmitted on the blog has not yet been explored. The truth could be that consumers use blogs in a way that companies have not thought about. The existing use of blog marketing could thus miss its objectives if companies do not know how their audience perceives it. PROBLEM DISCUSSION The paper focuses on consumer decision making process and tried to explore how consumers use blogs in this process. As there is not so much work done on the area, this increases the importance to conduct such study. Blogs provides a new way of communicating with customers (Wright, 2006). In order to use this communication tool, it is of big importance for companies to understand how consumers use blogs in their decision making. The focus on the consumer decision making process in the context of blog is of importance for several reasons. It is today unclear how and in what stages consumers use blogs in their decision making process. An overview of the literature shows that not much research has been done within this subject. Traditional marketing tools such as advertising, sales promotion etc have different impact in the different stages of the consumer decision making process. But it is unclear what impact blogging has in those stages. By mapping out this information, companies can learn how to use their marketing in a new and innovative way to appeal consumers. Moreover, whatever research is conducted is from company perspective. To be successful in blog marketing, activities needs to be shaped in accordance to consumers blog usage. If companies learn how blogs are used, they can benefit in several ways like they can engage in the viral marketing on the blogs to create knowledge of their products, or can listen on why consumers prefer competitors products. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK What is Blog? A blog is a web page that contains regularly posted inlays that are archived and arranged in reversed chronological order (Wright 2006). They are user-friendly, inexpensive, self-publication of content for a potentially vast audience on the web. The entries in the blogs are called blog posts. Blogs are more flexible and interactive than previous publication print and digital formats. They contain numerous hyperlinks that are often accompanied by comments regarding the destination of the link. Blogs are designed to be a part of a network where they are connected to each other through links, which are generally related to the content. The readers then have the possibility to comment on the blog posts. Blogosphere is the term used to describe the global network of blog postings. Blogs can be thought of as a gateway to vast sources of information where users may respond to a blogger by sending comments and links to additional information. In this sense, it is fulfilling many needs (Trema yne, 2007). Type of Blogs Diary blog A diary blog is a web based tool that gives the author the possibility to post information for consumption for others. Also, diary blogs gives the reader the possibility to add comments regarding its content; however, this is not applicable for all diary blogs. The authors that are writing on a diary blog all have different opinions regarding things and express their view of whatever they are writing about. This is a demonstration to the personal and dynamic capacity of a diary blog according to Searles and Sifry (2002). Pomerantz and Stutzman, (2006) describes diary blogs as web pages that arranges discrete posts that contains chunks of information that may contain images, multimedia and text. According to Lamshed, Berry and Armstrong (2002) diary blogs are very personal and if the reader does not like the author and his/her opinion, it may not interest them enough to return. The blogger can use the diary blog for personal enjoyment and archive the happenings in their li ves. Collaborative blog It contains information that is posted by several individuals not just one author. In collaborative blogs, readers have the possibility to contribute with links or posts comments, in order to participate with their opinions, answers and questions. Most collaborative blogs focus on a specific topic, and the authors can be both regular people as well as experts within the topic (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). The collaborative blogs are an online group created by the bloggers in the blogosphere. These groups have focus on certain topics in order to encourage readers to correspond to each other, which is similar to a normal discussion group. The purpose, according to Lamshed et al. (2002), is to break down the barriers between people and to extend the blog to more than just one author, in order to create a discussion among its members. Collaborative blogs have standard rules about participation in order to avoid development of poor quality content, which do not encoura ge new and current readers to come back on a regular basis. Company blog It include two types of blogs, product and customer service blog. Product blogs can consist of different approaches. One approach is to provide updates about the product so customers can receive the latest information. A second approach is to provide customers with insights and information directly from those who are responsible for the products. A product blog that keeps customers updated can build loyalty to the product and the brand/company. The customer service blog is rather similar to product blogs, but customer service blogs focus completely on issues on the already purchased products. The customer service blogs is a channel in order to address the issues on the products to the customers that have purchased the product (Holtz and Demopoulos, 2006). When the first blogs appeared in the late 1990s, they were primary web pages that contained many links, offering mostly â€Å"personal information† and easy to update. The blogosphere has been expanding rapidly over the last few years. According to the New York Times and Pew Research, nearly one blog per second is created (Tremayne, 2007). The Current Scenario People have blogged long before the term was coined, but the trend gained force with the introduction of automated published systems, especially Blogger at blogger.com. Thousands of people use services such as Blogger to simplify and increase the publishing process. People started using the blogs because they wanted to express themselves about mentioned events. Blogging about events has attracted the attention of the mainstream news media, further contributing to the popularisation and adoption of this new phenomenon of computer mediated communication. Today the blogging in the blogosphere concerns business, for example about markets, customer service, product etc. (Tremayne, 2007). According to the search engine Technorati (2006, November 6) there were more than 57 million blogs available on the internet as of the end of October 2006. Approximately 12% of those blogs had posted comments or links. Research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project presented by Tremayne (2007) also indicates that blog readers today are similar to the early adopters of the internet and other new communication technologies. The bloggers are young, well-educated and more likely to be males. According to Tremayne (2007) the development of blogs seems to follow the traditionally diffusion path of successful new communication technologies and users with great interest in technology. The final step to become a part of the broader public of the internet community is then to shift to the general internet users. The new stage of the development of blogs is the business sector. Business has become a new phase of the communications that appears on the blogosphere today. Bloggers communicate and share information to each other since blogs are the new ways for customers to reach out to the companies. This scenario has made the companies more alert to listen to their customers demands through the blogosphere. Enterprises now have the opportunity to gain new knowledge from the customer and to gain an idea about what the customers are saying about them (Tremayne, 2007). Observations have been done on why internet users connect to blogs. Blogs seem to encourage a sense of community, especially for those who seek more in-depth information than what is available through traditional media. Blog content generally reflects the bias of the blogger, who tends to take one side of an issue. Furthermore it contains a sense of belonging to a group of like-minded individuals. Information seeking is also a reason for accessing blogs. Bloggers provide the latest news and analysis by experts and other with inside knowledge, some of which is glossed over or omitted by the traditional channels. Blog users can also frequently use one certain blog due to they follow a story for a longer period of time than that they would be able to do if the story came from traditional media (Tremayne, 2007). Blog as mode of Communication In business, companies are required to communicate with their customer and have a strategy for the implementation of the chosen approach (Kotler et al. 2005). Communication with customer can take many forms, such as advertising, mailed brochures, sales promotion and personal selling etc. The marketers are often those who conduct this communication. They are often perceived as people with something to sell; they express what is good, great and irresistible with the product/service (Varey 2002). Blog enjoys characteristics of different types of flow of communication like: It enjoys characteristics of One-step flow of communication as: Flow of information from company to the target audience (Fill 1999, Harrell et al 1999, Ottesen 2001). It is non-personal communication since the message is carried without personal involvement by Kotler et al. (2005). All consumers are exposed to the same message at the very same time. It follows the principle of Mass Communication (Fill 1999). It enjoys characteristics of Two-step flow of communication as: In this information goes from the sender to certain receivers, that in turn reach the target audience through interpersonal networks (Fill 1999). Mass communication reaches the target audience, opinion leaders and opinion formers are there to strengthen the influence of the message (Blackwell 2001). Blogs helps the opinion formers and leaders in reaching targets that were missed by the traditional mass communication. It enjoys characteristics of Multiple-step flow of communication as: It overcomes the problem of two-step flow of information that neither allow the information to flow between individuals in the target audience, nor it includes the communication between the original senders, via a consumer, to the opinion leader and then passed on to other consumers. It adds the function of gatekeepers, who are people in a position able to decide whether or not the target audience will be able to take part of the message. Relationship between Blog and Word of mouth (WOM) WOM is defined by (Blackwell et al 2001 p.404) as â€Å"the informal transmission of ideas, comments, opinions, and information between two people, neither one of which is a marketer†. According to them, both the sender and the receiver gains from WOM, which is supported by Fill (1999), who also argues for the above. The benefits for the receiver are rather straight-forward; as they gain lots of information they would not be able to obtain otherwise. The benefits for the sender can be a little vaguer at first glance, but according to both Blackwell et al (2001) and Fill (1999) people like to talk about the purchases for a number of reasons, such as confirmation, satisfaction, status etc; which is what the purpose of blogs. According to Blackwell et al (2001) the affect of WOM has increased rapidly due to Internet. Consumers of today are able to spread the word of something faster and further than ever before. Schindler and Bickart (2005) discuss that the traditional WOM and online WOM differs in the strength of ties between consumers when they are exchanging information between each other. Granovetter (1973) previously argued that the strength of ties between two individuals is a function of the amount of time spent together, the emotional intensity and degree of intimacy in the relationship. Following this discussion, online WOM is characterized by weak ties. Weak ties then provide three possible benefits for the consumer. Friedkin (1982) argues that it first provides a potential input for a decision. Second, consumer information should be more diverse then that coming from stronger ties. Thirdly, it also gives consumers the opportunity to gain access to expertise which they normally would not get access to (Constant, Sproull and Kiesler, 1997). One downside is however, that consumers do not know the motives of the person that provides the online WOM. It can be difficult to access the in formants background and expertise in the topic (Schindler and Bickart, 2005). Consumer Decision Making Process The consumer decision making process provides a general description on how a purchase decision is made. Consumers does not necessarily go through all the stages for all the kinds of decisions they make, and neither do they always go through the stages in the very specific order that is presented below (Blackwell et al 2001). The process consists of mainly five steps (need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process) according to most researchers within the field (Blackwell et al. 2001, Statt 1997, Kotler et al. 2005), but there are number of factors that affects the consumer in their purchasing process. Consumer are affected by individual determinants (Blackwell et al., 2001) and physical factors (Harell Frazier, 1999) because they are different, have different experiences and motivations, therefore, they will interpret things differently. Also consumers differ in available resources and knowledge which will further affect thei r decision. Another aspect that affects the consumers is the environmental influences (Blackwell et al., 2001) and societal and social factors (Harell et al., 1999). Here the authors talk about external factors that affect consumer, such as culture, social class and reference groups, but also the influence of the family and other individuals by whom the consumer is affected because every individual strive to some extent â€Å"fit in† heavily affect consumers. Also the information provided by these groups tend to have high credibility, depending on the consumers need to belong. Lastly, consumers are also affected by their degree of involvement (Harell et al. 1999). Involvement is the degree to which the consumers perceive the purchase to be of importance to them, and how complex they find the purchase situation (Blackwell et al 2001). The more complex the purchase, the more effort will be needed from the consumer in order to make a good decision. The involvement in turn affects the way in which consumes will learn about the products. Since a low involvement purchase is fairly routine consumers do not engage in a very extensive information search on the product, they mainly gather their information passively. A high-involvement purchase will demand more from the consumer and they will be more motivated to actively search for information. LITERATURE REVIEW Bickart Schindler (2001) investigated the WOM in online forums on the Internet. They assigned students to look at either corporate web pages or consumer forums about specific products. They found that after one semester, there was a higher interest in the product category for those who used the online discussion forum. They then suggested that a reason for this was because the content posts in the online discussion forums are thought to be more credible and more relevant but also having more empathy among its readers. In another study, Bickart Schindler (2005) tried to explore the consumer use of online WOM. They found three motives for using online WOM a) To gain information on purchase decisions, in which consumer reviews and negative information was of most interest; b) To get support from decision already made in which positive was used most for confirmation of that the right choice have been made; and c) Whether information was searched for fun or not. Another theme they discovered was the evaluation of the content of information in online WOM. They identified, corporate web pages are more biased and untrustworthy. Independent web pages free from corporate marketing, in which detailed information and authentic first person experience was viewed more credible and reliable. A consensus of agreement among consumers in the online WOM also tended to increase the credibility. Finally, they found online WOM disperse more information in all stages of consumer decision-making process. During the nee d recognition, when product was mentioned, it sometimes stimulated interest or problem recognition for the consumer. Other consumers sometimes provide ideas that lead for alternative product to be included, or removed, in the consumer consideration set. Online WOM also suggested important attributes that could influence the criteria of which alternatives are compared. Information from consumers on how alternative rate on those criteria was also of importance when comparing alternatives. After purchase was done, online WOM information could increase the consumers satisfaction of the purchase through positive information. They also discovered that their informants were selective in their information gathering process. This was done to simplify the information but also to help them absorb the information with amount of consumer information about a large area of different products. They continue and suggest that future research should look deeper into what characterise the content in those online WOM consumers choose to read. Bernhad, Bjurling and Ã…hrà ©n (2006) did another study on un-addressed consumer complaints through blogs. They found that the blog is used as a way to express dissatisfaction on companies and their products and services. It is used when the consumer do not get enough amendments from the companies. Blogs then works as a complement to complaints through friends and family, and it is an easy way to ease the consumers experiences and reduce the stress of a distasteful treatment from companies. The consumers have then used blog to warn other consumers on products and companies but also to tell their own story regarding the complaint. Bernhad et al. (2006) discuss that the technical development has reduced the barriers to complain and this had led to increased likelihood to present complains for products of less value. Wallstà ©n (2005) then comes to the conclusion that the collaborative blogs increase the learning process in which people can learn from each other by reading blog pos t. It also gives a shared knowledge base for the participants. In another study by Constant, et al. (1997) weak-tie sources were found to make it harder for consumers to assess the quality of the WOM information they received. Schindler and Bickart (2005) then discuss that the reason for this may be that the consumer do not know the motives of the informant and it may also sometimes be hard to assess the background and expertise in the topic of the informant. RESEARCH METHOD Research approach As the purpose of study is to understand how consumers perceive their own experiences and behaviour which can be best analysed through inductive approach. As this approach allows researcher to have more flexible structure that will permit alternative explanations of the phenomena. This approach is qualitative in nature that begins with data. It develops an empirical generalisation that describes patterns of that data and it seeks to identify or develop a theoretical proposition that is consistent with those patterns (Schutt, 1996). Research Strategy Putting emphasis on the inductive approach, research strategy of the paper is built on an exploratory study, though it also includes a cross-sectional study as interviews were held over a short period of time (Saunders et al. 2003). As the paper does not allow for sufficient time for conducting a longitudinal study and it is not intended to study the effects of change and development of the blogging phenomena on the consumers decision making process, a cross-sectional study is more appropriate. As the purpose of paper is from the consumers perspective, qualitative research method will enable us to get information from the informants and will allow us to understand the meaning that the informants attach to their experiences of blogging. Description is based on the meanings that informants express through words. A qualitative approach will allow getting this non-standardised data without being locked into a standardised set of questions. This is because the nature of the questions will need to be flexible and open-ended in order to explore what emerges during the interview. Furthermore, to get a rich description of this non-standardised data and to get into the thoughts of our informants, the interviews will need to allow a long length of time. Sample selection The sample selection consists of young educated adults; as previous research suggests they use blogs the most. The sample size consisted of nine people within the ages of 21 to 28. Of those nine people, three are females and six are males. Judgement sampling technique was used for identifying the informants who had rich experiences of blogging. The low number of informants can be justified by this as it allows getting a richer description of the phenomena studied. Data collection This primary data has been collected through interviews which are qualitative (semi-structured and in-depth) in nature. Limited research that exists and relates to our study has been used as secondary data. To check the effectiveness of semi-structured interview, two pilot studies were conducted. First semi-structured interview uses too much theoretical jargons that fail in retrieving the information. The second test then avoided the theoretical jargon and explanations. To get a rich description, informants were briefed two days prior on the themes to be covered in the interview. It was ensured that each informant had read the information letter before the interview took place. The informants were interviewed in two different ways -a) 6 informants were interviewed face-to-face in quiet rooms and conversations were recorded; and b) remaining 3 informants were interviewed through Skype because of distance and conversations were again recorded. However, attempt was made to conduct all interviews face-to-face as it enables to establish personal contact which is also important as Saunders et al (2003) argue; qualitative data favours the establishment of personal contact. It was also judged that the face-to-face contact would increase the likelihood of describing and identifying our informants accurately. In all cases, focus was on recording the findings from the interview as the findings emerged naturally. To really understand the informants meanings to their experiences and actions, flexible approach was used within the semi-structured interview. Although questions were bound to the themes, questions were flexible to allow an understanding of the participant. DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS Data is presented through sectioning each interview individually. Collected raw data was put into categories and themes that emerged from the interview as need is to have a close understanding to our informants. Information collected and compiled under each category will be compared with other categories. This helps in identifying relationships; in discovering key themes, and recognising patterns and trends. Later on, theoretical framework will be applied on those patterns in order to understand it in a new way. Quotes will be made to simplify the meaning and in drawing conclusions. Empirical Findings a) Interview with Reema Sharma: Reema, 25 years old, was interviewed at her office in Jammu and studying at Jammu University. She uses blogs when she wants to buy something new or wants to find out different type of products available. She also uses blogs for reading travel diaries for fun and to be in touch with people she knows. When it comes to blogging about a future purchase, she reads blogs by people who are in the same situation as her and that have experience from the things she is interested in. She blogs travels but sometimes for electronics products and hiking. She has never used blogs actively, she only reads them. The kind of blogs she uses is mainly product blogs, and collaborative blogs, where she can read and learn more. She does not really read the blogs from companies. Rarely she reads a blog and completely changes her mind. The blog can instead make her choose a different brand. Relationship with bloggers: For her, the blogger is just someone whose blog she happens to find. Reema trusts all the information that is written in the blogs, but she explains that the more detailed description on how the product has been used, the more she relies on the inlay. People whose blogs she reads most often posses greater knowledge then her, within the subject. Need and awareness discovered with blogs:Reema agrees that she discovers a lot of new kinds of products, but this has never actually evolved to a need. This has occurred, for example, when she has blogged about hiking gear, she has learned about many new products and the advantaged with those products, but as she is not very experienced in the area, many of those products are just too complicated. However, the blogs she reads regarding travels could actually create a need sometimes. From these blogs she learns more about possible places to travel to which she might visit later in her life she explains. Blogging for information and evaluation of potential purchase: Reema searches for information about experience from others consumers and their opinions. She looks for new things and assesses which of the product will give most value for her money. For her, price is often one of the most important factors affecting her decision. The reason to why she chooses to collect the information from blogs is because she feels that this is the only place where she can learn about peoples experiences and opinions, and also since this information is more neutral then if it would be from a company. When it comes to evaluating products, she mainly uses collaborative blogs in where many people can express their opinions on things. While evaluating the products she mainly stick within one price category that will offer her maximum value of her money. Bloggi

Attention Deficit Disorder Essay -- ADD Research Disorders Health Essa

Attention Deficit Disorder   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is commonly known as a childhood syndrome characterized by impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and a short attention span, which often leads to learning disabilities and various behavioral problems. The exact definition of ADD is, â€Å"an inability to control behavior due to difficulty in processing neural stimuli†(online medical dictionary). Neural pertains to nerves. There are three different levels of ADD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Attention Deficit Inattention Disorder, and Attention Deficit Impulsive Disorder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In my research I hope to learn what causes this behavior and how to take care of it. I also hope to learn how one would get Attention Deficit Disorder. I would like to know why one would get ADD.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I would like others to learn what ADD is, how to diagnose it, and how to cope with it. My goal is for others to know that it exists but is treatable and that an affected person can be a productive person in society. I hope they learn to understand that it is not something to laugh about and that it is a serious disorder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Attention Deficit Disorder, in my eyes, is a disorder that one cannot control. Sometimes, it becomes so hard to hold back interruptions or impulses that it becomes embarrassing. It cannot be controlled; it is involuntary. The affected person’s brain thinks it is normal so they just impulsively respond to situations. Not knowing that what they are doing is disruptive, they repeat these actions because their brain has thought this way since they were born.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  ADD is a disorder that is one of the best-researched disorders. Even though it is researched in such a great degree, the cause is still unknown. However, research suggests that it is a neurobiological condition. Which is to say that it has to do with the nerves in the brain and that it is genetic. It is proven that ADD runs in the family.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most frequently stated cause of Attention Deficit Disorder is, â€Å"the involvement of the prefrontal cortex, part of the cerebellum and at least two of the clusters of the nerve cells deep in the brain known as the basal ganglia†(Philip W. Long, MD). It Is determined that, â€Å"the right prefrontal cortex and two basal ganglia known as the caudate nucleus and globus palliclus are smaller than usual in a child with ADD†(Philip W. Long, ... ...hrough family history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The common cause of ADD is the reduction of size in specific sections of the brain as explained before.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Several genes, which are mutated, are responsible for the small sections in the brain. Researchers do believe that ADD is a polygenic disorder. Also, ADD is passed down through the genes in the family. As you can already see, all of the causes are linked together someway.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This research project has been a great experience for me. I have learned everything I wanted to learn. I learned that too much dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and basal ganglia is the cause for such behavior that is expressed with ADD. I have also found out that there are many treatments to help people with this disorder and they are successful.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I hope others have learned as much as I have through my paper. I want them to understand that ADD is a serious disorder and that it can be treated with the right medication and support. I also hope that they understand exactly why this type of behavior that is expressed in people with ADD happens. If anybody or anyone you know has ADD, I hope I have helped them understand and find help for that person.

A Comparison of My Last Duchess and Porphyrias Lover Essays -- Robert

"My Last Duchess" is a poem about an arrogant and extremely powerful Duke who is describing his deceased Duchess. From the word "last" in the title it is implied that the duke has had more than one duchess. In this poem, the Duke is extremely egotistic. He says, "I choose never to stoop." The duchess would look at everyone in the world as being equal no matter what class they are. The duke however cannot do this. He is too worried about his appearance. "Porphyria's Lover" is a poem in which a man describes an evening in which his lover, Porphyria, visits him and he unexpectedly murders her. In this it is unlike "My Last Duchess" because Porphyria 'worships' her lover unlike the Duke From the title "My Last Duchess", we immediately learn that this is a personal poem to the duke. It is a love and murder poem. It is a dramatic monologue and is written as a single stanza. Both poems also have a silent listener. In 'My Last Duchess' the silent listener is the Ambassador for the Count, who is the father of the Duke's next bride whereas in 'Porphyria's Lover' the silent listener could be a number of people it could be a police officer, or he could just be telling the story to a friend. There is no evidence in the poem, which tells the reader who he is talking to. The tone in these poems is important as it acts as a contrast to the content of the poem. In "My Last Duchess", Browning uses a soft tone and describes the Duke having the Duchess killed subtly, " This grew; I gave commands;/ Then all smiles stopped together." Browning describes this without changing the tone. However in "Porphyria's Lover" the tone is normal and soft throughout the poem until the point in which the Lover murders Porphyria, "I... ...both of the characters kill their lovers. "She was mine, mine, fair,/ Perfectly pure and good". This is what the lover said before he killed Porphyria. He kills her because at that precise moment in time he has complete power and control over Porphyria and wants to preserve this. Browning uses a simile extremely effectively in "Porphyria's Lover" to describe the body of Porphyria. He says "As a shut bud that holds a bee". This gives the reader the image that her soul is still alive but her body is dead. The bud is shut and the bee is still alive inside of it. Overall, I found these poems both quite enjoyable to read. I enjoyed "My Last Duchess" less than I enjoyed "Porphyria's Lover". This is because the murder in "Porphyria's Lover" was so unexpected and a shock whereas in "My Last Duchess", it was written more subtly giving it less excitement.

Lamb to the Slaughter- Movie Poster Essay

A dagger-pierced heart is usually associated with the Catholic Sacred Heart of Mary. It is known to represent the grieving mother of Christ, who is also often called the Lady of Sorrows. However, the heart also migrated into a â€Å"darker† side; a modern day symbol of vengeance and cruelty. But the real power of the image of a dagger through the heart is a combination of both, each known in their individual rights. The heart is seen as the seat of emotions, the core of every person, as well as love and passion. The dagger has long represented a stealthy weapon of choice, which is easily concealed and quiet. Roald Dahl’s, â€Å"Lamb to the Slaughter† tells us of one obvious betrayal: Patrick Maloney’s decision to leave his pregnant wife. This violation of the marriage-vows is obviously not the only betrayal in the story. If you look deeper you see that Mary’s killing of her husband is definitely the ultimate betrayal. Her strategically planned alibi and convincing lies all add up and go under the category of betrayal. Mary and Patrick Maloney are equally guilty of betrayal, as Patrick emotionally kills his wife, while Mary physically kills her husband. Both parties have hearts full of years’ worth of emotions, and both hearts have been stealthily and quietly killed. SYMBOLISM: THEME – IDENTITY The fingerprint is an impression on the surface of a person’s fingertip and is used for identifying individuals from the unique pattern of spirals and lines. Detectives, much like the ones in the chosen short story, use these prints to identify those that have taken part in a crime scene. It’s made clear through Dahl’s description of the Maloney house that Mary has committedly taken on the model of the perfect middle class wife. Ms. Maloney is a young mid-twentieth-century housewife, keeping a tidy home and catering to her husband. The text states that she’s found pouring drinks when Mr. Maloney finishes his day at work and caters to his every need; which is what makes her sudden murderous action the incident to shatter her once perfect image. When dusting and scanning a fingerprint one owner is usually found, but when scanning Mary’s fingerprint multiple women appear; the on-task housewife, the loving and caring spouse and soon-to- be mother and finally the murderer. In the end, Mary Maloney will always have one print, but many identities. SYMBOLISM: CHARACTER – MARY MALONEY A white lamb is a young sheep, and is portrayed as gentle, meek and innocent, but is also seen as a weakling and as prey. The lamb is usually cheated or outsmarted. The white concept represents its purity. Mary Maloney is definitely a â€Å"lamb† in her innocence and devotion to her husband. When you act out of anger, more than a lamb is slaughtered. It actually quite ironic that this â€Å"lamb† is capable of committing the most clean and cunning murder known of. She’s able to commit murder, get rid of the murder weapon, create herself an alibi as well as outsmart the policemen and is still is able to come out with a clean slate. After doing something so horrible and finding the nerve to scheme her way out of it, â€Å"[†¦] Mary [†¦] began to giggle.† Her dark giggles at the end of the story, show a different character than the one who started. Murder has changed her from a lamb into a lion. SYMBOLYSM: CHARACTER – PATRICK MALONEY A mirror is generally defined as a reflective glass coated surface that reflects a clear image, but more importantly when looked into, you see yourself. Patrick is a very self-centered person, which is why I chose a mirror, as mirrors are associated with selfish people. When informing Mary that he was planning to leave her he gave her all the details and made sure to add, â€Å"[†¦] it wouldn’t be very good for my job.† It’s made obvious that Patrick didn’t think of his wife’s feelings at all, but made sure that everything was done so that it was in his favour. Throughout any situation, in the end Patrick is focused back on himself. Not only does he not consider the feelings of his wife, but he also isn’t thinking of his son. Of course he tells Mary that she can keep the baby, but does he think of what life would be for him without his Father? QUOTE ANALYSIS: CHARACTER – PATRICK MALONEY This character is stereotyped as an unhappy husband who is not pleased with his current marriage. He comes home tired and stressed, but his frustration seems to be coming from his home life rather than his work life. He’d made up his made and got up the nerve to say what he has to say, â€Å"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you [†¦] I hope you won’t blame me too much.† This quote illustrates the author’s outlook on life, which is that people aren’t always what they seem. Patrick used to be well-liked, respected and the perfect husband; but after divorcing his wife he was probably seen as a dog, cheater and fraud. Just as his wife, his identity has changed because of a major complication in his life. QUOTE ANALYSIS: THEME – IDENTITY The author does an excellent job of clearly describing the setting in the first few lines of the story, in order to set the scene for the reader. The setting is seen when Roald Dahl introduces the Maloney home to his new readers, saying, â€Å"The room was warm and clean, the curtains drawn, the two table lamps alight – hers and the one by the empty chair opposite. On the sideboard behind her, two tall glasses, soda water, whiskey, Fresh ice cubes in the Thermos bucket.† This quote suggests the Mary is the model housewife; perfect in all she does. Surprisingly, when Mary finds out that her husband is leaving her she, â€Å"[†¦] simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen lamb high in the air and brought it down on his head as hard as she could [†¦] [killing] him.† This demonstrates how Mary’s identity changes from a sweet innocent wife into a killer after just hearing bad news from her husband. FORSHADOWING An example of foreshadowing occurs when Patrick takes his drink after getting home from work. Dahl includes in this famous short story that, â€Å"[†¦] as [Patrick] spoke, he did an unusual thing. He lifted his glass and drained it in one swallow although there was still half of it[†¦] He got up and went slowly over to fetch himself another[†¦] When he comes back, [his]new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whiskey in it.† This quote suggests that Patrick doesn’t usually act like this. It’s quite obvious that he is very uneasy, and is most likely drinking and delaying in order to build the courage to say or do something he might regret. Patrick does this just before breaking the news to his soon-to-be ex-wife. His actions foreshadow the unfortunate things that are to come.