How to Create a Multilingual WordPress Website Using WPML

The world is becoming smaller, but even so, language is still a common stumbling block between success on a local level and becoming a global juggernaut. Unless you learn how to create a multilingual WordPress website, youll never be able to reach your full potential, audience-wise.Although translating your website is a tough task, it can be done. Fortunately for us, WordPress makes the process simpler than it would be on other platforms, thanks to its powerful plugin system.In this article, well teach you how to create a multilingual WordPress website (using the popular WPML plugin)  in just four steps. However, before we roll up our sleeves, lets take a minute to talk about how this plugin works and what its major features are.Introducing the WPML pluginThe WordPress Multilingual plugin (or WPML) is a multilingual plugin solution that  provides you  with almost everything youll need to  add new languages to your  site, switch between them, and even translate your WordPres s  back end. As with other  tools (one of which weve covered previously), WPML doesnt actually translate your site for you – it just provides you with the tools to do so efficiently.Its important to note there are plenty of other excellent plugins that perform similar tasks, such as  Polylang and Weglot Translate. However, WPML – in our opinion – offers a more thorough set of features, which can be attractive to small and large businesses.Key Features:Lets you add new languages to your WordPress site.Enables users to switch between languages at will.Helps translate your WordPress back end (e.g. categories, tags, and navigation menus) to other languages.Supports posts, pages, and custom posts types.Price:WPML subscriptions start at $29  per year.How to create a multilingual WordPress website (in 4  steps)Before we get our hands dirty, its important to back up your WordPress site. Backups are crucial – especially when youre about to add new functi onality – and to that end we suggest using the UpdraftPlus plugin. For those of you who prefer the non-plugin  approach, check out our recent  guide to manually backing up WordPress.As we mentioned, weve already explained how to create a multilingual WordPress website using Polylang  previously. For some it represents almost everything theyll need. For the rest of you, lets  begin!Step #1: Install and activate the WPML pluginAlthough you may be au fait with installing plugins, lets go over the process for completeness.After purchasing a subscription to  the WPML plugin, youll get a link to download a ZIP  file. Once youve done so, head over to your WordPress dashboard and into Plugins Add New.  From here, select  Upload Plugin  and locate the WPML file on your computer:Click on Install Now, and once the process is complete, choose the  Activate  option thats it! Were ready for step number two.Step #2: Determine your sites languagesOnce the plugin is in stalled, youll notice a new WPML  tab  in your dashboard. Navigate to WPML   Languages, and the plugin will ask you to confirm your websites current language before proceeding:Click on  Next, and youll be prompted to choose your sites new languages by checking the relevant boxes. There are dozens to choose from, so take your time:So far so good, right? Now we need to add a language switcher feature to our site, so that users can choose from the  options weve given.Step #3: Set up a language switcherIn simple terms, a language switcher is a tool that users interact with to jump between the available languages on a website. It usually comes in the form of a drop-down list, a collection of flags – or in this case, a widget.After choosing your sites new languages, youll be prompted to add a switcher to your website. The first option youll see is  Widget Area –  go ahead and enable it:Moving on, we need to set the style for our language switcher. Scroll down u ntil you find the  Language switcher style  section, and select either a drop-down menu, or a plain list:Finally, we can enable how languages will appear within our menus. However, these options are purely aesthetic, so theyre up to you:Once youve saved your changes, were almost done! Theres only one key step left in our list – getting our content ready for translation.Step #4: Prepare your content for translationAs we mentioned earlier, WPML does  not  automatically translate your content for you. Machine translations are still not at a point where they should be trusted to make good work of entire posts or pages – youll need to either do the work on your own, or outsource it.If you choose the Edit  option  for any of your posts and pages (or custom post types), youll find a new meta box  next to the WordPress editor:Here, you can set the main language for your post, and choose whether you want to set it as the translation of another page. For example, y ou could create a new page, select a new language, and mark it as the translation of your homepage. If a user switches between languages while on the home page, theyll land on the page you just created.You can also choose to add specific languages to your pages, which will prompt WPML to create copies of them. That way, you get to preserve their structure and can limit your changes to translating their content.Now youre ready to begin the actual translation process. If youre multilingual, you can do the work yourself – otherwise check out WPMLs guide to content translation, which will point you towards all the resources you need. It can even help you translate your themes and plugins!ConclusionYoull need to put in some effort if you want to create a multilingual WordPress website, but the rewards can be plentiful. Not only will you get access to a much larger audience, your website will also come off as more professional in exchange for your efforts.If that sounds like a win- win proposal to you, here are the four  steps you need to know to create a multilingual WordPress website:Install and activate the WPML plugin.Determine your sites new languages.Set up a language switcher.Get your content ready for translation.Do you have any questions about how to create a multilingual WordPress website? Ask away in the comments section below!Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips. * This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and then purchase the product, well receive a small fee. No worries though, youll still pay the standard amount so theres no cost on your part.

Term Paper Writing Mistakes

Term Paper Writing Mistakes Typical mistakes in writing term papers include the most simple of all things – spelling and grammar errors, but also include running with topics not associated with course materials, failing to cover essential aspects from the course, and topic sentences that are not explained in the material. Most students will make typical mistakes in writing term papers due to fear and concern for the work they must complete, particularly if the work is a large portion of the student’s grade. The first step in avoiding the typical mistakes in writing term papers is just to relax and think about what the course has covered. While thinking, write a short list of important things you have learned in the course and how they relate to each other. Also, remember to write the outline, the outline is there to help you stay on track while writing the paper. Begin very simply – Introduction, Body, and Conclusion. Following this, you can begin to add in the primary topic sentence and then topic sentences for each paragraph. Write at least three sentences for each paragraph – preferably four. Remember to provide evidence for your information from reliable sources such as textbooks and peer-reviewed sources. Finally, no matter how much trouble you have with your term paper, you can avoid the typical mistakes in writing term papers just by remembering to use your â€Å"Spelling Grammar† checker found in the review section of MS Word. This function will prevent the more common errors found in papers and even provide you with a clear knowledge of how many words you have written for the assignment. Your writing will take time to develop, most students will not have college level writing skills straight out of high school, but with time and practice, you can have these skills.

Google Launches Cloud Storage Nearline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Google Launches Cloud Storage Nearline - Essay Example The targets are the users of Google Cloud Platform and those using storage solutions of data’s brand name to perform backups. It is also an alternative to enterprises with in-house storage systems, or store user data using startups with mobile applications. NetApp, Geminare, Iron Mountain and Symantec enterprises, providers of storage systems, have collaborated with Google to incorporate Nearline in their products (Burnett, 2011). The data is saved in multiple locations such that even if one location goes offline the data remains intact for accessibility. Application Programming Interface (API) accesses the stored data using a data communications method known as Representational State Transfer (REST) that is understood by many developers. In the field of business/commerce, customers are able to enjoy the cheaper storage rate at rest of one cent per gigabyte to store infrequently accessed data, and to access the same faster on demand, which is critical in acquiring market intelligence and conducting analysis. A retailer in a bid to push a promotion might also want to pull out historical information. For the enterprises already using other storage and backup companies, migration pains have being eased through the partnership of several companies and Google, streamlining of customers’ moves to Nearline thus enlargement of market portfolio. The business/commerce ecosystem has been expanded, as user dependence on Google’s search engine will exploit home delivery services, advertising, app stores, digital media services and mobile payment platforms. Enterprise initiatives like â€Å"Chrome books for work† and â€Å"Android for Work† are being complemented as Nearline is helping Google to tap int o â€Å"hybrid† cloud while using APIs as hooks to tether businesses to its productivity apps (Jennings, 2009). Google Cloud Storage Nearline will influence positively on the way businesses interact with

Personal Management Framework Paper Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Personal Management Framework Paper - Assignment Example o use their physical attributes to do their work and knowledge workers are referred to the group of workers who complete their task using their intelligence rather than their body, e.g. technologists or software developers. This concept was previously introduced by Karl Marx and after that many authors, publishers and theorists tried to conclude to the concept, but their drawback was that none of them had practical experience about the scenario. Shortly, a name was introduced in the concept having both theoretical and practical knowledge of the working environment. Fredrick Winslow Taylor was the first person to relate the pre-assumed concept of productivity of workers with the reality which in turn helped the concept to focus on increasing the productivity of workers and develop the economy (Drucker, 1999, p. 79). The concept since then, passing through different phases came to be known as Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory. As well as many other researchers and theorists namely, Gilbreth, Maslow and others made their own conclusions and theories. All these approaches are from then practiced in the practical work field with an aim to enhance the productivity of workers. This paper shall aim at relating the assumptions, values, beliefs and modern day practices with the different related theories and try to conclude a relative measure for the betterment of the productivity of both knowledge and manual workers. With due course of time the organizational structure today; have become more challenging, huge and complex. This change has resulted to the inappropriate evaluation of the worker productivity in many cases. To analyze and improve worker productivity no particular theory can prove itself perfect in today’s situation. Notably, most of the management theories were introduced during the period of Industrial Revolution when the environment was not at all stable as well as the theme of management was getting expanded to the sphere of science rather than

Eye laser surgery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Eye laser surgery - Essay Example Despite the surgery being carried on people’s eyes successfully and improving their natural eyesight, it does not result to lack of use of glasses (Justesen 80). People will still be required to wear glasses to ensure they do not expose their eyes to any other kind of danger. Eye laser surgery is an effective way of correcting and reshaping your eye despite several challenges. They are several reasons as to why this form of surgery might be deemed important. This might be because someone is unable to use contact glasses and do not at any cost need them for their personal reasons such as cosmetic issues (Papel 116). Another reason is that, wearing of glasses limits what one can do especially in reference to entrainment or any other leisure activity that requires rigorous physical participation. In such a situation, the affected individual seeks the help of a surgeon to help with the eye problem through the laser surgery (Justesen 80). Others try to avoid as much as possible the cost of maintaining the contact lens because they require an extra care because of their fragility nature. People should consider several medical grounds before the laser eye surgery process is carried out for precautionary purposes. Surgeons recommend an individual to be over 20 years before they decide to use this medical procedure for their eye corrections (Justesen 80). Before the process is carried out, there is need to determine the thinness of the corneas because this kind of surgery has extra risks which can seriously impact on an individual. In case of a special condition such as diabetes or a weak immune system, doctors should be in a position to advice accordingly. There are several rare side effects associated with laser eye surgery. Most of the notable side effects include glare and the impact of seeing halos around pictures. Others negative effects that result from this kind of eye surgery are challenges while driving at night or in a mist

Operations Management And Supply Chain Management

Operations Management And Supply Chain Management Introduction. Operations management is a process which primarily deals with the area of the production of goods and services. Operations management takes up the liability of making sure that all business operations are efficient and use as little resource as and when required, and ensures its effective in meeting customer requirements. Operations management deals with managing a system that changes inputs such as materials, labor and energy into outputs such as goods and services. Every service we get all around us whether it be in supermarkets, hospitals, police station, schools, etc all have been manufactured through the different processes of Operational Management. Operations management includes activities such as managing purchases, list control, excellence control, storage space, logistics and evaluations. The core objective is to have a prime focus on competence and the efficiency of the process. Hence, operations management often includes a decent amount of dimension and scrutiny of in-house processes. Operation Managers are the people who are responsible in taking care of the resources which consist of the different operational functions. This is an assignment which goes through a case study on Weldon Hand Tools, Europes one of the most successful hand tool manufacturers, moving into the woodworking tools market. Task 1. Calculation of Number of People need to assemble the Product. YEAR 1. 1ST QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 98,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 98,000 units = 98,000 X 1.60 = 156800 mins. One year has 52 weeks or 4 quarters, One quarter = 52 / 4 = 13 weeks For the first quarter all new workers for the manufacturing site will have a 2 day training period. This training will include Induction to the Company, Site tour, Risk Assessment, Fire and Safety Hazard Training. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as 4 weeks in a year. Hence we can assume all full time employees will have a week off as Holiday every quarter. Amount of time lost for Training and holiday = 2 working days + 1 week = 1.4 weeks. Since one week has 5 working days, 2 working days is 0.4 weeks. Working weeks in 1st Quarter = 13 1.4 = 11.6 Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 40 hrs X 11.6 Weeks X 60 mins = 27840 mins †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.EQUATION : 1 Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 98,000 units = 156,800 / 27,840 = 5.632 = Approximately 6 new workers Hence we can conclude 6 workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the first quarter will be able to assemble forecasted sale volume. 2ND QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 140,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 140,000 units = 140,000 X 1.60 = 224,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as 1 week every quarter. Working weeks in 2nd Quarter = 13 1 = 12 Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 40 hrs X 12 Weeks X 60 mins = 28800 mins†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..EQUATION : 2 This worktime is for existing employees since they dont need any training. Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 140,000 units = 224,000 / 28,800 = 7.78 = Approximately 8 workers Currently we have 6 fulltime workers. There is an increment of about 40% in the no. of units manufactured in the preceding quarter. There are two ways to resolve the shortage of labour. Firstly we can request the existing workers to do overtime and cover the difference. But as we can see the forecast predicts the sale volume going further higher next quarter. Hence the most feasible option would be to hire new workers. From above calculation (EQUATION 1), new workers can cover 27,840 mins per quarter. So two new workers will cover: 27,840 X 2 = 55, 680 mins 6 existing workers will cover = 6 X 28,800 = 172, 800 mins Therefore total work time covered by all workers = 172, 800 + 55, 680 = 228,480 mins. Work time required to manufacture 140, 000 units = 224, 000 mins. Hence we can conclude 6 existing workers and 2 new workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the second quarter will be able to assemble forecasted sale volume. 3rd QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 140,000 units. (From Table 7.3) It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 140,000 units = 140,000 X 1.60 = 224,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 28800 mins from EQUATION : 2 Therefore no. of existing workforce required for the manufacturing of 140,000 units = 224,000 / 28,800 = 7.78 = Approximately 8 workers Hence we can conclude 8 existing workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the third quarter will be able to assemble forecasted sale volume. 4th QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 170,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 170,000 units = 170,000 X 1.60 = 272,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 28800 mins from EQUATION : 2 Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 170,000 units with existing employees = 272,000 / 28,800 = 9.44 workers Currently we have 8 fulltime workers. This is about a shortage of 18% in employee work mins. As said before there are two ways to resolve the shortage of labor. Firstly we can request the existing workers to do overtime and cover the difference or we could hire new workers. Since the sales forecasts suggest that the sale volume may go down next quarter, the more feasible option would be to request the current employees to do overtime. 18% shortage of 40 hours each employee= 7.2 hours Hence we can conclude 8 existing workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, and an additional 7 to 10 hours per week have to be requested by employees in an average cover up the shortage and avoid any future redundancy. YEAR 2. 1ST QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 140,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 140,000 units = 140,000 X 1.60 = 224,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. In the middle of 1st quarter of the second year a two day Kaizen event is held. Kaizen is a daily activity; its purpose is to improve simple productivity. It is a process that, if done correctly, makes the workplace more humanly, removes overly hard work, and teaches everyone how to perform experiments at work using safe scientific methods. It teaches us to spot and eliminate waste in business processes. Kaizen events suggest a humanized approach to workers and to increasing productivity: The main concept was to take care of the companys human resources as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities. Primarily it requires full participation from workers. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover (including two days training)= 27840 mins from EQUATION : 1 Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 140,000 units = 224,000 / 27840 = 8.05 = Approximately 8 workers with a little overtime. Hence we can conclude 8 existing workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the first quarter with a little overtime will be able to assemble forecasted sale volume. 2nd QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 170,000 units. (From Table 7.3) It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 170,000 units = 170,000 X 1.60 = 272,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 28800 mins from EQUATION : 2 Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 170,000 units with existing employees = 272,000 / 28,800 = 9.44 workers Currently we have 8 fulltime workers. As said before there are two ways to resolve the shortage of labor. Firstly we can request the existing workers to do overtime and cover the difference or we could hire new workers. In this condition the sales forecasts suggest that the sale volume could only go higher next quarter, hence the more feasible option would be to hire two more employees. From above calculation (EQUATION 1), new workers can cover 27,840 mins per quarter. So two new workers will cover: 27,840 X 2 = 55, 680 mins Therefore total work time covered by all 10 workers = (8 X 28,800) + 55, 680 = 286,080 mins. Work time required to manufacture 170,000 units = 272, 000 mins. Hence we can conclude 8 existing workers and 2 new workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the second quarter will be able to assemble in surplus forecasted sale volume. 3rd QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 200,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 200,000 units = 200,000 X 1.60 = 320,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 28800 mins from EQUATION : 2 In this condition again the sales forecasts suggest that the sale volume is going higher next quarter, hence the more feasible option would be to hire more employees. From above calculation (EQUATION 1), new workers can cover 27,840 mins per quarter. So two new workers will cover: 27,840 X 2 = 55, 680 mins Therefore total work time covered by all 10 workers = (10 X 28,800) + 55, 680 = 343,680 mins. Work time required to manufacture 200,000 units = 320, 000 mins. Hence we can conclude 10 existing workers and 2 new workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, for the third quarter will be able to assemble in surplus forecasted sale volume. 4th QUARTER: Sales forecast for no. of units manufactured = 230,000 units. It takes 1.60 standard minutes to assemble and pack one unit. Therefore total time required to assemble and pack 230,000 units = 230,000 X 1.60 = 368,000 mins. Standard holiday pay package for a permanent full time employee can be put as a week off every quarter. Now assuming full time workers working 40 hours (8 hrs shift X 5 working days) per week, Then one worker can cover = 28800 mins from EQUATION : 2 Therefore no. of workforce required for the manufacturing of 170,000 units with existing employees = 368,000 / 28,800 = 12.78 workers Currently we have 12 fulltime workers. This is about a shortage of 6.5% in employee work mins. As said before there are two ways to resolve the shortage of labor. Firstly we can request the existing workers to do overtime and cover the difference or we could hire new workers. Since from the sales forecasts suggest that the sale volume may go down next quarter, i.e. the first quarter of year 3 the more feasible option would be to request the current employees to do overtime. 6.5% shortage of 40 hours each employee= 2.6 hours Hence we can conclude 12 existing workers working fulltime, i.e. 40 hours each week, and an additional 2 to 4 hours each week have to be requested by employees in an average cover up the shortage and avoid any future redundancy. Type of Facilities that the Company need to buy. Managing Facilities is an integral process within an organization that helps maintaining and developing the services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary exercise.   It comprises of multi-disciplinary exercise within the built environment and taking care of their influence upon people and the workplace. It facilitates to the impartment of strategic and operational objectives. On a microscopic level, effective facilities management provides a safe and efficient business environment, which is important to the realization of any business whatever its size and scope. For Weldon Hand Tools, designing the manufacturing operation and selecting the type of facilities is of primary importance since the sales forecast predicts a high demand. Capacity Planning: The first question which will arise will be considering the size of the facility. Once we have the workforce size of the Operating System, we can start working out the different facilities required to facilitate the effective services which support its primary activities. Facility Location: The geographic site of the workshop has to be selected in such a way that if demand proves higher than forecast, then there will be enough room to expand the workshop. Analyzing location for the advantageous placement of facilities in order to minimize transportation costs, avoid placing hazardous materials near housing, outperform competitors facilities, etc. The company will need to have setup a research on customer requirement in order to be successful and surface the growing demand for the product. Customers nowadays are more demanding; they want better quality at the same price. There could be a rapid change in the composition of customers and their preferences. An ambiguous and changeable economic climate, customer needs constantly evolving, and upcoming technology continually shakes up market turbulence.   Raw materials are one of the major factors of production along with labor and capital. Raw materials are so important to the production process that the success of a companys business and economy can be found by the amount of natural resources the company owns to provide for manufacturing. In this case it would be the pricing for the piece parts used to assemble into the product. An active human resource management with e-recruiting, training and education is also very important since the size of the sales forecast predicts a considerable amount of inflation and deflation. Product promotion, creating new sales channels, internet sales are some of the ways to provide Marketing opportunity to the company. With the increase in sales managing inventory, and having a warehouse could become imperative. All business faces competition. Knowing our competitors can help improve our products, services and marketing. It will enable us to  set our prices competitively and  help to respond to rival marketing and promotional campaigns with our own initiatives. Task 2. Layout of the Assembly Operations. The layout of an operation is the most important within the general area design in operations management. This is because the way facilities are placed in relation to each other has an important effect on so many aspects of operations. Considering all the facilities, machines, equipment, and etc layout is the first thing we notice because it governs the appearance of a company. Layout determines the flow of customers, materials and information within the operation. All these factors affect the total distance travelled by materials, which in turn affect the cost, the general effectiveness and the quality of the operation. The strategic objectives of an operation depend on a layout. There are certain general objectives pertaining to all operations which should be considered while doing a layout. They are: Any process which could pose a danger to the staff or the customers should not be accessible to unauthorized. Measures to be taken to minimize the flow of materials or information. Flow of materials should be well signposted, clear and evident to staff. Any noisy or unpleasant part of an operation should be located away from staff. There should be coordination for the supervision and communication of the location assisted by equipments aiding it. All machines and equipments should be maintained and cleaned properly. Space should be used precisely. The most important factor to consider the layout to be done here is long term flexibility. If the demand keeps going higher based on the sales forecast there should be plenty of room for expansion within the workshop. For Total Work Content: All Time in Standard Minutes (SM) Element A: Assemble poke subassembly 0.12 Element B: Fit poke subassembly to frog 0.10 Element C: Rivet adjusting level to frog 0.15 Element D: Press adjusting nut screw to frog 0.08 Element E: Fit adjusting nut to frog 0.15 Element F: Fit frog screw to frog 0.05 Element G: Fit knob to base 0.15 Element H: Fit handle to base 0.17 Element I: Fit frog subassembly to base 0.15 Element J: Assemble blade subassembly 0.08 Element K: Assemble blade subassembly, clamp and label to base and adjust 0.20 Element L: Make up box and wrap plane, pack and stock 0.20 There are four quarters each year. 52 weeks makes up a year. Hence in each quarter there will be: 52 / 4 = 13 weeks. Now lets assume that a full time employee would work 40 hours per week. Therefore total time put in for one cycle = 13weeks X 40hrs X 60mins = 31,200 mins No. of units for 1st quarter = 98,000 The required cycle time = 31,200 / 98,000 = 0.31837 The required no. of stages = the total work content / the required cycle time 1.60 mins / 0.31837 mins = 5 approximately This means 5 stages. Now looking at the assembly, different tasks could be further differentiated and grouped into different work stations. For example assembling poke assembly does not depend on fitting the knob to the base. All the dependant jobs can be put into same workstation. Hence looking at the different tasks we can group them into five workstations. Lets name them as Workstations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Workstation 1: Workstation 1 will comprise of all the jobs entailing with the assembling of components of frog subassembly. Element A, B, C, D, E and F. This will include: Assemble poke subassembly Fit poke subassembly to frog Rivet adjusting level to frog Press adjusting nut screw to frog Fit adjusting nut to frog Fit frog screw to frog Workstation 2: Workstation 2 will comprise of all the jobs entailing with the assembling of components of base subassembly. Element G, H and I. This will include: Fit knob to base Fit handle to base Fit frog subassembly to base Workstation 3: Workstation 3 will comprise of all the jobs entailing with the assembling of components of blade subassembly. Element J. This will include: Assemble blade subassembly Workstation 4: Workstation 4 will comprise of all the jobs entailing with the assembling of all the subassemblies. Element K. This will include: Assemble blade subassembly, clamp and label to base and adjust Workstation 5: Workstation 5 will comprise of all the jobs entailing with packaging. Element L. This will include: Make up box and wrap plane, pack and stock. The flowchart above shows the final allocation after breaking down the process into different stages of the long thin arrangement, which is easy to manage. This arrangement makes materials handling simple and the operation becomes a lot more efficient. The layout will need to be adjusted in terms of the design of the products, since this is one of the two main significant factors in deciding on which control values would be useful, the manufacture resources concerning adjustability and capability being the other. The layout proposed is a very simple yet very efficient one. From the layout it could be seen the three sub-assembly workshops are just adjacent to the assembly workshop. Lying just beside the assembly workshop and the packaging workshop is the Inventory. This arrangement would save time from transporting the product back and forth. The Inventory also helps us to keep some of the product in a well maintained stock. Plenty of free space is available around the manufacturing site to enable us to expand our workshops if the demand of our product requires so. The main building with all the different facilties is located just on the other side of the manufacturing site. Previously the effectiveness of a mechanism was exclusivel y measured by the numeral of processed units per hour. A further focus has been put on the quickness and sharpness of the machine. There still exist numerous high proficient machines with low sharpness even though they are time consuming to set up amid the diverse products. However, Weldon Hand Tools may detach the products into standard, whereby it is processed in the old machine, and special. As a result the quantity of special products will be so little that a flexible machine with a comparatively low capacity may be adequate to encounter any competition. Conclusion. In the current market situation companies manufacturing furniture are put through a lot of difficult situation which includes short business cycles, lack of technical knowledge, and delayed returns. The organization itself is very outdated. Hence examining and studying all these issues put together with the high prices of commodities and supplies, state laws, only puts the whole organization into a position where they have work on low income and revenue.

Vietnam War vs. Great Society Essay -- Vietnam War Essays

Vietnam War vs. Great Society Anonymous: "[Johnson] had miscalculated: Even the richest and most powerful nation in the world could not do it all" (qtd. in Turbulent Years: The 60s 36). Lyndon Baines Johnson is a president torn to pieces by war. He glows in the passage of bills benefiting American society. He is someone who has suffered through an entire generation of rebellious teens. What impact did LBJ's foreign policies concerning Vietnam War have on American society? The Vietnam War really isn't a war. Congress never declared war and thus, it is constitutionally considered police action. The United States can have troops in an area for ninety days, but how ninety days became twelve long, bloody years is beyond my knowledge. The war actually started in 1959, but U.S. involvement did not start until 1961. We withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, and it raged on for another two years. This was Vietnam's civil war, where 58,000 Americans lost their lives and Vietnam was lost to the Communists. If it hadn't been for the French-Indochina War, America might not have been so deeply involved in Vietnam. The area of Indochina, present-day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, was taken away from France during the Second World War and afterwards, they tried to get it back. France lured the U.S. into paying 80% of the costs used to fight Ho Chi Minh and Communist North Vietnam by the end of the French-Indochina War. As author Gini Holland put it, "This [paying the costs] committed the United States financially, although not yet militarily, to the region" (qtd. in Holland 41). So, when Vietnam was into their civil war, the U.S. felt the need to help South Vietnam. In addition to fighting Communism, the American soldiers faced the very devoted and very martial Vietcong, the pro-Communist guerilla force of South Vietnam. Look what a little help to a friend can do to you. "It was in Southeast Asia that [Johnson] ran into his greatest difficulties" (qtd. in Encarta "Johnson, Lyndon Baines"). He finished John F. Kennedy's term starting in 1963 and completed another term, ending his presidency in 1969. As many of us are, he was reluctant to get fully involved in the war. After ordering air strikes against North Vietnam in retaliation for U.S. ships being attacked by torpedoes, he stated, "We will seek no wider war" (qtd. in Hargrove 69). Even though he did not want war, his ... ...ghtfully, "We move step-by-step- often painfully†¦-along the path toward American freedom" (Schuman 73). Bibliography: Califano, Joseph A., Jr. The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Simon Schuster, 1991 Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998 Frazier, Thomas R., ed. Voices of America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1985 Hargrove, Jim. Lyndon B. Johnson. Chicago: Children's Press, 1987 "History Channel." [Online] Available http://www.historychannel.com/, April 15, 2000 Holland, Gini. The 1960s. San Diego: Lucent Books, Inc., 1999 "Lyndon B. Johnson." [Online] Available http://www.whitehouse.gov/, April 20, 2000 Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 99. Computer Software. Microsoft Corporation, 1993-1998. Ver. 8.29.00.0912 Windows 98, CD Monk, Linda R., ed. Ordinary Americans. USA: Close Up Foundation, 1994 Rubel, David. Scholastic Encyclopedia of the Presidents. New York: Scholastic, Inc., 1997 Schuman, Michael A. Lyndon B. Johnson. Springfield: Enslow Publishers, Inc., 1998 The Annals of America: Vol. 18. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1976 Turbulent Years: The 60s. USA: Time Life Inc., 1998

World Wide Web and Tool

With time going, web has become increasingly popular in our life. I will show you what the web 2. 0 applications is and the description of six different tools or website through this report. You can also get the information about how webs can help in your studies and a sequence of tool or web site’s value beside the sub titles. The conclusion will include the consequence of our group discussion about our favorite tool/web sites. And reference will be shown in the end. Web 2. 0 applications â€Å"The term Web 2. was coined in 1999 to describe web sites that use technology beyond the static pages of earlier web sites. Tim Berners-Lee is the first person who put forward the conception of web 2. 0. He said that Web is a collaborative medium, a place where we could all meet and read and write. † available at: http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/technology/4132752. stm, Mark Lawson, Berners-Lee on the read/write web, BBC News ) Compared with web 1. 0 which just focuses on accessing the information, Web 2. 0 pays more attention on exchange the information.. The individuals can be providers and users at the same time on those websites. Although Web 2. 0 is a new one, it does have an update to any technical specification, the software developers and end user to change the Web- cumulative together. Presentation tool URL: http://prezi. com/ Presentation tools of web2. 0 can let you show presentations whenever you like. The tools won’t be too difficult to be learned. People can find a lot of course of study which will teach you how to use the software. With this tool, presentation can be simple and accessible and the tool can save a myriad of time. For students like me in senior high school, we always need to do a presentation. Doing an outstanding Power point will cost most of time. But with the help of presentational tools like prezi which already have an ocean of stencil plate, we can easily complete a great Power point. And the rest time can be used to practice the speaking. What’s more, Picsviewer and Slide share also have the same function. Video tool URL: http://animoto. com Video tools can help people modify the video and photography automatic. Not all the person has money to buy advanced equipments or has good skill to take photos. So the website like Animoto is a good choice to make your special video without wasting much time. In school, we sometimes will have a play for the ceremony. Not only will it make you after-school activities more colorful, but also it will cost a lot of to treat the music. Now video tool makes it faster to do this thing which can help us keep balance between study and after-school activities better. You can also use Gizmoz or Photo peach to do this thing. Mobile tool URL: http://PollEverywhere. com With the technology improve, people today not only use mobile phone to make the call, they also use it to get picture or flash. Like Poll Everywhere, it will add joy for people to get responses by lively. For students, Mobile tool makes it more easily to get vivid information. Students can remember the image better than the texting. Jott and drop. io also has this function to make the word alive. Search tool UPL: www. myallsearch. com There is a sea of web site on the Internet. People usually don’t have enough to scan all of web site. The search tool like Myallsearch can search result of the Authoritative website, for instance, Google, Ask. com, Yahoo! and Lycos by one click. Searching information is a crucial part of academic essay or other homework which students in high school usually need to do. At first, students are too young to determine whether the site can be trusted. Search tool like featuring Google and Wikipedia can help students to access credible information quickly. Community tool URL: http://edmodo. com Community tool is one of the fundament of Web2. 0. It builds a bridge of communication between teachers and students. Like Edmodo, it is designed specifically for educators to exchange the information about professional knowledge. Tool like Edmodo, Google Doc and Ning is a good platform for teachers and students to exchange the message with each other. Asking questions become easier, and students can get more professional knowledge if they want. Social network URL: www. renren. com Social network like Renren provides an interactive platform for different people. People can know where their friends are and how they feel though a photo or a small sentence. It can also help you make friends who have the same hobbies. For students, we can broaden our horizons though watching various kind of information. We can also use tools like Twitter and Face book to ask friends for suggestion of the problem in study. Conclusion The web2. 0 has been integrated into our daily lives. During this report, we have known the meaning of web2. 0, descriptions six different tools and the effect in our study. After the discussion, we think that our favorite tool is search tool. We can get lots of credible information quickly which can save much time for us to do other things.

Cult Branding Essays

Cult Branding Essays Cult Branding Essay Cult Branding Essay 1993). After all, if the personality of human beings can boil down to seven measures, a similar construct should suffice to analyze and write up a rich-enough character statement for a brand. The author’s tool is named the HBCQ or Hepta-dimensional Brand Character Questionnaire in reference to Professor Cloninger’s early investigative tool, the Tri-dimensional Personality Questionnaire or TPQ (Cloninger, 1987). The HBCQ consists of a battery of approximately 100 self-administered questions or statements which the respondent must answer as if the brand were a person. It is complemented by a one-hour face-to-face interview. (Chevron, 1998) Typical interviewees People to be interviewed typically include: The corporation’s top managers including only those who influence how the brand behaves (e. g. board members, chairman of the board, president, etc. The senior vice-president or vice-president of marketing International managers who get to choose and adapt advertising and packaging for their region, or who forge marketing alliances with other companies New product strategists and top RD personnel, since product formulation and new product introductions are an important part of the brand’s spe ech Senior advertising agency personnel (unless a change is contemplated) And any other person who is a long-term influencer of the brand’s communication Between five and 25 interviews are conducted and the results are analyzed by a team: a clinical psychologist, a conceptual copywriter and the author. A brand character statement is then drafted and refined with the participation of the brand’s management. Typical statements in the questionnaire include: Brand X prefers the old â€Å"tried and true† ways of doing things to trying â€Å"new and improved† ways, or, The brand can laugh at itself, which the respondent must answer with: Yes/ No/ Doesn’t apply (Chevron, 1998) Rating brand strengths and weaknesses Those answers allow us to rate the brand strengths and weaknesses along the following axes: High novelty v/s low novelty; Security v/s risk taking; Seeks reward v/s does not depend on reward; Persistence v/s irresoluteness; Self-sufficiency/maturity v/s immaturity; Cooperativeness/pro-social v/s self-centred/anti-social; and Integrity/conscience v/s lack of integrity. (Chevron, 1998) The Brand Character Statement (or BCS) Following is a hypothetical example of a Brand Character Statement: Ben Jerry’s Homemade Inc. The firm wrote the document after taking the HBCQ themselves and trying to impersonate Ben Jerry’s management while answering the questions. To verify the accuracy of this BCS, they submitted it to a Ben Jerry’s PR person who found it accurate and requested only one word change. In spite of this, they did not assume that their assessment of the Ben Jerry’s brand character is as complete as if they had been able to administer the HBCQ. Please note that this BCS contains a number of constraints or commitments which may not always be easy to live with. So it should: a character statement that does not commit much is not worth much either. ? Ben Jerry’s Ice Cream: Brand Character Statement Ben Jerry’s Homemade ice cream is ice cream as it should be, made with fresh and natural ingredients blended with something unexpected and original. It combines the tradition of Vermont where the company is, and the creative iconoclasm of hippies which Ben and Jerry were in the 1960s. Ben Jerry’s ice cream brand begins with the best ingredients, like real fresh cream and fresh fruits, which are processed according to traditional methods of ice cream making. Everything that goes into Ben Jerry’s ice cream – ingredients, preparation, packaging, distribution, and service – bears the mark of its Vermont origins: friendly farmers with solid down-home values and humour, attached to traditions that extol nature and good food. Ben Jerry’s ice cream makes ice cream fun to eat with unexpected mixes; it seems as if it had been made by two imaginative guys working in the farmhouse kitchen. Ben Jerry’s ice cream as a corporation is traditional, but not conservative: no starched shirts here, but flannel ones with funny and unexpected patterns. Everything Ben Jerry’s ice cream does reflects the strong values of Vermont tradition without compromising the creativity and progressive 1960s values of its two original entrepreneurs. It was started by friends, with an idea and no means, not by food technicians blessed with financial backing. It represents entrepreneurship and the victory of the little guy against the big corporations (which it has contempt for). It is generous as only a small artisan without a large accounting system to control cost can be: There are lots of real chunks of brownies in the Chocolate Fudge Brownie Ice Cream and large amounts of dough in the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Ben Jerry’s ice cream is committed to the environment in which we all live. The brand is very active in several â€Å"green† political causes. While this may have its origins in the founders’ hippie past, it is nevertheless a very current and very strong corporate commitment. Ben Jerry’s ice cream is corny as if corniness were an article of faith. It believes that seriousness only serves to protect the dim-witted. Ben Jerry’s ice cream product names often wink at its consumer: Cherry Garcia winks at its hippie past. They do not aim to be taken seriously. They are just a way to foster a bond with like-minded people. Ben Jerry’s ice cream doesn’t seek novelty for novelty’s sake: it is open to new ideas and doesn’t have hidden preconceptions or prejudices. While it is creative, it doesn’t hold creativity as an essential virtue. Nor does it hold â€Å"incongruity† as a vice either. (Chevron, 1998) Applying the Brand Character Statement From the time when a BCS is developed and agreed to, it must be used with absolute consistency and no exceptions. It is important to understand that not all of the points it makes have to be included in the brand’s communication all the time. What is essential, however, is to ensure that no point of the BCS is ever violated by any communication whatsoever. In the Ben Jerry’s ice cream example it says that: â€Å"Ben Jerry’s ice cream brand begins with the best ingredients, like real fresh cream and fresh fruits†. This means that, wherever BJ uses cream or fruit, it must use fresh cream and fresh fruit. But it also allows BJ to market sorbets (which do not contain cream) and vanilla or coffee ice creams (which do not contain fruits). Ben Jerry could not, however, market a simple vanilla or coffee ice cream which would violate another mandate from the BCS which requires it to blend tradition with the unexpected. In practice, all its vanilla ice cream is mixed with fruit, and the â€Å"Coffee, Coffee! BuzzBuzzBuzz† is sure packed with unexpected ingredients and textures. (Chevron, 1998) The Brand Parent As detailed as a brand character statement may be in writing, it is still open to interpretation. Some of those inferences may be quite contradictory, particularly when they are made by managers who are under the threat of an immediate danger, or by the sophists of a far-away advertising agency. It is best to appoint one person as â€Å"brand parent† with the responsibility of applying the BCS and of warding off threats to its integrity. Once installed, the brand parent must be the mandatory gate for all of the brand communication, including PR, packaging, promotion, etc. The parent’s authority should be exercised worldwide. (Chevron, 1998) Attributes of a Brand Parent It is important to observe the following rules for the brand parent: The person must have excellent teaching skills and have enough seniority in the organization to command respect. The brand parent is not a marketing manager and does not interfere with local marketing plans other than those plans that run against the BCS. The brand parent reports directly to the top of the corporation (president or CEO) and receives frequent public demonstrations of support from his bosses: The assignment will be made very difficult by many, particularly international managers who may see the brand parent as enc roaching on their authority, and advertising agencies who may see the BCS as hindering their creative freedom. The brand parent disposes of a research budget which serves to measure progress made in each country towards linking in the consumer’s mind the values of the BCS with the brand. The results of this research should have some impact on the compensation of local marketing staff. In addition to creating a â€Å"brand parent† function, a successful branding strategy must carefully create buy-in within an organization. This is made all the more necessary by the â€Å"top-down† approach used in the Delphi Process. The author and his team recommend that one of the first tasks of the brand parent be to implement local research with the HBCQ so as to find the brand’s â€Å"character gaps† or the brand’s character traits which local communication needs to reinforce. The brand parent should then challenge the local marketing staff to develop an action plan to bridge those gaps and, if at all possible, tie a reward to the achievement of these greed-to objectives. In addition to furthering the goal of communicating the values of the BCS, these actions will help develop a sense of ownership for the project among the local marketing staff. We cannot over-stress the importance, from the outset of the execution of a branding strategy, of establishing the organization which will direct its execution. The concept underlying the creation of a brand character statement is a powerful one and most managers will readily agree to use it. Yet, experience shows, once the pressures of running the day-to-day business resume, those good intentions can vanish quickly. (Chevron, 1998) Measuring progress Progress made in establishing brand character must be measured. If no measurements are made, the BCS exercise is likely to remain just that – an exercise. The basic principle for this monitoring consists in comparing the brand profile as it is expected to be, based on interviews conducted among the brand owners, with a brand profile based on consumer interviews. An initial measurement will permit determination of the initial â€Å"brand character gap† while subsequent research will (hopefully) show how this gap has been reduced. Brand profile measurements among consumers can be accomplished rapidly and at a relatively low cost with a shortened version of the HBCQ. This research tool has the advantage of being self-administered, and, because of the internal redundancy of its questions, of providing reliable test-retest data on the seven scales it measures. In addition, it allows measurement of the remaining â€Å"character gap† along its seven scales, thereby providing invaluable direction to those in charge of its communication. Some had warned that the questionnaire would be hard to use if people had difficulty â€Å"anthropomorphising† the brand. For some reason, qualitative researchers use these anthropomorphic analogies for research in most European countries (except Germany), but the same techniques are strongly criticized and seldom used in the USA. Our experience using HBCQ research in the USA, as well as abroad, has been very positive and has shown no problem of understanding, even in pilot tests of consumer perceptions of an ice cream brand conducted among rural Midwest respondents. The monitoring effort should be biennial and sponsored and closely supervised by the brand parent. We strongly recommend that the results be used to allocate special rewards within the company and its advertising agency. (Chevron, 1998) Yearly Review Suggested Note that while progress in establishing brand character should be measured once every other year, the brand parent would be well advised to conduct a yearly review of the process used to implement the BCS. (Chevron, 1998) ? The Brand Building Process Contd. Brand Architecture Process Brand Architecture is an organizing structure if the brand portfolio that specifies brand roles and the nature of relationships between brands. The brand architecture schemes have been referred to brand equity charter, leverages and brand profitability and the new rules of brand management leading to the efficacy of the attributes, derived advantages and brand system emerging in relation to the buying power of the customers. The first step in establishing a brand equity management system may be focussed towards finalizing brand equity into a document, the brand charter that provides relevant guidelines to the marketing managers. Such documentation strategy requires defining the firm’s view on the significance of the equity concept, describing key brands in terms of associated products or names and the manner by which they have been branded and marketed the second step in establishing a successful brand equity management is to integrate the results of the brand track survey performed periodically. While architecting the brand strategy, it is important to understand the preliminary definition of brand equity is not the same for the firm named brands that have their own names. In case of firm owned brands, ? Case Studies – Case Study 1 Marlboro Marlboro. You get a lot to like, filter, flavor, flip-top box. Where theres a man theres a Marlboro-with a filter that delivers a smoke of surprising mildness. Better makins. Marlboro More flavor More filter More cigarette. If you think flavor went out when filters came in-Try Marlboro. Make yourself comfortable-Have a Marlboro Marlboro. Why dont you set tle back and have a full flavored smoke Settle Back. You get a lot to like here in Marlboro Country. Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country. Marlboro. A Western landscape, a rugged cowboy and the colour red have come to embody years of advertising tag lines for Philip Morris Marlboro cigarettes. These three elements, combined or separate, are recognizable as the American call to Marlboro Country even without the brand name, sales pitch or slogan. The brilliantly designed campaign, the strong image of the mythical American hero, the cowboy, and a successful series of responses to market challenges by the Marlboro team has created an immediately and universally recognized icon representing an idealized and appealing American lifestyle out of possibly the only product on the market (aside from weapons) that kill and injure when they are used as they are intended to be used. (08Ja) Background In the 1920s, Marlboro was first advertised as a premium cigarette for women, a milder version of the smokes well dressed men might puff on after dinner. But the brand never took hold, and by the 1950s concerns over the connection between smoking and cancer drove many smokers to filtered brands. Philip Morris didnt have a filtered cigarette, so it scrapped the old campaign in favour of re-launching Marlboro as the companys filtered alternative. After deciding to introduce filters to the brand, Marlboro executives still had the brands feminine image to deal with. It didnt help that filtered cigarettes were considered softer versions of the real thing, cigarettes for sissies. For help, Marlboro turned to Leo Burnetts advertising company. In a 1972 documentary, Burnett recalled the brainstorming session in which they stumbled upon their icon. I said, Whats the most masculine symbol you can think of? And right off the top of his head one of these writers spoke up and said a cowboy. And I said, Thats for sure. (08Fe) Burnett remembered a cover of Life magazine (Aug. 22, 1949) of C. H. Long, a range boss for the JA Ranch near Amarillo, Texas. A model was posed like Long, some cowboy-sounding words were added, and the ad was slapped into print in a Dallas newspaper. It was the birth of the most successful advertising campaign in history, the icon of the century, according to Advertising Age. (08Fe1) The first Marlboro men werent limited to cowboys. They were all sorts of rugged individuals who smoked their cigarettes while performing equally manly tasks, from fixing their cars to fishing or hunting. (08Fe) The rather abrupt advertising about-face sparked a similar turn in sales. By 1957, Marlboros sales were skyrocketing. Unfortunately for Philip Morris, however, 1957 also brought with it one of the first rounds of negative publicity. A study published in Readers Digest linked smoking with cancer. (08Fe) In response, Marlboro once again turned to show its softer side. But this time it made sure to do so in a way that might retain the masculine appeal the company had worked so hard to cultivate, while calming the nerves of anxious smokers. Instead of focusing on the mysterious tattooed Marlboro Man, it turned the camera to sultry singer Julie London, who would share a smoke with her lucky male companion in between verses of the dreamy new Settle Back with a Marlboro theme. 08Fe) These commercials, paired with print ads that showed apparently wealthy men relaxing for a smoke, lasted for a while. But as American politics became more complicated in the 1960s, Jack Landry, the Marlboro brand manager at Philip Morris, saw an opening into which the cowboy fit like a glove. (08Fe) In a world that was becoming increasingly complex and frustrating for the ordinary man, Landry explained, the cowboy represented an antithesis a man whose environment was simplistic and relatively pressure free. He was his own man in a world he owned. (08Fe) Marlboros television advertisements in the 60s reflected the idea of freedom in wide-open spaces, especially once he theme from the movie The Magnificent Seven was added to the scenes of cowboys leading their herds through dusty canyons of Marlboro Country or charging off to rein in a stray colt. (08Fe) Part of the success of the campaign might be attributable to the fact that Marlboro forged some credibility by using real cowboys in some of the ads instead of actors just playing the part. (08Fe) The image took hold with enough force that even through a ban on televised tobacco advertisements that began in 1971, the Marlboro Man survived unharmed. Instead of riding off into the sunset, the image turned up in print ads and on billboards all over the count ry. (08Fe) Today, Marlboros are smoked by 40 percent of U. S. mokers over 11, some 25 million people, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. They consume 154 billion Marlboros a year. (08Fe1) Analysis Marlboro is not only an iconic brand in United States of America, but in other countries too. But this is contrary to the common perception that a cult brand needs to be in line with culture of the consumers. So ideally a brand icon such as ‘Marlboro Man’ should not be an icon in other countries of the world except United States because he took birth because cowboy is a symbol of masculinity in USA. The reason behind this is ambiguity. This is further discussed by taking examples of different countries and perception of the people over there. The American cowboy The Marlboro man which was initially identified with recognizable personalities later became an anonymous icon representing a way of life associated with the wilderness, not a specific individual. The setting for the ads is the untamed frontier, the American hinterland. The Marlboro man is portrayed as both a product of the frontier and as a role model representing the idealized American spirit. As such, he stands for a sloughing off or a rejection of the trappings of the modern civilized world and an embrace of the frontier spirit. He chooses to live as a â€Å"true American† and, thereby, emerges as superior to the bureaucrats and organization men of the civilized world who pervert or ignore the heritage and birthright of all Americans. Through the Marlboro man, Americans are able to participate vicariously in the myth of America and its greatness. By using the brand, people can link themselves to that tradition; conforming â€Å"yes men† may triumph when climbing the corporate ladder, but during a smoking break the true American prevails. (A. H. Walle, 1997) When analysing the response of American audiences, therefore, the Marlboro man is best explained as a brand image which taps and replicates a basic paradigm by which Americans view and judge themselves. It is niched in the American self-image and it is clearly linked to the supposed beneficial influences of the frontier on both national character and personal worth. (A. H. Walle, 1997) The Westerner goes East A. H. Walle, a professor at University of Buffalo, USA, in his research paper â€Å"Global behaviour, unique responses: consumption within cultural frameworks† recites an incident during one of his visit to Germany. Back in the 1980s when the cold war was still frigid and the Iron Curtain was still a bastion, I drove to Berlin and in the process had to cross through a section of what was then East Germany. During the trip, my companion wanted to stop at one of the East German â€Å"duty free shops† along the way in order to get some luxury goods at low prices. (A. H. Walle, 1997) Walking into the store, I was met with a life-sized picture of the Marlboro man, which was carefully positioned so it would exert a visual impact on all entering customers. I told my companion that I found all this to be quite ironic; here I was, beginning my first interaction in an Iron Curtain country and I find myself being greeted by a classic icon of American capitalism, not by German communists. (A. H. Walle, 1997) Fairly quickly, a young female clerk at the store came over to us and urged us not to draw attention to the poster; she then confided that she was planning to steal it as soon as an opportunity presented itself. The woman went on to say that she intended to put the poster in her bathroom so she could see it every morning when she got out of the shower. She observed, â€Å"look at the picture, there’s not a fence anywhere†. (A. H. Walle, 1997) To this East German woman, the Marlboro man was a seductive icon, but to her it did not represent the heritage of the American frontier. Juxtaposing the image of a man who lived without fences to the realities of her own life and the shadow of the Berlin Wall, she viewed the Marlboro man as an alternative to the oppressive dictatorship in which she lived. We both saw the same ad; I interpreted it as an American while she processed it in ways which fit into her life. The product and its promotion were homogeneous; the meaning and response were not. (A. H. Walle, 1997) A Return to the Hinterland It is well known that the tobacco companies are increasingly marketing their products in Third World countries. It is also well known that many of the advertising symbols used in the Western world are also employed in Third World advertising and promotion of tobacco products. The Marlboro Man is an example of that tendency. (A. H. Walle, 1997) This fact, however, does not necessarily indicate that those who live in Third World countries respond to these images in ways which parallel the response of Western consumers. Consider the following observation of David Sokal who worked for the Medical Care Development Inc. in West Africa in the 1980s: While working in West Africa†¦I encountered many cigarette advertisements†¦During one [conversation with a young man] he remarked that the Marlboro man was really impressive†¦Consider the picture of a sun-bronzed cowboy on a handsome horse rounding up fat, healthy cattle. To a rural African child this is wealth and prosperity. In many villages if there is a horse at all it belongs to the village chief. Most herdsmen go on foot, and most cattle are very thin (Sokal, 1985, pp. 467-8). The key point Sokal makes is that in the African cultural milieu of which he spoke, the Marlboro man represents high social class, economic success, and the mainstream establishment. In North America, in contrast, the Marlboro man is a marginal individualist who accepts a working-class status in order to reject the confines of an â€Å"organization man† existence. By doing so, he can live as a real man and he achieves personal fulfilment as a result of his sacrifice. To the East German, in contrast, the Marlboro man represents a generalized freedom evaluated against a backdrop of political repression at home. To the African, the same image represents status, wealth, and material success. It is obvious that the same advertisement can trigger completely different responses among various audiences. Although the Marlboro advertising strategists may have thought that they were marketing a product in global ways, they merely provide various markets with what amounts to a Rorchach â€Å"ink blot test† in which people project their own personal hopes, dreams, and fears on to a neutral image which can suggest several things; it means nothing until interpreted by the viewer. (A. H. Walle, 1997) Ambiguity/Transformation Theory Certain messages possess a degree of ambiguity (intended or unintended) which facilitate multiple interpretations. To whatever degree ambiguity exists, specific groups and individuals will be free to use the message as a blank canvas on which to paint their own vision. To whatever degree a communication is concrete and unambiguous, in contrast, the greater the propensity for the receiver to interpret the message according to the â€Å"meaning† which is intended by the communicator. Actually, of course, there is always a degree of both concreteness and ambiguity in all communications; it is possible, however, to place a communication on a continuum with concreteness and ambiguity as polar opposites and the specific communication lying somewhere on that continuum. Such a model is useful in considering the Marlboro man. (A. H. Walle, 1997) The Cowboy as Ambiguous Icon As has been shown, the cowboy (as represented here by the Marlboro Man) is an ambiguous character which is subject to multiple interpretations. Its image does not possess a universal and concrete meaning. As a result, individual people and groups are able to invest the icon with interpretations which are meaningful to them. This ambiguity allows a universal and homogeneous icon, the Marlboro man, to address different markets in a uniform manner even though each group interprets this familiar icon according to its own needs and orientations. No doubt, this ambiguity was not intended by those who created the Marlboro man; these promotional specialists were obviously seeking to link the American vision of the cowboy (and its mythic links to the American psyche) with the Marlboro brand. Nonetheless, an ambiguity did creep into the icon, which allowed various audiences to transform its meaning in ways which were uniquely relevant and appropriate. Indeed, the cowboy is a multi-dimensional character. From the perspective of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the concept of the â€Å"noble savage†, the cowboy represents a superiority which results from living close to nature. As an opposite vision, the â€Å"natural man† can also be viewed as someone who sloughs the benefits of civilization and devolves down the rungs of cultural development to barbarism or worse. Both visions have been thrust on to the image of the cowboy in heroic depictions, on the one hand, and antiheroic portrayals, on the other. In addition, the cowboy can be viewed from a distinctively American perspective or as a generalized icon dealing with human universals. Both orientations have been embraced by different groups at different times. And finally, the cowboy can be viewed in hyper-specific manners as was the case in East Germany and Africa. This flexibility was not foreseen or intended by the strategic planners of Marlboro; yet it ultimately served the brand’s purpose very well. This flexibility can be viewed as a windfall which allows and facilitates effective international promotion. Ambiguity/transformation theory provides a way to deal with this phenomenon. By recognizing that the ability for an image to be transformed lies in the degree of ambiguity which exists within it, the analyst and strategic planner will have a way to predict the degree to which an advertisement can be transformed by specific groups. By so evaluating the communication, it is possible to develop tactics which mesh with the overall goals of the organization. (A. H. Walle, 1997) Discussion Although the ambiguity inherent in the Marlboro man was an accident, the example points to the strategic value of ambiguity under certain controlled conditions. Having observed Marlboro’s accidental success with ambiguity, it is possible to discuss the option of engineering promotional messages which consciously embody an ambiguity. By doing so, a homogeneous brand image can be merged with specific responses by distinct target markets. As argued above, some communications are fragile and ambiguous. The Marlboro Man is an ambiguous icon which can be interpreted in multiple ways. It lacks an inherent, concrete meaning; as a result, different groups are able to interpret it in ways which mesh with their needs and world views. Although the ambiguity in this example was accidental, it demonstrates the strategic potential which can exist in forging images which are imprecise; by presenting homogeneous campaigns based on ambiguous images, uniform corporate communications can be mated with unique local response. Marketing managers need to appreciate the potential value of such ambiguous campaigns. Juxtaposed, the polar opposites of the continuum of ambiguity and concreteness can be discussed as shown in Table. ? Table 1 Ambiguous V/s Concrete communication compared (A. H. Walle, 1997) AmbiguousConcrete CharacteristicsThe communication can be interpreted in a no. of ways. The way in which a communication is interpreted is a function of needs, wants, feelings, etc. of those who receive the message. The communication is explicit and will generally be interpreted in a specific way which is inherent in the communication itself. The meaning is largely determined by the communicator, not the receiver of the message. ValueOrganizations often want to choose a uniform means of communicating with consumers and potential consumers because of the efficiencies involved in doing so. By choosing ambiguous, yet uniform, tactic of communication, the organization can gain homogeneous recognition in the market place, on the one hand, and allow the individual markets to respond to the product in their own way, on the other On some occasions the organization wants to express a precise and explicit message that all consumers and possible consumers will interpret in identical ways. By choosing a concrete strategy, the organization will achieve the goal of explicit and unambiguous communication at the trade-off cost of preventing individual target markets from responding to the product in unique ways. DiscussionAs indicated, ambiguity and concreteness are polar opposites on a continuum. As such, many points exist between the poles. Nonetheless, it is possible to envisage a communication as embracing on orientation more than the other and to conceptualize a strategic value of having a communication which lies on some particular point of that continuum. ? Implications It is possible for homogeneous communications to be interpreted in diverse ways by various target markets. In view of the fact that this option can result in effective organizational communications, it deserves strategic consideration. Although ambiguity/transformation theory can be used to explain unintended results of organizational communications, it can also be used by those who seek to engineer ambiguity into homogeneous advertising campaigns. In the case of the Marlboro man, the ambiguity which exists was unintended. Nonetheless, Marlboro benefited from the ambiguity. Some communications are more ambiguous than others. To what extent does the organization want specific target markets to forge unique interpretations of homogeneous commercial messages? In view of the fact that the degree of ambiguity in promotional campaigns can be viewed as a matter of strategic choice, the question is more than merely academic. (A. H. Walle, 1997) ? Case Studies – Case Study 2 Mountain Dew People have always needed myths. Simple stories with compelling characters and resonant plots, myths help us make sense of the world. They provide ideals to live by, and they work to resolve lifes most vexing questions. Icons are encapsulated myths. They are powerful because they deliver myths to us in a tangible form, thereby making them more accessible. Icons are not just brands, of course. More often, they are people. We find icons among the most successful politicians- think of Ronald Reagan-artists and entertainers like Marilyn Monroe, activists like Martin Luther King, and other celebrity figures, such as Princess Di. People feel compelled to make these icons part of their lives because, through them, theyre able to experience powerful myths continually. Iconic brands operate similarly. When a brand creates a myth, most often through advertisements, consumers come to perceive the myth as embodied in the product. So they buy the product to consume the myth and to forge a relationship with the author: the brand. Anthropologists call this ritual action. When Nikes core customers laced up their Air Jordans in the early 1990s, they tapped into Nikes myth of individual achievement through perseverance. As Apples customers typed away on their keyboards in the late 1990s, they communed with the companys myth of rebellious, creative, libertarian values at work in a new economy. Holt, 2003) As these examples suggest, iconic brands embody not just any myth but myths that attempt to resolve acute tensions people feel between their own lives and societys prevailing ideology. Such tensions are widespread. An i deology, by its nature, presents challenging moral imperatives; it lays out the vision to which a community aspires. But, inevitably, many people live at a considerable remove from that vision. A national ideology may, for example, promote the ideal of a family with two parents, even though many citizens contend with broken homes. The contradictions between ideology and individual experience produce intense desires and anxieties, fueling the demand for myths. That demand, in turn, gives rise to myth markets. Its in these markets, not in product markets, that brands compete to become icons. Think of a myth market as an implicit national conversation in which a wide variety of cultural products compete to provide the most compelling myth. The topic of the conversation is the national ideology, and it is taken up by many contenders. (Holt, 2003) The winners in these markets become icons; they are the greatest performers of the greatest myths, and they bask in the kind of glory bestowed on those who have the prophetic and charismatic power to provide cultural leadership in times of great need. More often than not, in America at least, those who win in myth markets are performing a myth of rebellion. No matter the era or the ideological climate, Americans are resolutely pragmatic and populist in spirit, deeply distrustful of political dogma and concentrated authority. For guidance and solace, Americans turn to those who stand up for their personal values instead of pursuing wealth and power. The countrys myths draw on its stockpile of rebels, people who are often a threat to the prevailing ideology. The most successful icons rely on an intimate and credible relationship with a rebel world: Nike with the African- American ghetto, Harley with outlaw bikers, Volkswagen with bohemian artists, Apple with cyberpunks. And even before these, there was the soft drink Mountain Dew. Lets take a look at how, back in the 1950s, a small bottler in Tennessee succeeded with a rebel myth that addressed one of the most potent ideological contradictions of the day. (Holt, 2003) The Case of Mountain Dew To understand the early iconic power of Mountain Dew, we must hark back to the American ideology of the 1950s and 1960s, which was deeply influenced by World War II and the Cold War. The success of American military operations executed according to a rationalized, hierarchical model and the nations ability to out-science the Nazis in the race to develop the atomic bomb announced the beginning of a new era. Ideology lauded scientific expertise, the power of which would be unleashed by professionally managed bureaucracies. Popular culture was filled with visions of technology used to create fantastic futures and to help the country conquer new markets and beat back the Soviet bloc. Ideas about rugged individualism had become anachronistic; manhood was now to be earned in a corporate environment. The man who was mature enough to subsume his individuality under the umbrella of corporate wisdom was praised. Outside of work, these ideals found expression in the new modern living practiced by nuclear families in planned suburbs. These values produced a litany of contradictions. For men, these ideals felt coercive and emasculating when measured against Americas historical populism. Books like William Whytes The Organization Man and David Riesmans The Lonely Crowd, which damned the new conformity of corporate America, became best-sellers. Myth markets soon sprang up-using the Western frontier, the Beats bohemia, and the hillbilly backwater to provide salves for these tensions. The hillbilly first caught the publics attention in the 1930s in Lil Abner, a comic strip in which Al Capp exaggerated the hillbillys lack of civility to create biting social satire. As the 1950s unfolded, the hillbilly- a figure who was in touch with his innate animal qualities- seemed powerful and dangerous, the exact opposite of the corporate man. Elvis Presley, the poor Mississippi hillbilly who brought primitive black music to a white audience, oozed a titillating sexuality and sent young people in search of rock-and-roll records. CBSs The Beverly Hillbillies, a populist allegory that championed pragmatic knowledge over book learning, character over self-presentation, and traditional hospitality over proper etiquette, became one of the most popular television shows of the 1960s. Mountain Dews inventors named their product after an old-time Appalachian folk song that told of the pleasures of mountain dew – moonshine liquor. They filled the beverage with caffeine and sugar so that it would deliver a heart-pumping rush and gave it fewer bubbles than most sodas so that it could be chugged. They then created a comic hillbilly character-Willy-who drank Mountain Dew to get high. Invoking Appalachian stereotypes like the blood-feuding Hatfields and McCoys, the bottles label featured a barefoot Willy pointing his cocked rifle at a neighbour running away in the distance. Tied to Willys hip was a stoneware jug, the type usually associated with homemade booze. When PepsiCo bought the brand in 1964, the company kept the hillbilly character, renamed him Clem, and put him in animated television ads. One ad, called Beautiful Sal, features a cast of barefoot country folk. Two bumpkins court Sal, a buxom redhead in a brief, tattered dress. Sal refuses flowers from both men and tugs their hats down over their faces before she struts away. Enter Clem. Half Sals height, Clem seems like an unlikely mate. But from under his ten-gallon hat, Clem reveals a tall bottle of Mountain Dew. Sal swipes the bottle and takes a few gulps. As Clem gazes lustily, Sal lifts a leg and hollers. Yahoo, Mountain Dew! Her long hair snaps into curls beside her head. If the audience failed to understand that Dew has the power to change attitudes in a heartbeat, the muzzle flash that explodes from Sals ears seals the deal. She growls like a panther in heat, embraces Clem passionately, and smothers him with a kiss. The spot then cuts to a single-toothed old man who reaches behind his head, wiggles his finger lasciviously through a bullet hole in his hat, and says, Mountain Dewll tickle yore innards, cuz thars a bang in everbottle. Sales took off like a shot in eastern rural areas. Mountain Dew had succeeded in creating a kind of manhood that rivalled the buttoned-up emotions and routines of the organization men. Its hillbilly was a devilish prankster who called on male viewers to let loose their own wild man. Traversing Cultural Disruptions Mountain Dews success as an icon becomes all the more impressive when one considers how it outlived the ideological tension it was initially positioned to address. National ideology works something like Stephen Jay Goulds idea of punctuated equilibrium or Clay Christensens and Michael Tushmans descriptions of innovation cycles in technology markets, which have extended periods of incremental innovation disrupted occasionally by radical technological changes. As an ideology loses its relevance, people lose faith in its tenets. Experimentation ensues, historical ingredients are reworked, and society finally arrives at a new consensus. When such a shift in ideology occurs, people are forced to adjust their aspirations and their views of themselves. Myths provide a powerful sense of structure at these junctures, and they grow up spontaneously around the emerging ideology, forming new myth markets. These are the moments when we see new icons take off and incumbents struggle to remain relevant. Mountain Dew, which has enjoyed dramatic growth since the 1960s, is one of only a few iconic brands that have been able to increase their market power across disruptions in national ideology, cross cultural chasms instead of being dismantled by them. In 1978, a new television serial ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’, quickly became a huge hit outside major metropolitan markets. And Mountain Dew took the cue as well, retooling its wild man to deliver a redneck rebuttal to Wall Streets incarnation of the frontier myth. A look at Mountain Dews 1981 television ad Rope Swing shows how the brand moved into this new mythic territory without betraying its constituents understanding of what the brand stood for. The ad depicts an informal teen outing in lush, hilly terrain. A sinewy young man dressed only in shorts and running shoes stands with his buddies on a ledge high above a river. He waits for the perfect moment to swing out, Tarzan-style, over the water on aknotted rope. On the opposite bank, four teenage girls swing an empty rope out to meet him halfway. Filmed in slow motion, he executes the switcheroo perfectly, his body taut and rippling as he releases the first rope to grab the second, after which he swings safely to the other side. The girls cheer his crossing a clear rite of passage and greet him, bouncing excitedly. Intercut with the action, the hero appears in close-ups chugging a bottle of cold Mountain Dew. By the spots end, hes polished off the entire bottle without coming up for air. Shaking water from his hair, he faces the camera, eyes shut but mouth wide open. The film freezes with him seemingly shouting, Ah! As corporate executives donned cowboy gear in the mid-1980s, Mountain Dew responded even more assertively with a campaign called Doin It Country Cool. A dozen vignettes show our redneck studs, this time decked out in cowboy regalia, once again showing off their athletic talents and buff bodies to cheering young women. Mountain Dew argued, through myth that virile guys live to play dangerously, not to sweat it out at the office. The brand retained its iconic power by reinterpreting the wild man to fit the new ideological reality. Again, Mountain Dew championed the wild man against the emasculation of corporate work, but this time by asserting physical toughness and derring-do over the flaccid cowboys of Wall Street. From Redneck to Slacker By 1987, Mountain Dew was again an endangered icon as the nations ideology underwent another shift. The country became disenchanted with the ideals of the Wall Street frontier in a matter of months as Reagan left office, scandals rocked the financial world, and the stock market crashed. A deluge of popular books and films excoriating arbitrageurs for their greed and indulgence marked the end of this era. Before long, it became clear that the very nature of the economy was changing: Companies had to be more agile and aggressive to compete globally, and workers faced an increasingly Hobbesian, winner-take-all labour market. In the new era of the free agent, in which seniority systems were thrown out in favour of performance driven meritocracies, every job was up for grabs to the most talented and most tenacious worker. During this period of cultural disruption, a new, turbocharged version of Reagans frontier myth took hold, this one lauding heroic individual achievement. Now manhood was defined by the ability to tackle extremely difficult and sometimes dangerous challenges that demanded both mental and physical toughness. Myths of the day defined heroes as those who competed most ferociously, such as rebel athlete Michael Jordan with his brand of in your face basketball. Professionals no longer savoured expensive dining and Rolexes. Now they headed into the wilderness for tests of will against whitewater and mountains, and the must-have item was an SUV-if not a ranch in Montana. This new version of the frontier myth galvanized both male and female professionals and those who competed in the labour market to join their ranks. But most people ended up in a secondary labour market with depressed wages and no job security, or in service work that promised only stifling, micromanaged employment. Contradictions between the free-agent frontier and the realities of work were extraordinary: While many young people were moving into jobs as telemarketers and retail clerks, popular culture was lauding executives who in an average week conquered markets, technology, Whitewater, and rock walls. To make matters worse, in households across America parents pushed their kids ever harder to make it in this fiercely competitive environment The myth market that sprang up to feed these anxieties centred on a new rebel figure, the slacker. As glorified by Richard Linkletters film of that name and by Douglas Coupland in his quasi-novel Generation X, the slacker is a character who would rather pursue quixotic activities than grow up and get serious about a career. Channels such as Fox, MTV, and ESPN2 immediately picked up on the slacker ethos and delivered programming that emphasized its do -it- yourself sensibility, extreme version of manhood, and iconoclastic tastes. Slacker heroes excelled not at rule-bound professional sports but at improvisational sports like skateboarding, which they pursued on their own without rules and without corporate interference. In the music industry, rap, techno, and alternative rock all emphasized the do-it-yourself ethos: Anyone can and should make music, with a turntable and some old records, a computer, or a beat-up guitar. So-called extreme sports, in which guys fearlessly risk bodily harm to perform never-before-attempted stunts, became the rage. The professional wrestling program Smack-Down! , featuring enormous costumed men spilling fake blood on each other, was the entertainment choice of the day. Ultraviolent video games enticed guys to spend hour after hour revelling in over-the-top conquests- without getting off the couch. The slacker myth market had taken the masculine expressions of the free-agent frontier myth and turned up the adrenaline to an extreme. Slackers made fun not only of the ideals of the free-agent nation (particularly in the comic strip Dilbert) but also of the people who tried to dictate their lives: marketers. The rock band Nirvana came on the scene with its jab at youth branding Smells like Teen Spirit, and the hit film Waynes World proposed an ironic kind of one-upmanship over corporate marketing. Instead of buying what corporations sold, slackers reclaimed old stuff-TV programs, music, clothes that industry had given up on. Professionals may have had the power and money, but they couldnt force slackers to buy their wares. Instead, slackers could use their own creativity to make the refuse of popular culture valuable. And where did all this leave Mountain Dew? In the face of the new American ideology Mountain Dews redneck was reduced to irrelevance just like the hillbilly before him. So Mountain Dews wild-man ethos was reformulated once again, this time within the new world of the slacker. A TV ad called Done That, part of Mountain Dews Do the Dew campaign, was the companys breakthrough into this new mythic territory. The ad opens with a hair-raising shot of a guy jumping off a cliff and free-falling toward a narrow canyons river bottom. Accompanied by a thumping thrash-metal soundtrack, a stomach-tightening shot trails behind the jumpers feet as he falls away from the cliff. The music stops abruptly, and the camera zooms in on four young men, dressed like low-rent gym rats, standing in the Mojave Desert. The guys hang on one another in a kind of casual street camaraderie. In rapid succession, each mugs for the camera and comments on the skydiving the viewers have just seen: Done that Did that, Been there,Tried that The camera cuts back to live action, showing an athlete diving off a 20-foot waterfall on a boogie board and surfing the rapids. The four dudes return, still among Mojave cacti, and quickly announce their boredom with that high-risk activity as well. But the dudes dismissive statements paint only half the picture. Their cocky body language betrays no fear of the camera, as each leans toward it to make his feelings absolutely clear. The guys, parodying the jockeying of young bucks in business, play at being cocksure daredevils. The soundtrack resumes as abruptly as it had stopped, and we cut to a Mountain Dew dispensing machine in a jungle setting. Whoa! Never did it, Never guzzled it. Cans blast like cannon shells from the machines opening. Each dude snatches a can from midair and chugs it down under the desert sun. Sated, they say in rapid succession: Did it,Done it,Liked it,Loved it In the three sequels to Done That, the stunts become increasingly fantastic and absurd: waterskiing behind a helicopter past icebergs in the Arctic, rollerblading off the Sphinx in Egypt, wrestling a crocodile in the Amazon, taking a platform jump off Londons Big Ben clock tower. And the dudes become harder and harder to impress. After a skier shoots off a cliff and falls with no landing in sight, he somersaults and opens a parachute. The dudes appear in front of a sand dune to dismiss him: Blase, Pass^, Okay, Cliche. A rock climber rappels headfirst, a mountain biker leaps in front of a wall of flames, a surfer launches off a sand dune, a scuba diver feeds a voracious shark by hand, and a snowboarder tumbles head over heels down a steep slope, but the dudes posturing grows only more indifferent: Obvious, Frivolous, Tedious, Whatawuss! Wi th the Do the Dew campaign. Mountain Dew reinvented the wild man as a slacker. In these spoofs of extreme sports, all presented as do-it-yourself quests, the brand asserted that the real men of Americas free-agent frontier werent the most buff or competitive athletes but the creative guys who pursued their stunts as whimsical art. Slackers didnt just face down dangerous situations that came their way. They sought out insane life-threatening risks. The Dew guys upped the ante on masculine risk taking to absurd levels, which, in the end, made fun of the idea that manhood has anything to do with such feats. The people with real power, in Mountain Dews worldview, were people with extreme-and very particular tastes. Slackers had no power as workers, but they could assert their will in the corporate world by asserting their opinions. Companies and their managers would have to take notice. How to Build an Icon Today Mountain Dew is a $5 billion brand, surpassed in size only by Coke and Pepsi. During the past two decades, its sales have risen faster than those of any other carbonated soft drink. Key to this phenomenal growth has been the ability of managers at PepsiCo and its ad agency BBDO to reinvent the Mountain Dew myth each time American ideology ruptures and is remade. But Mountain Dews experience is not unique: The same principles apply to the other iconic brands Ive studied. In brief, a brand becomes an icon when it is able to do the following five things. Icons dont target consumer segments or psychographic types. They go after veins of intense anxieties and desires running through society, the psychological consequence of the national ideology. While market fragmentation is the rule in many sectors of the economy, icons necessarily speak to a mass audience. Unlike conventional branding, icons dont mimic pop culture; they lead it. They create charismatic visions of the world to make sense of confusing societal changes in much the same way as have Marilyn and Elvis, JFK and Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Rambo, Steve Jobs and Bart Simpson. Icons earn extraordinary market power because they deliver myths that repair the culture when its particularly in need of mending. They put existing cultural materials to new purposes in order to provoke audiences to think differently about themselves. Mountain Dew was a breakthrough success in the 1990s because, in the midst of a labour market shake-up, the brand provided a symbolic solution to young men who werent stars of the new free-agent nation. Icons dont seek to mirror the thoughts and emotions of their customers. They speak as rebels. To assemble a credible populist challenge to the national ideology, iconic brands draw on people who actually live according to alternative ideals. And icons dont simply borrow the trappings of rebel lifestyles, mimicking their clothing or language. Rather, they understand the rebels point of view so well that they can speak with the rebels voice. Mountain Dew didnt simply offer up extreme sports or retro clothing. Instead, by creatively mixing and matching slacker elements, the campaign evoked the slacker Zeitgeist. Unlike conventional brands, icons dont behave as if they have a certain DNA, an essential truth that must be maintained. Icons must be reincarnated when ideology ruptures because the value of their myth is erased. What remains intact as an artefact of the original brand, however, is its political authority. When an icons myth loses value, its constituency still looks to the brand to shed light on the kinds of contradictions it has addressed in the past. Because the brand has been a trustworthy and committed advocate, consumers believe that it will speak for them again. Mountain Dews Do the Dew campaign, for instance, appears to be worlds apart from the hillbilly and watering-hole ads. Yet the brands remake was welcomed because it drew on a deep reservoir of political authority. Mountain Dew was, once again, championing the id over the ego for young men who felt excluded from manhood as defined by the nations ideology. Icons own an imaginative politics that can be reclaimed virtually at will, even if the brand has fumbled or abandoned this commitment for years. Cultural knowledge is critical for building icons yet is sorely lacking in most managers arsenals. The Do the Dew campaign worked because its creators understood the angst of low-wage earners looking up at the new heroes of the marketplace, a tension that was invisible to managers who understood Generation X simply as a psychographic jumble of attitudes and emotions. And the campaign worked because its creators were so immersed in the slacker subculture that they could use it to express the slacker ethos in a new way rather than just parade slacker gear in their ads, as many other brands did at the time. Getting Close to Culture When the nati