Knowledge of the Main Changes that Go With the Divorce Research Paper

Knowledge of the Main Changes that Go With the Divorce - Research Paper Example Ross (1972) argued that parental discernments are a product of both the child's behaviour and the parent's acceptance level. It appears credible that depression influences individual differences between parents in their acceptance for a variety of child behaviours. Clinical symptoms that co-vary with depression, such as distractibility and restlessness, may increase the possibility that single mothers will selectively attend to moderately low-frequency inapt behaviour, forming impressions of her children's alteration that are not acceptable by objective counts of behaviour. Alternately, parental depression and distress may raise attention to moderately high-frequency rebellious behaviours that were not interpreted as worrisome prior to the inception of personal distress. On a behavioural level, changes in perceptions might result in the inconsistent use of ineffective child-management strategies and dictatorial control (e.g., beta commands) at a time when parents seek to bound intera ctions with their children. The net consequence of such dynamics might be the expansion of what Patterson (1982) has termed coercive styles of family interactions. One of the issues linking to the emotional pattern of this kind of family breakdown is that of the divorce process, which shows the way to families living in single-parent households and eventually to the remarriage of one, if not both, parents and the formation of stepfamilies. This process, now believed likely to occur to one marriage in every three, also consequences in one in five children experiencing the divorce of their parents and the succeeding remarriage of at least one of them (conceivably more than once) during childhood.

The Fiftieth Gate Essay Example for Free

The Fiftieth Gate Essay It is the interplay of both history and memory, which allows us to gain empathetic understanding of Truth. History is factual, and traditionally objective, yet is subject to bias and control. It cannot reveal the reality of human experience, as it relies on facts, lists and statistics; the need for memory arises. Memory is a composition of personal perspectives which can be deemed subjective, yet challenges history’s authority and rationalism. Combined, history and memory generate a powerful tool when assessing the past, as explored in Mark Baker’s ‘The Fiftieth Gate’. Baker uses deliberate selections of documents and personal accounts from his parents, with stylistic features and representational methods, to create a rounded understanding of the Holocaust. ‘The Sydney Jewish Museum’ similarly employs a range of representational methods and medians to present history and memory, in order to gain a complete understanding of the truth. History is evidently used as an important framework for events throughout ‘The Fiftieth Gate’, using fates and chronological order, â€Å"12th of December†. The use of dates validates memory within the text. History, on its own, is seen as not effective in determining the truth as it is written from a historians collaboration of documented evidence, which is unstructured. Connotations chaos and lack of direction are clear as Baker’s documents â€Å"lay strewn across the floor†¦ dismembered words†¦ bits and pieces† this is highlighting the need for deliberate selection of documented evidence. This bias, throughout ‘The Fiftieth Gate’, is emphasized as a historical document written by the Germans, who completely disregard the millions of murders of The ellipses following the conclusion of the poem ‘tell him that i† symbolizes an unfinished story and allows the responder to assume it is ambiguous in subject, relating to all Jews and the horrors experienced collectively. Such a portrayal of this idea of courage and survival depicted throughout a spiritual element of poetry (commonly referred to as ‘food for the soul’) cannot be depicted throughout only documented fact, as although the approximate number of survivors is known, this figure gives no insight into the immense struggle for life experienced by thousands.

To Build a Personal Computer or Buy a Personal Computer? :: Description Compare Contrast Computers Essays

To Build a Personal Computer or Buy a Personal Computer? Abstract   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This report is going to describe the pros and cons of building a personal computer (PC) and of purchasing a prefabricated one. This will help the reader to create a budget and gain more information about the computer industry. All parts, supplies, tools, and general insight will be given on the proper procedure of building a PC The report will also give generalized information on where and how to go about purchasing a PC.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Based on all of the information that was contributed in this report, it is recommended that the reader choose either example based upon His or Her skills in computer literacy. Another thing that will have to be taken into consideration is the total cost of all parts, labor and tools vs. the total cost of purchasing a PC. 1.0 Introduction The purpose of this report is to cover all of the proprieties between building and buying a PC All major components will be considered and examples will be given where applicable. 1.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Scope This report will show all of the necessary procedures that will be required to successfully complete the task. The outcome will provide the reader with the information to at least understand the concept of the project. 1.2 Sources Most of the information in this report was gained through means of electronic data. Some other sources were instructors, magazine articles, and catalogs that were used to provide current specifications for needed components. 1.3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Definitions All terms and components that are mentioned in this report are computer-related terms. They will be outlined in the glossary at the end of the report. Any terms that can be defined will be done in footnotes or captions. 2.0 Overview The Following sub-sections will provide all of the information that pertains to building a personal computer. 2.1 Current situation The person who is interested in staying current and having the ease and convenience of a computer must know what options there are before the initial purchase of any type of unit. 2.2 Current options There are many options to choose from when seeking out a new computer. The industry and technology moves so rapidly that it is hard to find a particular model that will stay current for any given length of time. One available option is for the user to actually assemble and burn in their own computer. The advantages of this are simple. The user will be able to choose what parts will go into the computer, have the opportunity to learn how the computer works while assembling it, and they will have the satisfaction of knowing that the computer was built with their hands.

Realism in “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens Essay

Realism was developed by the middle of the 19th century as a response to the idealistic world of romanticism which had dominated for the past half century. It was an aesthetic movement which attempted to hold up a mirror to its society to show a true reflection of reality. Although claiming to offer a slice of life by emphasizing chiefly in the importance of the ordinary amongst the middle and lower classes, realism is a relative concept, a representation of reality which adheres to a loose collection of conventions. Many of these are offered in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, which follows the life and struggles of the protagonist and narrator, Pip. Dickens uses techniques such as a chronological linear narrative, an omniscient narrator, the celebration of the ordinary, and the resolution of the enigma to drive the moral undercurrents of Pip’s everyday existence. This constructed realism is essentially a representation of reality based on Dickens ideology, offerin g social commentary and reflecting the values and attitudes of nineteenth century England. see more:old age home article The basic structure of Great Expectations follows a chronological development of Pip’s life; from his childhood innocence, to his disillusioned expectations, finally his rejection of the high life and a circular succession ending back at the beginning. This chronological structure of which Dickens narrates exemplifies Pip’s learning process through his moral and emotional turmoil and complies with the opportunity to generate a realistic setting. For example, Pip’s description of London, â€Å"a most dismal place; the skylight eccentrically patched like a broken head, and the distorted adjoining houses looking as if they had twisted themselves to peep down at me through it,† creates an archaeologically realistic description of London, and hints a sense of foreboding, foreshadowing the futility of Pip’s expectations. This ideology developed through Pips learning process is created through a carefully crafted linear plot in order to present fiction as reality. Reflected by the matured Pip in the perspective of the omniscient narrator, Great Expectations’ first person narration employs the wisdom of hindsight to define the events and characters of the story. Dickens imbues the voice of the matured Pip to make judgments on his past actions, at the Christmas  dinner for instance, Pip experiences a deep desire to tweak Mr. Wopsle’s large nose–to â€Å"pull it until he howled.† The older Pip narrates this encounter comically and sympathetically, conveying his youthful innocence through the perspective of a child. This convention of retrospect produces a sense of psychological depth and compassion, given access to Pip’s feelings, thoughts and motivations. As the newly democratic age finds importance in the individual, essentially Great Expectations is both an external novel in Pip’s commentary of the society around him and an internal novel in the development of his perspective. By evoking consciousnes s of Pip’s character, Dickens coaxes the audience to enter the illusion of reality. Furthermore, in parallel to the importance of the individual, realism tends to concern its interests in the commonplace and ordinary everyday lives among the lower classes. Through the characters of Great Expectations, Dickens celebrates the commonplace, employing Pip, the most ordinary of subjects, as a central vehicle instilled to investigate his social reality and to express ideological views on society. Biddy, for instance â€Å"was not beautiful – she was common, and could not be like Estella – but she was pleasant and wholesome and sweet-tempered.† Despite her humble position in society Biddy emerges with admirable values, which contrasts to the cold beauty, cruelty and deception of Estella. In accordance to realist conventions concerned with rejecting the ideal, Dickens portrays the upper class with great malice, greed and corruption as Miss Havisham encourages Estella to torment Pip, whispering â€Å"Break their hearts!† Ideologically driven, realism is deliberate in rejoicing in the ordinary, and condemning the supreme. Moreover, realism is largely concentrated on ideologically driven values as the central issues of life tend to be ethical. Dickens paints the lower class to embody a high moral ground and rejects the false values of the upper class. Drummle, for instance, is an upper-class lout, while Magwitch, a persecuted convict, has a deep inner worth. This concept is developed with greater depth in the character of Joe, of which despite his position in society, his unrefined and uneducated qualities, is identified as the epitome of goodness. As a true ‘gentleman’, â€Å"It was not because I was  faithful, but because Joe was faithful,† Joe contrasts to the aspirations Pip seeks to become, of which Dickens shows as corrupt and materialistic. It was Joe’s â€Å"quiet goodness† stemming from honestly, empathy and kindness, which compelled Pip, as he reflects in retrospect, to reject the values of this society in favor of an inner morality. Additionally, a sense of ending is invested in Great Expectations which resolves the plot. The learning process Pip embarks on educates him on the futility of his expectations, and his hopes to return as a gentleman is a complete failure: Estella reminds him coldly that she has â€Å"no heart.† In Pip’s case, closure is restored through his moral development and growth, epitomized in his reconciliation with Joe and Biddy. His maturation toward adulthood is symbolized by his desire to rectify his behaviour toward his lower class loved ones. Pip has at last learned that love, loyalty and morality hold more value than social class and wealth. On a different vein, at times Great Expectations does not remain faithful to the conventions of realism. Dickens tends to slip in and out of reality, deviating from realism to social satire, using hyperbole to satirize the pretentiousness of Pumblechook’s social improvement â€Å"a large hard-breathing middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes†¦looked as if he had just be all but choked.† The gothic genre is also apparent in Pip’s first description of Miss Havisham, â€Å"†¦ought to be white, had lost its luster, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress†¦Now, waxwork and skeleton seemed to have dark eyes that moved and looked at me.† The audience’s first impression of Miss Havisham is thus one of darkness, mystery and terror. With these constructed implications, realism is considered a loose convention as Dickens deviates between reality and the conventi ons of other genres. It can be seen that Great Expectations exhibits aspects of realism as it assumes that reality inheres in the here and now, in the everyday. Dickens employs themes including accurate descriptions of specific setting, the chronological structure of the story, the omniscient narrator, the importance of the ordinary, the pedestrian, and the middle class with  tendency to reject the ideal and the resolution of the enigma. Dickens also tends to deviate between different genres in contrast to the realistic portrayal of certain aspects in society. When these constructs are applied in literature, a set of conventions emerges, however in order to mimic reality they only offer an abstraction of reality reflecting the values and ideology of the composer’s context. With that said, literary realism is essentially a representation of the world based on the attitudes of the composer, carefully constructed to a set of conventions.

Laptops in classroom? No problem Essay

Elena Choy is a paraprofessional at NYC Board of Education. In her argument â€Å"Laptops in the Classroom? No Problem† published in the book â€Å"Forming a Critical Perspective†, she believes the arguments that people use in favor of banning laptops in the classroom are not valid arguments to be using to make an assumption. Choy states her side of the argument against banning laptops and proceeds to give four main reasons on why people want to ban laptops: upraised lids of laptops distract the teacher, laptops distract other students, students take overly excessive notes on laptops, users are so busy on the laptop, they don’t participate in group discussion. Choy goes into detail talking about why each of these arguments will not work. Choy uses many different tactics to give evidence for her side of the argument. First of all, Choy uses a stern and matter of fact tone to try and convince the reader that the argument is not valid. This stern tone makes Choy sound confident, which makes it easier for the reader to accept her side of the argument. Choy also uses the point that students pay for tuition. Once a student pays his or her tuition, it is completely up to them as far as making decision on how to spend their time studying and doing homework. This means that if students want to mess around in class and play different games while the teacher is discussing the material from the class, it is not the job of the teacher to be their baby sitter and make sure they are paying attention. She also gives the reason that every student has their own way of taking notes and understanding information to shoot down the argument that people using laptops take too extensive notes. Choy uses these multiple strategies to help shoot down each argument that is for banning laptops. Through the use of many different techniques, Choy analyses the question as to should laptops be banned in classrooms and gives many examples as to why she believes banning laptops would not be helpful. Her confidence is what really makes her argument valid and believable to its readers. Choy achieves this confidence by going from one reason to the other as though she has a list. This â€Å"list† way of writing, makes her sound more credible because she  has so many different reasons. For example, she uses phrases such as, â€Å"Let’s look at each of these arguments (Choy)† and â€Å"Which gets to the second argument (Choy).† She does not show any doubt in her writing. This type of diction makes her seem extremely confident in her statements, and the more confident she seems, the more believable her argument becomes. Another reason Choy effectively analyzes the argument in this essay is the fact that she fully acknowledges the other side of the argument and spends a good bit of time discussing it. Throughout most of the essay, she spends time on giving reasons argument for banning laptops are wrong. If Choy would have only given the reasons as to why laptops should be allowed in the classrooms, then the audience would not listen to what she has to say because everything would be extremely biased. In her analysis, Choy admits the main points to the argument for laptops being banned in the class. However, she gives specific examples each argument against laptops and knocks out each one by giving a specific example as to why it wouldn’t work. For example, she says, â€Å"we go too far when we prohibit students from taking notes in the way they find most useful (Choy).†The strategy of admitting a few points and then shooting all of these points down really enhances the argument to make it more believable. Choy used multiple strategies to help make her argument credible. Her argument is well organized and believable for readers, however, I feel that Choy spends too much time talking about the arguments for banning laptops in the rooms. This is one area where Choy could improve to make her argument stronger. She spends most of the time on proving the reasons for banning laptops and never gets deep into talking about why laptops should be allowed. If Choy were to add reasons and examples as to why laptops should be allowed, it would add the finishing touches to an already successful argument. Overall, Choy does a fantastic job of getting her point across and trying to convince her readers as to why banning laptops in the classroom would not make much of a difference and could possibly be harmful to students ability to learn in class.

Using Chocolate Bars to Teach Fractions

Using Chocolate Bars to Teach Fractions Believe it or not, teaching fractions can be both educational and delicious. Use The Hersheys Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book and kids who once crumpled their brows in frustration at the concept of fractions will suddenly salivate at the mere mention of this important math concept. Theyll even get to the props - milk chocolate bars! Not everyone loves math, but surely everyone loves Hersheys Chocolate Bars, which are conveniently divided into 12 equal squares, making them the perfect manipulatives for demonstrating how fractions work. This witty and kid-friendly book walks you through a straightforward lesson that serves as a fantastic introduction to the world of fractions. It starts off explaining the fraction one-twelfth in relation to one rectangle of chocolate and continues all the way up through one whole Hershey bar. To do this lesson, first get a Hershey Bar for each child or each small group of up to four students. Tell them not to break apart or eat the bar until you instruct them to do so. Set the rules upfront by telling the children that if they follow your directions and pay attention, then they will be able to enjoy a chocolate bar (or a fraction of one if they are sharing in groups) when the lesson is over. The book goes on to include addition and subtraction facts and it even throws in a little science for good measure, offering a brief explanation of how milk chocolate is made! Some parts of the book are really funny and clever. Your kids will hardly realize they are learning! But, sure enough, you will see the lightbulbs go on as their eyes sparkle with understanding that they didnt have prior to reading this book. To close the lesson and to give the children a chance to practice their new knowledge, pass out a short worksheet for them to complete before eating the chocolate bar. The kids can work in small groups to answer the questions. Then, if they are splitting a bar, they have to figure out how many rectangles each child should get in order to split it equally. Have fun and rest easy as you know that your kids will really be able to visualize fractions after this delicious lesson. A hands-on lesson with scrumptious manipulatives always helps drive a concept home better than a dry, lifeless blackboard lecture. Keep this in mind as you plan future lessons. Dream up new and creative ways to reach your students. Its certainly worth the extra effort!

Neurofibromatosis Its Genetic Implications essays

Neurofibromatosis Its Genetic Implications essays The National Institute of Health defines Neurofibromatoses as group genetic disorders that affects the development and growth of neural cell tissues. These disorders cause tumor growth in nerve tissues, skin changes, and in some cases bone deformities. Of the eight possible subtypes of Neurofibromatosis (NF) at least 85% are represented by NF Type 1, also known as von Recklinghausen or classic peripheral neurofibromatosis. It has a prevalence of about 1:4000 live births. An additional ten percent have NF Type 2, also known as acoustic or central neurofibromatosis and occurs in about 1:50,000 live births (Baskin 1). This paper will deal only with the more prevalent NF Type 1 and focus on the symptoms of the disease and biochemical aspects of the NF1 and the ethical implication of inherited genetic disorders. NF1 is an autosomal dominant inherited disease characterized by multiple caf-au-lait spots, numerous fibromas, and Lisch nodules. Most manifestations appear during childhood and early adult life. Clinical criteria for diagnosing the disease must include two or more of the following symptoms: (1) six or more caf-au-lait spots larger that 5 mm in pre-pubescent individuals and greater than 15 mm is post-pubescent individuals, (2) two or more neurofibromas of any type or one plexiform neurofibroma, (3) axillary or inguinal freckling, (4) sphenoid bone dysplasia, (5) optic glioma, (6) Lisch nodules, and (7) a family history of NF1. Other manifestations include learning disabilities, epilepsy, mental retardation, scoliosis, gastrointestinal neurofibromas, pheochromacytomas, and renal artery stenosis (Goldman 2074). Caf-au-lait spots are pigmented macules of giant melanin granules seen in the basal layer of the epidermis and are distinguished by the presence of more DOPA-positive melanocytes than surrounding skin and a smooth border and light brown color of the macules. Neurofibromas are hamartomatous, a mas...

Developing Students Creativity and Self-Expression through Crayons

Developing Students Creativity and Self-Expression through Crayons Crayons are brilliant, versatile, and economical coloring instruments that most school-age children are familiar with. Art sessions in grade school, for example, intends to nourish creativity and self-expression in children by introducing art tools and materials such as a paintbrush, scissors, paint, clay, crayons, colored papers, and others. Creative Possibilities with Crayons Crayons are used by middle-school students to draw colored shapes and in the process develop some creative skills they can use to express themselves. Students are humans with a natural desire to use their hands and materials as vehicles for artistic expression thus often welcome art creation opportunities. Activities such as â€Å"Crayon Melting† where students create a self-initiated art design using heated wax crayons and paper is a common classroom-based activity. Art classes expand student experiences through  collaboration, two-way communication, and appreciation of each student’s talent. It encourages the growth of visual awareness and skills to develop aesthetic understanding, coordination, concentration, and self-esteem. REMEMBERING OUR FIRST STAGE OF EDUCATION Similar to pencil, chalk, paint, and others, crayons provide opportunities for students to express and communicate their interpretation of the world around them. For instance, they can observe a plant, a tree, or a piece of fruit and draw an image according to their personal representation of that object.  Painting objects with crayons enable children to learn to mix colors, take responsibility for the art tool and image and develop their understanding of different media. Activities in art classes help children learn to use their imagination and express their ideas through art, sharpened their visual expression skills, create meaning by linking text and image and develop their presentation skills. Making Good Use of Quality Crayons Poor quality crayons often result in tears and frustration among young school children. This is because the resulting color of poor quality crayons is often not exact and cannot be combined to form new colors. Wax from a good quality crayons cannot be scratch off from the paper, they intermixed well with the pigment and produced with equally combined pigment and wax. Good quality crayon boxes with few colors are sufficient enough to produce colorful work of art as you can mix them to form new colors. For instance, putting a layer of yellow over a blue area will result to vivid green. Thick crayons are preferred over the thin ones as they do not break easily. Similarly, using only a few pieces of crayons encourage experimentation, creativity, and application of different crayon techniques. For example, crayon boxes with few color encourage mixing of colors to produce desired color, use of both pointed and broad crayon side, and greater use of students’ imagination. Crayons are not limited to drawing on paper as they can be used to draw images in many types of surfaces such as cardboards, paper gift boxes, food trays, sandpaper, and others with interest effect. †Crayon rubbing†, a technique to pick up the texture of a surface on paper by rubbing it with the side of a peeled crayon, is an enjoyable art class activity where students experiment and produce artworks from walls, leaves, bricks, and other surfaces. Another is â€Å"Crayon resist†, a technique that gives the feeling of a night picture by drawing a picture on paper with crayons, pressing hard and painting the surrounding area with dark-colored tempera paint diluted in water.

Experience with Paramahansa Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship Essay

Experience with Paramahansa Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship The Lake Shrine - Essay Example On the other side were plaques with inspirational and moving scriptures on them. Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, and Lord Buddha were some of the statues in the beautiful garden. The writings on them were uplifting and people gathered around in meditation and repentance. On joining them, I could see love among the people around courtesy of the passed on legends and what came to my mind is the philosophical saying that if you care about others you are doing good to yourself. There was a temple in the garden where individuals were taught about religion and way of living. Looking at the portraits, I came to understand that Yogananda believed that one comes to know God through intuition. All religions were in the temple who called their Gods in different names which made me meditate on the philosophical saying that there exist different Gods in different situations. The site does not only give spiritual teachings and comfort but also gives the opportunity to learn about other

SG Cowen Recruitment System Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SG Cowen Recruitment System - Case Study Example The company still seeks to grow further by diversifying into the geographical regions of the world but wants to keep an integrated mission and vision for hiring new talent and recruits at the various positions in the company. The case outlines the recruitment session for a period of 2001-2002 at SG Cowen, starting from the establishment of the recruitment procedures at the company and the flow of applicant and recruitment selection at all levels of the company. The case of SG Cowen: New Recruits has been analyzed through observation. It has been observed that the company has an established and exhaustive recruitment process for hiring recent graduates, which pertains to inviting applications from candidates in the market, targeting candidates from the core schools by holding interactive career setting and recruitment sessions with the interested applicants and tier based interview sessions at the universities as well at the company in New York. Through the information provide in the case, it has been noted that the recruitment procedure for new graduates into SG Cowen is based on the strategy formulated by Rae. This strategy by Rae is to target the core schools and universities for the future employees of SG Cowen. These core schools include schools ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in the United States as well as the 15 schools which make up the top 25 schools in the United States. This is a unique strategy to adopt in a highly competitive market for recruits. It was also observed that the only the academic performance of the candidates and their previous work records and experiences were not the only factors taken into account when making a decision for hiring new recruits. The orientation of the candidates, as well as their drive, interest and passion for the business and the industry as well as the suitability to the culture of the organization were also taken into account when deciding on the selection of new recruits to be hired by SG Cowen. The problem that has been observed in the case pertains to the issues faced by the management of SG Cowen when it comes to deciding the final recruits amongst those candidates who have the potential, the drive as well as the academic record and experience to be recruits of SG Cowen but for some reason have not received affirmation form all the interviewers at the Super Saturday interview rounds. Connections to Human Resource Management The article is very much related to the human resource field and the Human Resource Management function. This case provides the entire recruitment and selection process at SG Cowen which is a part of the human resource management function. The case depicts the recruitment steps and process though which the candidates go through to be hired by the company. These steps pertain to on On Campus Round and Super Saturday which culminate in the selection of the class of 30 or so recruits for SG Cowen. The On Campus round takes the form of introduction and sign up sessions at the core schools where the interested students can sign up for applying as a candidate to SG Cowen. An informal session is kept between the representatives of SG Cowen, the MD and the

Hindu Tradition + Christian Thought + Greek Philosophy Research Paper

Hindu Tradition + Christian Thought + Greek Philosophy - Research Paper Example Under Saivism, Shiva is considered to be the supreme God, with his two forms being the lingam and the human form. Among the variants of the Human form, the most important is the dancing posture called Nataraja and also Dakshinamoorthy, the instructor of four sages. Vaishnavism on the other hand has its roots in Northeren India where the Aryans were mostly concentrated. It became renown in the 3rd century AD. Vaishnavites believe that Vishnu is the supreme power, and that god is personal and the ultimate goal of life is to be the servant of god, through faith or Bhakti. Modern Vaishnavites also believe that Vishnu takes many incarnations every eon ( Bhandarkar, 48,62, 160,165) Temples Along with the differences in sects and cultures between north and south India, considerable difference in the style of architecture has also been noticed. The most prominent parts by which they can be differentiated are their superstructures, and also the plan, vertical structure, statues and motifs. Th e major part of northern India, from the foothills of the Himalayas to the Bengal region has temples in the northern style; whereas the southern style was concentrated to the more southerly interiors had a consistent style. Mixture of the two occurs towards the central parts of India (Temple Styles, 86). The temples of India were classified as according to their typological features and were divided into Nagara, Dravida and Vesara styles, mainly signifying square, octagonal or apsidal ended shapes and these dictate the other structural parts of the temple. The Nagara style was common in Northern India, whereas the Dravida style was famous in southern India. Building of a temple in India in those times were mainly the religious beliefs of the kings who ascended the throne. So most of the temples were known according to the king under whom they were built. Various styles have been exported to places all over the world, including Texas (Temple Styles, 88). Around thirty four Hindu temp les exist in Texas, with about fifteen in Houston and Dallas. Various types of temples have emerged in the United States, such as the Sri Meenakshi Temple in Houston, which is an example of a temple dedicated to one particular deity, Goddess Meenakshi, but in keeping with the tradition of unity in diversity, with so many sects in the Hindu culture, the worship of Shiva is also done here, in the form of Lord Shri Sundareswara. Vaishnava traditions are also celebrated as the temple is also dedicated to Lord Venkateshwara, another form of Vishnu. Thus this temple does not concentrate on any one sect but provides a multiple option of pursuing ones faith (Brady, 87; Laderman and Leon, 102). Majority of these temples were built according to the Vastu Shastra of the Vedic period, with modern adaptations. These new temples have spacious halls, and used for weddings and other cultural occasions. In most temples there is one main deity, but the deities of the other sects and customs are also recognized. This is because of lack of space in foreign land, but it also helps to foster good relations between the various sects present there (Badlani, 329-330). For a decision, as to which deity to be made the main one in a temple, becomes a much debated topic. Various devotees lobby for the different sects, and sometimes a temple that is supposed to bring in peace and harmony becomes a cause of division. Reaching a consensus is very difficult due to large number

Lap report for AS1B subject Lab Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lap for AS1B subject - Lab Report Example Two angles are important in this perspective; the angle of refraction and the incident angle. Refractive index (RI) with regard to Snell’s Law provides a mathematical relationship between the incident angle and the angle of refraction. According to Snell’s Law In other cases the light travels in a perpendicular line and RI cannot be measured by comparing the two angles. In such a case one can measure the RI by getting the ratio of the Real Depth (RD) to the Apparent Depth (AD). For instance, when determining the RI of water one can insert a measurement ruler until it touches the bottom of a beaker of known height (RD), and then comparing it with the depth as seen by the eye (AD). The following experiment consists of two parts; the first part used fresh tap water while the second experiment used salty water. The aims of the experiment were to determine the refractive index of water and to establish whether the salinity of water affected its refractive index. The refractive indices of the first experiment as demonstrated in Table 1 indicate that there was minimal difference. The average refractive index for the first experiment was found to be 1.38. According to literature, the refractive index of water is averagely 1.3 (Freeman, 2003). In essence, the experimental results were closer to the results found in literature. The fact that the refractive index of water has a value greater than 1 implies that light travels much faster in air than in water. In essence, air is less dense than water and as light travels from air to water the speed reduces. The average refractive index for saline water was found to be 1.51 indicating that saline water was denser than tap water. Another realization is that as the saline concentration of the water was being increased, the refractive index also increa sed. The results imply that an increase in salinity causes an increase in the density of water. When salt is dissolved in

Business management Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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Lap report for AS1B subject Lab Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lap for AS1B subject - Lab Report Example Two angles are important in this perspective; the angle of refraction and the incident angle. Refractive index (RI) with regard to Snell’s Law provides a mathematical relationship between the incident angle and the angle of refraction. According to Snell’s Law In other cases the light travels in a perpendicular line and RI cannot be measured by comparing the two angles. In such a case one can measure the RI by getting the ratio of the Real Depth (RD) to the Apparent Depth (AD). For instance, when determining the RI of water one can insert a measurement ruler until it touches the bottom of a beaker of known height (RD), and then comparing it with the depth as seen by the eye (AD). The following experiment consists of two parts; the first part used fresh tap water while the second experiment used salty water. The aims of the experiment were to determine the refractive index of water and to establish whether the salinity of water affected its refractive index. The refractive indices of the first experiment as demonstrated in Table 1 indicate that there was minimal difference. The average refractive index for the first experiment was found to be 1.38. According to literature, the refractive index of water is averagely 1.3 (Freeman, 2003). In essence, the experimental results were closer to the results found in literature. The fact that the refractive index of water has a value greater than 1 implies that light travels much faster in air than in water. In essence, air is less dense than water and as light travels from air to water the speed reduces. The average refractive index for saline water was found to be 1.51 indicating that saline water was denser than tap water. Another realization is that as the saline concentration of the water was being increased, the refractive index also increa sed. The results imply that an increase in salinity causes an increase in the density of water. When salt is dissolved in

Social Work Compentcies PowerPoint Presentation

Social Work Compentcies - PowerPoint Presentation Example Therefore rather than pathologise her connections in the lives of her family members, I choose to treat this as culturally normal and help her figure out ways to establish some boundaries. This shows what I do in my work with clients that I think is represented in the image that I have included here in my portfolio. This video represents an ethical dilemma. During my practicum experience I am often faced with an ethical dilemma. I watched this video and they suggested several strategies that I have implemented in my agency when I face an ethical dilemma. I used the steps recommended in the video to address several ethical dilemmas. I became aware that a client has selling his food stamps. This is a violation of the agency policy. The client sold these food stamps to get money to buy cough syrup for her daughter who had a severe cough. I realized that although this seemed like a legitimate need for money, the food stamp policy is clear, that food stamps are not to be sold. I followed the steps in this video to think about what should be my action steps. Literacy is an important aspect in the community. It would be beneficial to identify the literacy needs in that community. The needs are assessed and evaluated to know which would be the best method to be used to educate the community. The above image inspired me to involve all the participants during the meetings we held. The above image shows that the world is the way it is because of the presence of diversity. In my practicum experience, I noticed that there were different patients who had different need and thus needed to be treated differently. Recognition of cultural diversity entails respecting the differences of people in the society. Each person’s beliefs and lifestyles are respected while having an understanding and support of the differences. Embracing culture in the society is important in enhancing cultural structure in the society. I was able to

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Analysis of Product Packaging Design

Analysis of Product Packaging Design ABSTRACT 1 Introduction Product design and specifically product shape and looks have long been identified as factors that may contribute to product value and new product success. Design of products evokes both cognitive and affective responses in the mind of the observers and this can be used to tailor a more attractive product proposition. While a lot of excellent research has been conducted on the positive effect that industrial design can have on the perceptions of customers about the product functionality, embedding issues like utility, safety and comfort, the importance of the perceived value by a customer on judgements about product elegance and social significance have not been extensively studied until recently. reference In this thesis I am trying to test whether Yes please soup pot design not only communicates to the potential customer a series of qualitative attributes about its content, i.e. quality and healthiness, but also triggers positive emotional responses on the perceived beauty and difference with similar products and that can be leveraged by the company to command a price premium 2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCT DESIGN New product development processes are the subset of standardized procedures that companies use to manage the new product project phases that lead to the launch of new products in the market. The objective of these procedures is to implement a systematized approach to ensure the potential of new projects based on their financial and development feasibility while maximizing the value of new products as perceived by its target customers. 2.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is industrial design Industrial design is the set of activities within new product development processes that deal with optimizing the functionality and appearance of a product to maximize its value for both consumer and manufacturer (1). The ultimate objective of a product design is thus to align the set of attributes embedded within the product with the target customer preferences and to implement them in a way that they are actually perceived and valued by them. In order to achieve a successful design and implementation, companies engage in direct market research to elicit the target customer segment implicit and explicit needs (the voice of the customer) and align those with product attributes, using techniques such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD) which systematically links the needs the product must satisfy with technical specifications while also prioritizing them based on the level of importance to customers. At the same time, the identification of the customer segment preferences and the mapping of those within a perceptual map, comparing how well different products in the market fulfill the identified needs, allow for the design of specific product propositions that no other product does and thus achieving a unique positioning and successful product differentiation. The dimension of product design has been recognized by several authors (Cooper, Trueman) as being critical to the ultimate success of the launch of new products. The focus of design development is centered around the efficient implementation of the product features, ergonomics and quality form to maximize its utility to users, while at the same time embedding it with a pleasant appearance that is able to communicate positive attributes that contribute to the ultimate value proposition. (3) (4) Trueman: Design has the facility to improve product reliability and quality standards thereby raising the perceived value of goods and services in the eyes of the customer, allowing companies to increase profit margins As Trueman estates (6), A value proposition must successfully integrate a product within its own environment by combining and merging coherently the different attributes, aesthetics, price and quality so that they are aligned similarly and reinforce each other. Although mistaken by artists that only worry about the visual appearece of a product, or styling, successful industrial designers are able dig into such fields as engineering, Materials science, manufacturing, and marketing to embed new products with a set of attributes directly influencing new product success in the market.(2) (3) (4) (5) (6). Ultimately, the design of an object is the specific configuration of elements, materials and components that give its particular attributes of function, shape etc. and determine how it is to be made and used. (13) By embedding the design dimension into the processes, companies ensure that the final value proposition is increased as it contributes to the perceived value by the customer. A successful design increase the perceived quality of a product, ensures that is aligned with market and regulatory standards and thus increase the odds to satisfy customer expectations. A consistent Design strategy in new product development processes also contributes to build a product and company image and helps to pull together the dimensions of company identity with branding and promotion (Trueman). Also, by taking the design dimensions early on the NPD projects, companies can reduce the final time to market and product costs by simplifying the manufacturing processes and reduce the final costs of fabrication. 2.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The contribution of Industrial design in the final product value proposition There are many design attributes that can be embedded into new products, roughly separated within ergonomics and aesthetics, being the former more related to the experience of using the product, while the latter is focused into the experience of seeing the product. Aestethics, embedding all product parameters that determine the way the product look, are a an essential element of the purchasing process since customers base their preference on products by the subjective perceptions elicited by the product on the potential benefits it can provide.(7) In that line, the Lens model first introduced by Brunswick (?), states that the potential customer makes a mental bundle of the information it receives about the product and from there triggers a set of perceptions that will ultimately lead to a set of preferences and choices. The ways a specific design can lead to a positive perception and thus to a choice of preference vary and are entangled with other sources of information the customer receives and which align the propostion to the customer already decided preferences. The perceptions that a product can evoke are immediately related to past information received and allow the person for example to relate it to a certain corporate and brand identity, a process that many companies have followed by implementing a sustained design strategy on their products. Brand identity allows to ultimately link the products observed to perceptions on company values and overall level of attributes of the products and has been used as means of effective product differentiation. (9) (10). In different industries, companies tend to emphasize different attributes in their communication to be aligned with their specific company positioning and customers most importance preferences, like tastiness and safety in the food industry and reliability and environment friendliness in the car industry. The physical form of a product has been researched to have an important impact in the way customers judge it and has ultimately a strong correlation effect with the final product success in the market (). As Bloch (10) states the physical form or design of a product is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success. A good design attracts consumers to a product, communicates to them, and adds value to the product by increasing the quality of the usage experiences associated with it. 2.3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Which financial benefits can it provide Companies with an effective industrial design strategy achieve better perfoming products in the market in terms of several financial indicators as return on assets, return on sales and higher profitability, which can be linked to both the design differentiation factor as stated previously by Porter in the famous book Competitve strategy (1980) and to reduced costs due to more efficient use of materials and manufacturing processes. (14) Also, the study of Roy (13) in 1993 on 221 small and medium sized UK manufacturers which received a government subsidy to promote the active use of industrial design in the development of new or improved products showed that 60% of all projects and 90% of the implemented ones were commercially successful and profitable with payback periods averaging under 15months, which show that the effective strategic approach to include design in new product development processes can be implemented in firms of different sizes. Bloch in his research also collected previous studies that linked new product financial success factors with the inclusion of design as an inherent part of their NPD processes. He identified in a survey of senior marketing managers that, design was mentioned as the most important determinant of new product performatice by 60% of respondents by only 17% considered Price most important . Also and based on the work of cooper on the analysis of the performance of 203 new products identified that product design was the most important determinant of sales success . Most interestingly for the case of Yes Please foods product, which as will be explained later chose specifically a designer for the pot based on his previous award winning record, Some research has identified that the receipt of design awards is positively associated with profit margins above average and sales growth (Goodrich 1994; Roy 1994). 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The purchasing process and the visual effect of a product design 3.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  XXXXXXXXXXXXX The ultimate act of purchasing occurs as a result of a complex mental process where the information received is analyzed and weighted as per to measure to which extend the product satisfies the needs of the customer. A general categorization of customer needs has been frequently compared with the Maslow hierarchy of needs which states that once most basic requirements have been satisfied by a product, the emphasis on a customer shifts to satisfy other more intangible needs related to symbolic and aesthetic attributes. As a result of this the purchasing process is triggered by the fulfillment of the requirements for the intended use of the product but also by the satisfaction of more intangible needs like status, elegance or social significance. In order to understand the ultimate behavioral response of a customer triggered by the visual appearance of a product it is critical to assess the cognitive and emotional processes that result from the act of observing the item under evaluation. The cognitive processes take place when a customer uses his visual senses to observe the product and perceives certain information which mentally organizes to make some judgments about its attributes and which are influenced by previous visual references or similar product stereotypes, which suggest familiar usages of the product and ultimately help the observer to interpret the signals received. It has been described a number of different approaches on how to categorize the judgments that a customer does based on the perception of a product observation. Crilly (?) has summarized all previous approaches and identifies a total of three main categories of cognitive responses to product appearance: Aesthetic, Semantic and Symbolic. From those three, the semantic interpretation, the mental inferences that an observer does to judge whether a product is capable of performing the tasks for what is intended for, is the only processes where the tangible attributes of the product are assessed. During this process the practical qualities of a product like function, performance and efficiency are analyzed and mentally compared with other references to judge the utility a product will offer to the observer. In this category I include the information that is gathered by the customer when obtaining information from reading the label and which is directly processed to identify the physical attributes of the product. The emotional responses following this cognitive process are then aligned to assess the instrumental utility of the product which ultimately lead to satisfaction, when fulfilling the expected requirements, and dissatisfaction when the product is not fulfilling them. The two other described cognitive processes are used to identify intangible attributes of the product that may or may not be perceived as valuable for the customer depending on a number of different factors, like current positioning within the Maslow hierarchy of needs, consumers cultural context and personal characteristics. The symbolic association is the cognitive response that attaches to the product some socially determined symbolic meaning. During this process, as series of values are realized to be attached to the product and assumes that others must also associate them with it. As Crilly states This culturally agreed meaning will allow the customer project a desirable image to others, express social status or communicate its personal characteristics through it. Examples of intangible values that can be associated to the product through symbolic meaning are exclusivity as the identification with certain economic status and environmentally consciousness. Finally the aesthetic impression comprises all cognitive responses that are directed towards a perceived judgment of elegance and beautifulness. Even if still there is no unanimous consensus on what comprises beautiful objects, the perception of aesthetic attraction triggers positive emotional thoughts on the customer and contribute to attaching value to the product observed. 3.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Aesthetics Dimension As researched by several authors (?) the definition of what makes an item beautiful or aesthetically pleasant is not conclusive. It has been described though that cultural and social forces have an influence in the preferences for specific forms. Specifically, it has been described that a specific culture values and preferences may influence the acceptance of a particular style. Also seems to be proven that cultural norms may overwhelm an individual inner preferences and help shape its perceptions towards the acceptance of a specific design form. (blaich, Bloch) Thus, and although cross cultural differences stay in the way of having an unified view of what can be considered as aesthetically pleasant, the current era of advanced information technology is working towards unifying the concepts that influence the perceptions of the soft values within a product design and thus working towards a more globalized and uniform set of criteria. The cognitive processes described triggered upon the observation of a product lead to a series of emotional responses that will ultimately lead to the final decision on the purchasing process, being the most important the attraction or disgust towards the aesthetics, the satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the fulfillment by the product of instrumental requirements for its use, the surprise or indifference based on the perceived product novelty and the admiration or indignation towards social significance. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DESIGN IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY In the food industry, Tauber (8), collected through extensive market studies an exhaustive set of problems related to food products. By doing so, he was trying to identify potential opportunities for new products while also providing with a thorough analysis of the basic needs to be fulfilled by this kind of products. From that list it can be identified a series of attributes that the product under study is fulfilling and thus achieving a specific positioning. Some of them, like low calorie content, convenience of transport and preparation and adequacy of the serving size are efficiently communicated through the information contained in the label. Others like healthy, tasty, and high quality can only be perceived by the customer through the design of the pot and label and by some previous information it might have received. Moreover, as Berkowitz researched, the shapes and images that have a more natural looking are associated with products that are fresher, taste better and have a better texture, and are ultimately more preferred by customers. At the same time, he found that aesthetic appealingness of the product, defined by bloch (10) as the ability to evoke positive beliefs, positive emotions and sympathetic with consumers aesthetic tastes, and by Crilly (11) as the sensation that results from the perception of attractiveness (or unattractiveness) in products was not of any specific interest to food products customers. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Yes Please! Foods Company, products and market The trigger for the writing of this thesis has been evaluation of the influence that the design of the Yes Please! Foods soup product packaging may be having in its market performance. Yes Please Foods is Germany based company that entered the chilled organic convenience food German market in 2007. Although belonging to the generally mature food industry, both the organic and convenience sub segments have been growing at an average rate of 12% in the period 2003-2008 in Germany (15). Yes please foods can be considered to be positioned in the Premium priced range of offers within the segment as its Price its on average 33% more expensive than that of the competitors. The company started its operations in the Berlin area and has been enjoying a high growth rate in volumes sold ever since (the actual numbers can not be disclosed in this paper as they are covered by a confidential disclosure agreement). The company is currently planning to expand its operations throughout Germany and is about to close its first round of external financing. Based on the information provided by the company, it is know that the customer profile of this kind of products is that of mid to high educated people, working full time, with above average income and health conscious. It is inferred from the information provided by the company that the product is intended to fulfill the need of high quality healthy food that can be prepared and ready to serve within a short period time frame. The motto of the company portrays this positioning of healthy convenient to prepare food for customers that do not want to spend time in the kitchen as good food for busy people The design of the pot, as explained by the company owner and general manager, Gemma Michalski, was the central part of their strategy to build a company identity and resulted in one of the biggest expenditures incurred during the initial company launching. The design was commissioned to Willimas Myurray Hamm from London which used the artwork of Berlin based illustrator Martin Haake. As explained by Ms Michalski, they were specifically chosen to perform the design task because of their previous record of award winning product designs that resulted in highly successful products in the market. (16) 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Use of conjoint analysis to elicit the importance of attributes in the eyes of the costumers The first part of the field study I am going to conduct has been designed to measure a the potential correlation between price and design in the final willingness to pay expressed by respondents. Also I shall use the results to mesure the relative importance of each, for the whole of respondents and for potential segments I shall identify within the sample of respondents. The technique used, an empirical marketing research using conjoint analysis, was first introduced as an effective marketing tool during 1970s and has been validated as an effective means to identify the most relevant features of product, its key design attributes, and the degree of importance that customers attach to them. (17) The usefulness of the tool is extended by the ability to sort the answers from respondents to some specific criteria which allow eliciting the kind of different features preferred by different segments of consumers within the same market. At the heart of the technique, consumers are asked to rate as per their own preferences a number of different product prototypes that are embedding different features and levels of features. By doing so, the customer is making choices and trade-offs from those multi attribute alternatives based on the overall perceived utility or value of the product under evaluation. The statistical treatment of the data, using a multiple regression model, allows quantifying how much each of the single attributes is affecting the overall value of the entangled set of properties, as it is assumed that consumers have an implicit utility value for every single one of them. The first part of the technique is normally a consumer attitude survey were the general attitudes of the consumer towards the product are collected. One of the main outcomes of this part of the research is to determine which features of the product are relevant for the consumers. The aim of this first part is typically to find out why the products are purchased, which use they make of them and their attitudes toward them. Once the information is collected allows the design teams to elicit which features of the product seem to be more relevant for the customers and allows to potentially determine needs that still unresolved or problems existing with current products in the market. In this thesis I have overcome this phase since this part of the research is aimed at determining which physical features of the product are relevant, whether the focus of this thesis is aimed to the soft values attached to physical appearance. Thus, by assuming that the current most important features of the product for the target customer segment are actually satisfied by all products in the study, I have been able to focus any significance preference in the actual aesthetic value of the product and its potential relationship with the price they would be willing to pay. In order to communicate to respondents that all products evaluated had exactly the same features and were only differing in design and price, the following statement was introducing the questionnaire: The products you are going to see are all soup products. They contain just natural organic ingredients without any conservatives and must be kept in the fridge. The portions are all 500ml Generally, The second part of the conjoint process uses the information gathered to determine the whole set of attributes that define all of the existing products in a market and introduces new ones to test their acceptance by consumers. Also, different levels for each attribute are defined to obtain a meaningful representation of the different ranges within each attribute that are or could be available in the market. In order for the research to be significant, prototypes having different combinations of levels of all attributes have to be created to be ranked in preference by consumers. Typically, and due to the large number of possible permutations of attributes that can be created, a smaller sample is chosen to facilitate the consumer research study. It has been shown that eliminating combinations through an experimental design called orthogonal arrays or through judgment (those that are not possible physically i.e. by cost or conceptually i.e. by design), has no significant effect on the final outcome of the study (18) Since the research to be conducted for this thesis is aimed at identifying any preferred designs for a soup product and potentially monetary value attached to specific product appearances, I have chosen to study two sets of attributes, design comprised by the three levels, picture of natural ingredient, artistic draw and no draw and the attribute price, also with three different levels: â‚ ¬ 1,99, â‚ ¬ 2,49 and â‚ ¬ 2,99. Due to the small number of total possible combinations (32), the empirical survey shall ask respondents to evaluate all possible combinations. The rationale for choosing these type of designs has been based on previous literature on shape and images in food products (Berkowitz) and the need for the actual inclusion of the design of the Yes Please Food product to test its hypothesized perceived value on the design. The third design included no draw has been arbitrarily selected hypothesizing it to be a representative sample of an unaesthetic design. The three price level selected have been chosen on the basis of actual prices of products in the market for the picture of natural ingredient (â‚ ¬2,49) and artistic draw (â‚ ¬2,99) designs, while the third level price has been arbitrarily selected to represent a low price level within that attribute. The third part of the procedure gathers a meaningful sample of the product consumers and asks them to rank the different prototypes (combinations of the different levels of the selected attributes) based on their preferences. The aim of this part is to gather the structure of consumers preferences for different product features. In this part is important to define the question to be asked properly so it collects the opinion on consumers about the perceived value they attach to each specific product proposition. In my research I have chosen the sentence from 1-7 how likely would you be to buy this product at the stated price. One of the benefits of conjoint analysis is that it is able to achieve statistical significance on the results with a relative small sample of respondents. The aim of this research will be to achieve at least 33 respondents in order to be able to make some inferences about the direction of the proportional influence that design has in the final monetary value of the proposed prototype, being that either positive or negative. One of the limitations of my study shall be that the random sample of respondents to the questionnaire shall only be validated as actual consumers of soup products by one of the questions in the demographic profile, do you like soup? that is embedding three possible answers: no, sometimes is ok and love it. It shall be assumed that a positive answer to this question (all possible answers but no) allow to make inferences about their potentiality to be consumers of the product. That limitation is affecting jus this part of the study were the research is trying to elucidate whether design has a relationship with willingness to pay. For the second part where it will be researched the consumers perceptions about intangible attributes of the design, it will be assumed that cultural context and general profile of the respondents is similar to that of the consumers of fresh soups as explained before in the Yes Please Foods product and market chapter of this thesis. A segmentation of the respondents by any kind of useful criteria like demographics, type of usage, attitude towards the products etc will also allow to identify the preferred attributes for each type of customer segment. The final part is the statistical treatment of the results that tries to identify which attributes are preferred by consumers and which are considered to be of more relative importance to them, and thus to the final value of the product proposition. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Experiment 7.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Objectives The objectives of the experiments executed were designed to validate and refute previous research about the influence that design have in the purchase decision making process and to elicit specific findings about the design of the soup product of the sponsor company Yes Please! Foods. In the first experiment, the objective is to validate whether a series of qualitative attributes about the product can be inferred from the customer just by looking at the design, specifically the respondents are required to rate each of the three designs as per their perception on how they consider them to be healthy, fresh, of high quality, different and beautiful. One of the objectives of this part of the experiment is to validate the hypothesis that the design of the pot of the Yes Please! Foods soup product has is somehow original that can be clearly differentiated from that of the competitors and that is considered to be an aesthetically pleasant design. Another objective of this part of the research is to validate previous research like that of Berkowitz (9), Bloch (10) and Trueman (6) which asserted that in mature markets, product form is one way to gain consumer notice and achieve a clear product differentiation. By assessing the responses about the attributes quality, freshness and Healthiness, it is pursued to validate the research of Bloch (10) and Nusssbaum (?), which stated that exterior appearance of a product is an important channel to communicate information to consumers, that Product form allows to generate inferences regarding other product attributes. Also this experiment will help to validate the research from Berlkowtiz () which found that natural shapes displayed in the packaging of food products help consumers to make assumptions about the product as being more fresh healthy and of higher quality. Finally I intend to validate the research of Trueman (6) which found that products that are considered to have a good design (which I shall relate to the weight of the responses on the attribute beautiful) are considered to be of superior quality, by checking whether products to be considered beautiful on my research are also considered to be of high quality. The inferences that I will try to make with the results of the second part of the research, a conjoint analysis of 9 different prototypes which result from the combination of three different design styles and three different sets of prices, will be dependent upon the results of the first part. If during the first experiment I am able to proof that some of the three designs are considered to be significantly more beautiful than the others, I shall be able to validate with the results of the second experiment are aligned with the results found by Bloch. Kotler and Nussbaum when they found that given two identical products in terms of features and price, the one with the most beautiful design is preferred by respodents. At the same time I shall try to validate whether a product considered to be more beautiful can command a higher willingness to pay, which is stated in the survey designed as the likeliness to buy the shown product. If that is proven to be the case, I will try to identify the reasons why those customers would be willing to spend more in such product by relating it to their perceptions on the other attributes of the same product, either being the subset of attributes regarding product utility, (higher quality, more natural or more healthy) , the subset of aesthetic attributes (more beautiful, more different) or both. Finally I shall use the results of the second experiment to validate the research of Berkowitz which found that products with natural shapes tend to be considered more natural, and healthy. I shall do this by specifically analyzing the results of one of the chosen designs which portrays a picture of a natural tomato on the label. Also I shall try to refute the findings of the same author which found in previous research that attractive designs where not of any specific interest to consumers in terms of aesthetic appeal. 7.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Methodology 7.2.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sample The survey will be send to all recipients of the address domain [emailprotected], for which I expect a random sample of respondents within the employees of ESMT and all recipients of address [emailprotected], for which I expect a random sample of ESMT MBA 2009 students I believe this sample shall be repre Analysis of Product Packaging Design Analysis of Product Packaging Design ABSTRACT 1 Introduction Product design and specifically product shape and looks have long been identified as factors that may contribute to product value and new product success. Design of products evokes both cognitive and affective responses in the mind of the observers and this can be used to tailor a more attractive product proposition. While a lot of excellent research has been conducted on the positive effect that industrial design can have on the perceptions of customers about the product functionality, embedding issues like utility, safety and comfort, the importance of the perceived value by a customer on judgements about product elegance and social significance have not been extensively studied until recently. reference In this thesis I am trying to test whether Yes please soup pot design not only communicates to the potential customer a series of qualitative attributes about its content, i.e. quality and healthiness, but also triggers positive emotional responses on the perceived beauty and difference with similar products and that can be leveraged by the company to command a price premium 2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCT DESIGN New product development processes are the subset of standardized procedures that companies use to manage the new product project phases that lead to the launch of new products in the market. The objective of these procedures is to implement a systematized approach to ensure the potential of new projects based on their financial and development feasibility while maximizing the value of new products as perceived by its target customers. 2.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What is industrial design Industrial design is the set of activities within new product development processes that deal with optimizing the functionality and appearance of a product to maximize its value for both consumer and manufacturer (1). The ultimate objective of a product design is thus to align the set of attributes embedded within the product with the target customer preferences and to implement them in a way that they are actually perceived and valued by them. In order to achieve a successful design and implementation, companies engage in direct market research to elicit the target customer segment implicit and explicit needs (the voice of the customer) and align those with product attributes, using techniques such as Quality Function Deployment (QFD) which systematically links the needs the product must satisfy with technical specifications while also prioritizing them based on the level of importance to customers. At the same time, the identification of the customer segment preferences and the mapping of those within a perceptual map, comparing how well different products in the market fulfill the identified needs, allow for the design of specific product propositions that no other product does and thus achieving a unique positioning and successful product differentiation. The dimension of product design has been recognized by several authors (Cooper, Trueman) as being critical to the ultimate success of the launch of new products. The focus of design development is centered around the efficient implementation of the product features, ergonomics and quality form to maximize its utility to users, while at the same time embedding it with a pleasant appearance that is able to communicate positive attributes that contribute to the ultimate value proposition. (3) (4) Trueman: Design has the facility to improve product reliability and quality standards thereby raising the perceived value of goods and services in the eyes of the customer, allowing companies to increase profit margins As Trueman estates (6), A value proposition must successfully integrate a product within its own environment by combining and merging coherently the different attributes, aesthetics, price and quality so that they are aligned similarly and reinforce each other. Although mistaken by artists that only worry about the visual appearece of a product, or styling, successful industrial designers are able dig into such fields as engineering, Materials science, manufacturing, and marketing to embed new products with a set of attributes directly influencing new product success in the market.(2) (3) (4) (5) (6). Ultimately, the design of an object is the specific configuration of elements, materials and components that give its particular attributes of function, shape etc. and determine how it is to be made and used. (13) By embedding the design dimension into the processes, companies ensure that the final value proposition is increased as it contributes to the perceived value by the customer. A successful design increase the perceived quality of a product, ensures that is aligned with market and regulatory standards and thus increase the odds to satisfy customer expectations. A consistent Design strategy in new product development processes also contributes to build a product and company image and helps to pull together the dimensions of company identity with branding and promotion (Trueman). Also, by taking the design dimensions early on the NPD projects, companies can reduce the final time to market and product costs by simplifying the manufacturing processes and reduce the final costs of fabrication. 2.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The contribution of Industrial design in the final product value proposition There are many design attributes that can be embedded into new products, roughly separated within ergonomics and aesthetics, being the former more related to the experience of using the product, while the latter is focused into the experience of seeing the product. Aestethics, embedding all product parameters that determine the way the product look, are a an essential element of the purchasing process since customers base their preference on products by the subjective perceptions elicited by the product on the potential benefits it can provide.(7) In that line, the Lens model first introduced by Brunswick (?), states that the potential customer makes a mental bundle of the information it receives about the product and from there triggers a set of perceptions that will ultimately lead to a set of preferences and choices. The ways a specific design can lead to a positive perception and thus to a choice of preference vary and are entangled with other sources of information the customer receives and which align the propostion to the customer already decided preferences. The perceptions that a product can evoke are immediately related to past information received and allow the person for example to relate it to a certain corporate and brand identity, a process that many companies have followed by implementing a sustained design strategy on their products. Brand identity allows to ultimately link the products observed to perceptions on company values and overall level of attributes of the products and has been used as means of effective product differentiation. (9) (10). In different industries, companies tend to emphasize different attributes in their communication to be aligned with their specific company positioning and customers most importance preferences, like tastiness and safety in the food industry and reliability and environment friendliness in the car industry. The physical form of a product has been researched to have an important impact in the way customers judge it and has ultimately a strong correlation effect with the final product success in the market (). As Bloch (10) states the physical form or design of a product is an unquestioned determinant of its marketplace success. A good design attracts consumers to a product, communicates to them, and adds value to the product by increasing the quality of the usage experiences associated with it. 2.3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Which financial benefits can it provide Companies with an effective industrial design strategy achieve better perfoming products in the market in terms of several financial indicators as return on assets, return on sales and higher profitability, which can be linked to both the design differentiation factor as stated previously by Porter in the famous book Competitve strategy (1980) and to reduced costs due to more efficient use of materials and manufacturing processes. (14) Also, the study of Roy (13) in 1993 on 221 small and medium sized UK manufacturers which received a government subsidy to promote the active use of industrial design in the development of new or improved products showed that 60% of all projects and 90% of the implemented ones were commercially successful and profitable with payback periods averaging under 15months, which show that the effective strategic approach to include design in new product development processes can be implemented in firms of different sizes. Bloch in his research also collected previous studies that linked new product financial success factors with the inclusion of design as an inherent part of their NPD processes. He identified in a survey of senior marketing managers that, design was mentioned as the most important determinant of new product performatice by 60% of respondents by only 17% considered Price most important . Also and based on the work of cooper on the analysis of the performance of 203 new products identified that product design was the most important determinant of sales success . Most interestingly for the case of Yes Please foods product, which as will be explained later chose specifically a designer for the pot based on his previous award winning record, Some research has identified that the receipt of design awards is positively associated with profit margins above average and sales growth (Goodrich 1994; Roy 1994). 3.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The purchasing process and the visual effect of a product design 3.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  XXXXXXXXXXXXX The ultimate act of purchasing occurs as a result of a complex mental process where the information received is analyzed and weighted as per to measure to which extend the product satisfies the needs of the customer. A general categorization of customer needs has been frequently compared with the Maslow hierarchy of needs which states that once most basic requirements have been satisfied by a product, the emphasis on a customer shifts to satisfy other more intangible needs related to symbolic and aesthetic attributes. As a result of this the purchasing process is triggered by the fulfillment of the requirements for the intended use of the product but also by the satisfaction of more intangible needs like status, elegance or social significance. In order to understand the ultimate behavioral response of a customer triggered by the visual appearance of a product it is critical to assess the cognitive and emotional processes that result from the act of observing the item under evaluation. The cognitive processes take place when a customer uses his visual senses to observe the product and perceives certain information which mentally organizes to make some judgments about its attributes and which are influenced by previous visual references or similar product stereotypes, which suggest familiar usages of the product and ultimately help the observer to interpret the signals received. It has been described a number of different approaches on how to categorize the judgments that a customer does based on the perception of a product observation. Crilly (?) has summarized all previous approaches and identifies a total of three main categories of cognitive responses to product appearance: Aesthetic, Semantic and Symbolic. From those three, the semantic interpretation, the mental inferences that an observer does to judge whether a product is capable of performing the tasks for what is intended for, is the only processes where the tangible attributes of the product are assessed. During this process the practical qualities of a product like function, performance and efficiency are analyzed and mentally compared with other references to judge the utility a product will offer to the observer. In this category I include the information that is gathered by the customer when obtaining information from reading the label and which is directly processed to identify the physical attributes of the product. The emotional responses following this cognitive process are then aligned to assess the instrumental utility of the product which ultimately lead to satisfaction, when fulfilling the expected requirements, and dissatisfaction when the product is not fulfilling them. The two other described cognitive processes are used to identify intangible attributes of the product that may or may not be perceived as valuable for the customer depending on a number of different factors, like current positioning within the Maslow hierarchy of needs, consumers cultural context and personal characteristics. The symbolic association is the cognitive response that attaches to the product some socially determined symbolic meaning. During this process, as series of values are realized to be attached to the product and assumes that others must also associate them with it. As Crilly states This culturally agreed meaning will allow the customer project a desirable image to others, express social status or communicate its personal characteristics through it. Examples of intangible values that can be associated to the product through symbolic meaning are exclusivity as the identification with certain economic status and environmentally consciousness. Finally the aesthetic impression comprises all cognitive responses that are directed towards a perceived judgment of elegance and beautifulness. Even if still there is no unanimous consensus on what comprises beautiful objects, the perception of aesthetic attraction triggers positive emotional thoughts on the customer and contribute to attaching value to the product observed. 3.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Aesthetics Dimension As researched by several authors (?) the definition of what makes an item beautiful or aesthetically pleasant is not conclusive. It has been described though that cultural and social forces have an influence in the preferences for specific forms. Specifically, it has been described that a specific culture values and preferences may influence the acceptance of a particular style. Also seems to be proven that cultural norms may overwhelm an individual inner preferences and help shape its perceptions towards the acceptance of a specific design form. (blaich, Bloch) Thus, and although cross cultural differences stay in the way of having an unified view of what can be considered as aesthetically pleasant, the current era of advanced information technology is working towards unifying the concepts that influence the perceptions of the soft values within a product design and thus working towards a more globalized and uniform set of criteria. The cognitive processes described triggered upon the observation of a product lead to a series of emotional responses that will ultimately lead to the final decision on the purchasing process, being the most important the attraction or disgust towards the aesthetics, the satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the fulfillment by the product of instrumental requirements for its use, the surprise or indifference based on the perceived product novelty and the admiration or indignation towards social significance. 4.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  DESIGN IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY In the food industry, Tauber (8), collected through extensive market studies an exhaustive set of problems related to food products. By doing so, he was trying to identify potential opportunities for new products while also providing with a thorough analysis of the basic needs to be fulfilled by this kind of products. From that list it can be identified a series of attributes that the product under study is fulfilling and thus achieving a specific positioning. Some of them, like low calorie content, convenience of transport and preparation and adequacy of the serving size are efficiently communicated through the information contained in the label. Others like healthy, tasty, and high quality can only be perceived by the customer through the design of the pot and label and by some previous information it might have received. Moreover, as Berkowitz researched, the shapes and images that have a more natural looking are associated with products that are fresher, taste better and have a better texture, and are ultimately more preferred by customers. At the same time, he found that aesthetic appealingness of the product, defined by bloch (10) as the ability to evoke positive beliefs, positive emotions and sympathetic with consumers aesthetic tastes, and by Crilly (11) as the sensation that results from the perception of attractiveness (or unattractiveness) in products was not of any specific interest to food products customers. 5.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Yes Please! Foods Company, products and market The trigger for the writing of this thesis has been evaluation of the influence that the design of the Yes Please! Foods soup product packaging may be having in its market performance. Yes Please Foods is Germany based company that entered the chilled organic convenience food German market in 2007. Although belonging to the generally mature food industry, both the organic and convenience sub segments have been growing at an average rate of 12% in the period 2003-2008 in Germany (15). Yes please foods can be considered to be positioned in the Premium priced range of offers within the segment as its Price its on average 33% more expensive than that of the competitors. The company started its operations in the Berlin area and has been enjoying a high growth rate in volumes sold ever since (the actual numbers can not be disclosed in this paper as they are covered by a confidential disclosure agreement). The company is currently planning to expand its operations throughout Germany and is about to close its first round of external financing. Based on the information provided by the company, it is know that the customer profile of this kind of products is that of mid to high educated people, working full time, with above average income and health conscious. It is inferred from the information provided by the company that the product is intended to fulfill the need of high quality healthy food that can be prepared and ready to serve within a short period time frame. The motto of the company portrays this positioning of healthy convenient to prepare food for customers that do not want to spend time in the kitchen as good food for busy people The design of the pot, as explained by the company owner and general manager, Gemma Michalski, was the central part of their strategy to build a company identity and resulted in one of the biggest expenditures incurred during the initial company launching. The design was commissioned to Willimas Myurray Hamm from London which used the artwork of Berlin based illustrator Martin Haake. As explained by Ms Michalski, they were specifically chosen to perform the design task because of their previous record of award winning product designs that resulted in highly successful products in the market. (16) 6.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Use of conjoint analysis to elicit the importance of attributes in the eyes of the costumers The first part of the field study I am going to conduct has been designed to measure a the potential correlation between price and design in the final willingness to pay expressed by respondents. Also I shall use the results to mesure the relative importance of each, for the whole of respondents and for potential segments I shall identify within the sample of respondents. The technique used, an empirical marketing research using conjoint analysis, was first introduced as an effective marketing tool during 1970s and has been validated as an effective means to identify the most relevant features of product, its key design attributes, and the degree of importance that customers attach to them. (17) The usefulness of the tool is extended by the ability to sort the answers from respondents to some specific criteria which allow eliciting the kind of different features preferred by different segments of consumers within the same market. At the heart of the technique, consumers are asked to rate as per their own preferences a number of different product prototypes that are embedding different features and levels of features. By doing so, the customer is making choices and trade-offs from those multi attribute alternatives based on the overall perceived utility or value of the product under evaluation. The statistical treatment of the data, using a multiple regression model, allows quantifying how much each of the single attributes is affecting the overall value of the entangled set of properties, as it is assumed that consumers have an implicit utility value for every single one of them. The first part of the technique is normally a consumer attitude survey were the general attitudes of the consumer towards the product are collected. One of the main outcomes of this part of the research is to determine which features of the product are relevant for the consumers. The aim of this first part is typically to find out why the products are purchased, which use they make of them and their attitudes toward them. Once the information is collected allows the design teams to elicit which features of the product seem to be more relevant for the customers and allows to potentially determine needs that still unresolved or problems existing with current products in the market. In this thesis I have overcome this phase since this part of the research is aimed at determining which physical features of the product are relevant, whether the focus of this thesis is aimed to the soft values attached to physical appearance. Thus, by assuming that the current most important features of the product for the target customer segment are actually satisfied by all products in the study, I have been able to focus any significance preference in the actual aesthetic value of the product and its potential relationship with the price they would be willing to pay. In order to communicate to respondents that all products evaluated had exactly the same features and were only differing in design and price, the following statement was introducing the questionnaire: The products you are going to see are all soup products. They contain just natural organic ingredients without any conservatives and must be kept in the fridge. The portions are all 500ml Generally, The second part of the conjoint process uses the information gathered to determine the whole set of attributes that define all of the existing products in a market and introduces new ones to test their acceptance by consumers. Also, different levels for each attribute are defined to obtain a meaningful representation of the different ranges within each attribute that are or could be available in the market. In order for the research to be significant, prototypes having different combinations of levels of all attributes have to be created to be ranked in preference by consumers. Typically, and due to the large number of possible permutations of attributes that can be created, a smaller sample is chosen to facilitate the consumer research study. It has been shown that eliminating combinations through an experimental design called orthogonal arrays or through judgment (those that are not possible physically i.e. by cost or conceptually i.e. by design), has no significant effect on the final outcome of the study (18) Since the research to be conducted for this thesis is aimed at identifying any preferred designs for a soup product and potentially monetary value attached to specific product appearances, I have chosen to study two sets of attributes, design comprised by the three levels, picture of natural ingredient, artistic draw and no draw and the attribute price, also with three different levels: â‚ ¬ 1,99, â‚ ¬ 2,49 and â‚ ¬ 2,99. Due to the small number of total possible combinations (32), the empirical survey shall ask respondents to evaluate all possible combinations. The rationale for choosing these type of designs has been based on previous literature on shape and images in food products (Berkowitz) and the need for the actual inclusion of the design of the Yes Please Food product to test its hypothesized perceived value on the design. The third design included no draw has been arbitrarily selected hypothesizing it to be a representative sample of an unaesthetic design. The three price level selected have been chosen on the basis of actual prices of products in the market for the picture of natural ingredient (â‚ ¬2,49) and artistic draw (â‚ ¬2,99) designs, while the third level price has been arbitrarily selected to represent a low price level within that attribute. The third part of the procedure gathers a meaningful sample of the product consumers and asks them to rank the different prototypes (combinations of the different levels of the selected attributes) based on their preferences. The aim of this part is to gather the structure of consumers preferences for different product features. In this part is important to define the question to be asked properly so it collects the opinion on consumers about the perceived value they attach to each specific product proposition. In my research I have chosen the sentence from 1-7 how likely would you be to buy this product at the stated price. One of the benefits of conjoint analysis is that it is able to achieve statistical significance on the results with a relative small sample of respondents. The aim of this research will be to achieve at least 33 respondents in order to be able to make some inferences about the direction of the proportional influence that design has in the final monetary value of the proposed prototype, being that either positive or negative. One of the limitations of my study shall be that the random sample of respondents to the questionnaire shall only be validated as actual consumers of soup products by one of the questions in the demographic profile, do you like soup? that is embedding three possible answers: no, sometimes is ok and love it. It shall be assumed that a positive answer to this question (all possible answers but no) allow to make inferences about their potentiality to be consumers of the product. That limitation is affecting jus this part of the study were the research is trying to elucidate whether design has a relationship with willingness to pay. For the second part where it will be researched the consumers perceptions about intangible attributes of the design, it will be assumed that cultural context and general profile of the respondents is similar to that of the consumers of fresh soups as explained before in the Yes Please Foods product and market chapter of this thesis. A segmentation of the respondents by any kind of useful criteria like demographics, type of usage, attitude towards the products etc will also allow to identify the preferred attributes for each type of customer segment. The final part is the statistical treatment of the results that tries to identify which attributes are preferred by consumers and which are considered to be of more relative importance to them, and thus to the final value of the product proposition. 7.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Experiment 7.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Objectives The objectives of the experiments executed were designed to validate and refute previous research about the influence that design have in the purchase decision making process and to elicit specific findings about the design of the soup product of the sponsor company Yes Please! Foods. In the first experiment, the objective is to validate whether a series of qualitative attributes about the product can be inferred from the customer just by looking at the design, specifically the respondents are required to rate each of the three designs as per their perception on how they consider them to be healthy, fresh, of high quality, different and beautiful. One of the objectives of this part of the experiment is to validate the hypothesis that the design of the pot of the Yes Please! Foods soup product has is somehow original that can be clearly differentiated from that of the competitors and that is considered to be an aesthetically pleasant design. Another objective of this part of the research is to validate previous research like that of Berkowitz (9), Bloch (10) and Trueman (6) which asserted that in mature markets, product form is one way to gain consumer notice and achieve a clear product differentiation. By assessing the responses about the attributes quality, freshness and Healthiness, it is pursued to validate the research of Bloch (10) and Nusssbaum (?), which stated that exterior appearance of a product is an important channel to communicate information to consumers, that Product form allows to generate inferences regarding other product attributes. Also this experiment will help to validate the research from Berlkowtiz () which found that natural shapes displayed in the packaging of food products help consumers to make assumptions about the product as being more fresh healthy and of higher quality. Finally I intend to validate the research of Trueman (6) which found that products that are considered to have a good design (which I shall relate to the weight of the responses on the attribute beautiful) are considered to be of superior quality, by checking whether products to be considered beautiful on my research are also considered to be of high quality. The inferences that I will try to make with the results of the second part of the research, a conjoint analysis of 9 different prototypes which result from the combination of three different design styles and three different sets of prices, will be dependent upon the results of the first part. If during the first experiment I am able to proof that some of the three designs are considered to be significantly more beautiful than the others, I shall be able to validate with the results of the second experiment are aligned with the results found by Bloch. Kotler and Nussbaum when they found that given two identical products in terms of features and price, the one with the most beautiful design is preferred by respodents. At the same time I shall try to validate whether a product considered to be more beautiful can command a higher willingness to pay, which is stated in the survey designed as the likeliness to buy the shown product. If that is proven to be the case, I will try to identify the reasons why those customers would be willing to spend more in such product by relating it to their perceptions on the other attributes of the same product, either being the subset of attributes regarding product utility, (higher quality, more natural or more healthy) , the subset of aesthetic attributes (more beautiful, more different) or both. Finally I shall use the results of the second experiment to validate the research of Berkowitz which found that products with natural shapes tend to be considered more natural, and healthy. I shall do this by specifically analyzing the results of one of the chosen designs which portrays a picture of a natural tomato on the label. Also I shall try to refute the findings of the same author which found in previous research that attractive designs where not of any specific interest to consumers in terms of aesthetic appeal. 7.2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Methodology 7.2.1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sample The survey will be send to all recipients of the address domain [emailprotected], for which I expect a random sample of respondents within the employees of ESMT and all recipients of address [emailprotected], for which I expect a random sample of ESMT MBA 2009 students I believe this sample shall be repre