Benefits of Gaming

Benefits of Gaming â€Å"You are wasting our time in front of those computers, throwing away our life as we are not getting anything back.† As I reach for the power button of my laptop, I always remember this statement from my parents. This belief, â€Å"Time is precious, it need not to be spent on something that is so wasteful like video games,† always seems to have place that is very special place in my parents’ eyes and the image of me turning on a laptop represents as the threat to them. Soon, I start to raise questions about the reasons behind these negative attitudes towards gaming. What I found, is rather nerve wracking. Because of their long complicated history associated with traditional class barriers and problems arising in our society, video games have become a stereotype in a way that is unconsciously accepted by people in every culture, including my parents. To this day, gamers are still placed at the bottom of the ladder being the worthless ones, receiving labels that falsely describe who they are. However, as our society moves forward, video games haven proven to be outweighed any criticisms out there. With new play styles being adopted over the years, video games have taught individual players the benefits of dealing with frustration and anxiety in adaptive ways, equipped them with sharper minds and creativity, motivated them to work for a better goal, while at the same time, led an industry that significantly impacted our economy in a positive way. Games were originally created with a purpose for a world in which any players could be free to become what he/she wants through individual effort. They were unlike any real world situations as in here, success was measured purely on mental talent. As expected, this new type of entertainment rapidly gained popularity all over the world. The poor class, the underrepresented people, succeeding at video game received admiration which was not easily obtainable outside of the gaming world (Meadows). For those who felt like they are left out from the community, stuck where they were because of social barriers, video games allowed them to unite under one domain as they strived to be more than their reality allowed. Utilizing this unique characteristic of video games, arcades were created to embrace this cracking of social status, making gaming more accessible for anyone. A local arcade could attract a diverse range of people, in age and race. As an 18-years-old gamer girl was quoted in an interview with Newsweek at a local arcade: â€Å"Look at all these people together—blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, this is probably the one place in Boston where there are not hassles about race.† However, this emerging diversity soon faced the suspicious eyes of the public as arcades got more and more popular in the media. (Langway) As many outsiders saw, arcades or video games in general were mediums attracting a complex mix of people, threating the traditional barriers. It was followed then by a series of years when the public tried to blame a specific group of people. Soon, these framing youth caused by these conservative thoughts would grow into a widely accepted stereotype that disc riminated against gamers. Gary M. Grobman, a vice president from the Special Projects, White Hat Communications defines â€Å"a â€Å"stereotype† as a generalization about a group of people within a larger community. We resort to stereotype when we cannot see the whole picture of problems in our society (Grobman). We then allow ourselves to blame gamers all that are wrong. What is involved in the stereotype of gamer? What gender do you think gamers would be? What place will they usually stay? And lastly, how do they look? If you instantly think of an overweight teen male who spends most of his life in one room, soullessly looking at the computer or TV screen, then you are falling into the classic video game stereotype because this imaginary â€Å"logo† doesn’t apply to all of the gamers out there. My parents always yell at me for how â€Å"stupid† I am sitting in front of the computer and blame video games for the cause of my low scores at school. They even compare me to my brother who doesn’t have the hobby of playing games like I do. On an imaginary scale of â€Å"addiction† in their eyes, I am at the extreme side of horrific addiction while my brother is on the other end, heavenly purity. The true reason for my dropping scores at school, however, was different. When we moved to the US, the fears being in a foreign land as well as my English pronunciation hindered most of my motivation of schooling. And long with the home sick I was experiencing, ending up in front of the computer screen was the only refuge available as it was my only way of exiting the reality. In fact, video games were not the tools that lowered my score; rather, they were the only buddy that followed and stayed with me through my journey half way around the Earth. Unfortunately, this is not the only case of the stereotype. At school, if you go around and tell your friends that you are interested in video games, the answer you receive for sharing a hobby is: â€Å"Oh that is cool.† However, when being compared to athletic kids who are on the soccer team, the reactions are at a whole different level, ranging from â€Å"Wow, what team are you rooting for at this upcoming competition? to â€Å"You must be very good right?† Somehow, we have placed the athletic kids and the smart kids as the good and active ones while putting â€Å"gamer† kids at the lowest of the bar of not â€Å"cool.† Recently, Michael Atkison, former South Australian Attorney-General made a statement in a public campaign favoring the bill of a R18+ classification for video games that: â€Å"my family is more at risk by more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me† (Ramadge). The statement above can be dissected into two parts where the first part pointed out that gamers are threats for a politician’s family, while the second part stated that these threats posed by gamers are even more dangerous than motorcycle gangs. From a bias viewpoint, this statement was spoken by a politician who desperately tried to persuade people to go for his bill. More than that, from a another viewpoint, this 5 second segment of the speech made by that South Australian attorney was in many ways disproportional to the time that will in fact, be taken by scientists to confirm the certainty of the matter. According to PBS, scientist states no one has proven definite relationship between violence and video games. Despite all, what certain here is an answer which can confuse scientists â€Å"20-30 years† was stated within five seconds by a South Australian attorney. (Keim) In February 2010, Caroline Overington, an opinion writer of â€Å"The Australian†, an international and nation news company, wrote an article in which she proposed that â€Å"anyone over the age of 30 who spends any time deep in some sagging sofa, console in one hand, the other down the front of their pants, imagining themselves to be a combatant in some pretend city, is lame, they don’t participate in life in any meaningful way†, she also described gamers as ‘sadsacks’ and will â€Å"never get through an interview.† (Overington, 2010) This statement alone has revealed her inability to distinguish between gamers and lazy people who â€Å"don’t live life in a meaningful way.† She is an opinion writer who speaks her mind but doesn’t realize that such actions are not creditable without backed up documented sources. One of the well-known professional player in a game called â€Å"Leagues of Legend† named Voyboy recently released his biography involving a 2300 SAT score and the completion of International Baccalaureate program, an international high school degree . To this extent, the part of â€Å"never get through an interview† or â€Å"not living life in a meaningful way† would not be valid for applying to this case since Voyboy was accepted by competitive universities, but he refused in order to pursuit of his dream as a League of Legend professional player.(Voyboy) The fact is that gamers are not corrupted by video games. Not all of them are dangerous like motorcycle gangs or seem to be more violent than others. They play games because they are human beings with hobbies like everyone else. And as humans, they also share the same life experiences like many others. Bjergsen, a player from a League of Legend professional team called TSM shared his life story on Facebook which has many characteristic similar to what is happening in our society. He grew up with a past of being bullied; he struggled through schools and ended up dropping out. League of Legend was the refuge he usually hid in when coming home and surprisingly, it was also the path that took him out of bullying (Bjergsen). Sound familiar? With the recently title of Superbowl champion, Seattle must be familiar with the name Derrick Coleman. Growing up deaf at the age of three, he must have suffered many difficulties adapting to the schooling environment (Derrick Coleman). Much like Bjerg sen, both of them surpassed their limitations and groomed to be famous names in different fields of entertainment. With these examples being shown, it has been proven that the labels originally discriminated gamers are invalid since these players are not called â€Å"jobless ‘sadsacks’† anymore; instead they are earning an employee status with a consistence stipend for as long as they are living up to the audiences’ expectation. Gaming is like any other hobby; it always provides people unique ways of improving their potentials. Acknowledging this stereotype is a first step, the second one is learning to recognize these benefits of gaming. League of Legend is recently recognized as the most played online game in the world; it is hard to imagine that within five years the game has accumulated 32.5 million players (League of Legends). So what it make the game so popular? The game itself was based on team synergy in which there are five roles in a team (healer, magical damage carrier, tanker, and physical damage carrier) (League of Legends), each with their own unique skill sets, advantages and drawbacks. All aim for one goal: victory. Because the matching system was random, players could not always get the role they were strong at, forcing them to switch among the roles to fit the team’s need. This unique characteristic not only refreshes the game setting, attracting players, but it also promotes the idea of flexibility and efficiency, teaching players the benefits of dealing with frustration and anxiety in adaptive ways, as researchers at Radboud University Nijmegen said (Granic, Adam, Rutger) Along with the practice of control your anxiety and temper, video games can also possess the potential of enhancing players’ creativity. At grade 7, my close friend and I started playing a game called â€Å"Crossfire† for five hours on the weekends, whenever we had the chance to go out. Every week, we would challenge a couple of kids from our school to play against us with the prize being the fun we all received. These little challenges soon became an all-out, formal invitation only, series of matches that involved around sixteen participants per week. My friends and I were twelve years old back then, but we had already worked on the job of managing the tournaments, setting up the times, and planning out places where we could meet. Together we were able to maintain the tournament’s schedule of one match per week and track all the score in every match to ensure the fairness that we had promised in our invitation. Compared to what an ordinary 5th-7th grader would do, was I being unproductive with my time or anti-social as many would say? With the undeniable success of our tournament, this word could hardly be used to describe any of us who had put much of our passion to this tournament. And certainly, we are not wasting our time either, as people say. In fact, our tournament was the evidence that gaming is not only not wasteful, it also enhances gamers’ creativity. I read in the news a week ago that in 2008 players of a game called Foldit helped researchers to identify the crystal structure for a monkey virus related to AIDS (Cooper 2010). This problem had taken researchers over ten years, yet, with the creative minds used by these players, the solutions were found three weeks after the launch date of Foldit. In summary, not all video games promote the sense of creativity, however, the stereotype seems to generalize this field, making all games harmful to people. From this perspective, the claim: â€Å"Gamers are wasting their life† has proven to be inaccurate. Much like the competitive aspect of our little tournament, League of Legend has their own system which attracts players to work toward better divisions; however, the competitive atmosphere of this game is more intense compared to ours, as winning here means the difference in the level of admiration. According to Dweck and her colleagues, people who were raised within the environment where their traits meant more than their effort develop a belief that they are superior to others because of the characteristics passed on by their parents. On the other hand, people experiencing the environment based solely on effort establish a notion that success is something to be worked for, not given (Dweck). Believe it or not, these beliefs between both thoughts can lead to different outcomes when having to face the same problem. Given this information, League of Legend is placed in the â€Å"worked-for† environment. As described above, the game is set within the team based environment in which each team member is expected to perform well in order for everyone to get victory. This can be very stressful sometimes. In the virtual world, it doesn’t matter whether you are the president of the US or a drop-out high school student; if you can prove your abilities on the field, then you are better than the rest of the pack. However, if you cannot do so accordingly, then others in the team will citizen you for the loss. The problems are that players can’t constantly perform well in every match they participate. But, if they are exposed to the â€Å"worked- for† success environment, then players are more than likely to remain open to those criticism (Dweck). Unfortunately, there are not any proven relations between persistence in video games and real-world situations; however, the idea can spark the further examination into those effects that video games are bringing. As Charlie Brooker, an editor of The Sydney Morning Herald once said: â€Å"If you don’t play games, you’re not just missing out; you’re ignoring the most rapidly evolving creative medium in history.† (Brooker) Unlike their ancestor games like Mario and Pac Man of 10 to 20 years ago, modern video games have expanded through many regions on our planet, giving players more connections than ever before. Contrary to the stereotype which describes gamers as these isolated creatures who spend most of the time by themselves, a lot of players actually play with their friends and family members. In games like Farmville, a Facebook game, neighbors are crucial to your success at the farm as they are the key of improvement. In this game that Zynga created, the object is to expand the scale of your farm, from a paddle field to an animal based farm, however, because this game is created on a social network medium, the developer placed a big emphasis on the connections p eople have. As the result, in order to strive for better items to improve their farms, players need to make the decisions to trust good neighbors, the active ones, as well as reject the inactive ones. Given these diverse social interactions, players are able to acquire and practice these social skills in a little to no risk involved environment, making Farmville a candidate for social benefits that video games provide. Moving away from the personal benefits that players get from playing video games, what can society get from getting rid of this stereotype, encouraging the growth of video games? Nowadays, about half of the US populations spend their time playing either computer or video games, or both, according to the Entertainment Software Association. In fact in the past 10 years, US video games sales have grown tripled to $7 billion (Glazer). Many people think that this growing industry would not affect them at all in anyway, however, based on the principle of economic: One person’s spending is another person’s income (Krugman), this growing industry can translate into many other field, proving people with many job. And as their income rises, people can have a more flexible plan for their budget which leads to an increase in consumer spending. These chain reactions can soon boost the whole economy as more and more money is being circled around. As for our country’s benefit, we are getting a huge amount of tax revenue generated from this growing industry. And with this money, our government can have a more flexible space to work with when implementing new bills or policies. A sport is an activity in which people compete with each other while abiding the rules. Football requires the corporation between men in a team. Similarly, League of Legend or DotA ask for a team of five people in order to win a battle. All team has their unsung heroes, the one who guide them to victory, a coach. And the most important thing, both fields are soaked with the tear of victory along with disappointment of the defeats. With all these shared characters and the mentioned advantages, can someday video games be recognized as a sport if played professionally? In conclusion, time is indeed very precious as many people know, however, we cannot disregard that the fact that time spent by gamer is also valuable. For those who aim for cultural benefits, eventually, with all these presented benefits to the participants, we might recognize video games as a sport, just as we once did with chess. On the other hand, those who would like to look more into the individual benefits, video games have proven their potentials to develop players mind, equipping them with a sharper reaction and better creativity.

Emily Brontës Wuthering Heights :: essays research papers

Chapter I But Mr. Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living. He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman †¦ Writing in his diary in 1801, Lockwood describes his first days as a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, an isolated manor in thinly-populated Yorkshire. Shortly after arriving at the Grange, he pays a visit to his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, a surly, dark man living in a manor called Wuthering Heights—"wuthering" being a local adjective used to describe the fierce and wild winds that blow during storms on the moors. During the visit, Heathcliff seems not to trust Lockwood, and leaves him alone in a room with a group of snarling dogs. Lockwood is saved from the hounds by a ruddy-cheeked housekeeper. When Heathcliff returns, Lockwood is angry, but eventually warms toward his taciturn host, and—though he hardly feels that he has been welcomed at Wuthering Heights—he volunteers to visit again the next day. Chapter II On a chilly afternoon not long after his first visit, Lockwood plans to lounge before the fire in his study, but he finds a servant dustily sweeping out the fireplace there, so instead he makes the four-mile walk to Wuthering Heights, arriving just as a light snow begins to fall. He knocks, but no one lets him in, and Joseph, an old servant who speaks with a thick Yorkshire accent, calls out from the barn that Heathcliff is not in the house. Eventually a rough-looking young man comes to let him in, and Lockwood goes into a sitting room where he finds a beautiful girl seated beside a fire. Lockwood assumes she is Heathcliff's wife. He tries to make conversation, but she responds rudely. When Heathcliff arrives, he corrects Lockwood: the young woman is his daughter-in-law. Lockwood then assumes that the young man who let him in must be Heathcliff's son. Heathcliff corrects him again. The young man, Hareton Earnshaw, is not his son, and the girl is the widow of Heathcliff's dead son. The snowfall becomes a blizzard, and when Lockwood is ready to leave, he is forced to ask for a guide back to Thrushcross Grange. No one will help him. He takes a lantern and says that he will find his own way, promising to return with the lantern in the morning. Joseph, seeing him make his way through the snow, assumes that he is stealing the lantern, and looses the dogs on him.

Official Document

Corporate clients across The Greater Toronto area are about to earn how to truly, â€Å"Impress with Empress. † The Empress Of Canada is a chartered vessel located in the Toronto Warburton, ideally suited to host up to 489 guests. The boat caters to its clients in hosting a variety of cruises that include: lunch/ dinner cruises, booze cruises, corporate gatherings, weddings, or special event cruises.However, The Empress of Canada has particularly run into difficulties at attracting the corporate clients into their business. Therefore, the current predicament is that The Empress of Canada is inefficiently able to target new and existing corporate clients into their business. Reaching and educating the corporate client on why they should choose The Empress of Canada over its competitors is essential to increasing the overall demand for their lunch/ dinner corporate cruises. Our solution is simple and effective.We will focus on Empress of Canada's bra ending position, in that it offers corporate clients a premium, formal luxury through a superior customer service experience, which serves as a key differentiator from the competing boats in the marketplace. We will then use this positioning to provide Empress with better communication strategies that will focus on boisterousness's selling n The Greater Toronto Area, and ultimately gain the attention Of corporate clients that Empress Was previously unable to capture.The main goal for our campaign is to raise awareness among the target market of the possible uses of The Empress of Canada services, and will be done through three mediums that include: print advertisements in the February and March 2015 issues of The Toronto Life magazine, direct emailing to existing customers using personalized messages to express gratitude and offer them alternative suggestions to meet their business entertaining needs, and lastly, social media improvement, particularly through Faceable, which will reinforce the large number of options corporate clients have when choosing The Empress of Canada.We anticipate that this campaign will yield a considerable expected increase in revenue, seeing upwards of a million dollars in revenue, when executed over a tenement period, given our campaign strategy. The short and longer benefits that The Empress of Canada will ex prince are substantial and will ultimately propel the business into attaining a more desirable corporate client database with significantly increased revenues. PART 1: Situational Analysis PEST Politically The Empress operates on the Toronto harbor therefore they must follow the rules and regulations of the Toronto port authority.Other outside factors that affect The Empress would be fuel costs as this is the result of political actions. These fuel costs affect the price o f operating the Empress and in other provinces the price of fuel has resulted in the hiking of fares to cover fuels costs. (BC Ferries hiking fares, 2014) Environmental Weather affect s the empress because they have seasons where they operate and ones where they have maintenance. The season for which they operate is from April to October, peak times being June to August.They still operate during September but many people don't realize this and miss out on one of the most beautiful times to be on the lake. Coloratura Social factors greatly impact Empress, as it's essentially a banquet hall and seen as a destination for social events, it has to Stay relevant for event seekers and planners. Corporate culture is becoming more important, and employee morale is becoming a significant focus to many industries. Companies are now recognizing â€Å"Departing from the customary routine of meetings and cubicle life can go a long way toward building morale. (ERP, 2014) Companies see value in investing in a company party as it is a chance for them to socialize with their peers and re cognizance personal and company wide achievements. Corporate Cruises provide a clientele with a larger budget, potential repeat customers and possibly a professional referral. They have to communicate that Empress is the destination for corporate events because Of the care and effort they put into their work, and the professional manner in which they will be ha ended. Technological The expanding digital landscape is changing how companies approach their business.More companies are looking to social media and the internet for ways to market their business. â€Å"Whether it is creating a winning online experience or enabling mobile commerce, digital marketing is a hot topic, with most companies either revamping or implementing new strategies. † (Osaka, 2014) Many consumer look to the internet to find out about companies and compare and contrast them, and this technical change should be prioritize in most business today. Competition Direct Competitor 1: Marinara Cruises Marinara has numerous fleets for different occasions and times of year.They run through the winter, m aking it possible to host holiday parties on the boat with heating. Marinara also has different menus for different times of day and events, and is also flexible for food accommodation needs. In addition, Marinara offers demodulating packages and team building picnics excursion outlines with an itinerary; the willingness, customer friendly brochure is available in PDF online. Furthermore, the company is the largest hospitality cruise operation in Canada, and also has received numerous awards and has professional associations (Torn to. Mom, 2014). These factors make Marinara a strong leader of the cruise operation sector in Toronto. However, Marinara's soft spot is its ling point Of catering to various audiences. This could work against attracting corporate customers. In particular, offering children friendly option s such as children's menu and optional goodies, as well as student discounts, may push away some clients who are looking for formal luxury and wish to avoid any risks of being associated with a younger, less mature and sophisticated company.Direct Competitor 2: Yankee Lady Yankee Lady's largest thriving point is being a warm, familiarized local company. Their two yachts are designed and constructed in Toronto by the owners, and the larger one has capacity of 300 people; it s smaller than Marinara or Empress, but large enough for corporate social events. Yankee Lady's website has a very customariness, informative â€Å"Team Building' page, which discusses values about social aspects of workplace and corporate culture. However, there are strong signs that Yankee Lady has branding issues and a lack of effective communication skills.For example, on the official website, Yankee Lady cites positive feedback from past corporate clients: BMW, Mini, Nikkei and Dolce & Cabana. This suggests Yankee dad is seeking to associate itself with premium and luxury brands, as sees website, which stresses luxuriousness of the brand as well. However, this positioning is inconsistent with some aspects of the brand. The name â€Å"Yankee Lady† itself is very casual and fails to make consumers associate the brand with weighed, premium values.Moreover, the first section shown under the â€Å"menu† tab on the website is â€Å"on a budget†, and one of the dishes is named â€Å"cheap and cheerful†; corporate would not want their employees and clients to see that and perceive the company as being cheap for choosing Yankee Lady. Unprofessional is also seen in word choices on their Faceable postings. Secondary & Indirect Competitors The secondary competition consists of other cruises operating businesses in Torso's waterfront.Any competitor in this category either: has distinct branding from Empress of Canada, Yankee Lady and Marinara, operates in a smaller scale than the three companies, or both. In addition, we have identified indirect competitors of the Empress of Canada; this category includes a variety of businesses in Toron to that offer/can be used for corporate social events (please refer to exhibit? ). With increased awareness for the importance and benefits of social aspects at workplace, many local businesses remote the use of their venues for corporate social events.The top three results of Google's search performance with the key. ;odor â€Å"corporate social events in Toronto† are of articles making â€Å"top 10† and â€Å"top 6† recommendations for organizations offering team building activities: 1) 1 0 great ideas for corporate events & afterward socials in Toronto (Ratchets d, 2014) 2) 1 0 Toronto Team Building Activities for corporate Groups (warrior, 201 1) 3) 6 Local & Affordable Team Building Activities in Toronto (Etcetera, 201 3) Recommendations vary in the level of physical activity, luxuriousness and affordability.Empress is not mentioned in either one of the three, while on the other hand, Spin, a pooping social club located in downtown Toronto, is named in each of them. The indirect competition of Empress is as significant as the secondary competition, if not more. This is because corporations' root purpose of holding such events lies within motivating/showing appreciation to their employees or clients; their choice of venue or activity is a medium that helps them achieve it most effectively, and it does not have to be a cruise boat.Comparing Key Findings on Competitors to Empress of Canada In inclusion, no competitor truly offers the bundle of luxury, the edge of the city getaway and the location convenience, tailored specifically to Corporate Canada. Empress of Canada has the strongest brand consistency, representing luxury, class and style, and its premium values are supported by the red carpet service and superior customer service experience they provide. However, Empress of Canada also has significant soft spots in terms of its online presence, which may result in losing customers to competitors.First, it is not featured on the Warbu rton official website, whereas boats of Yankee Lady and Marinara, amongst secondary competitors, are listed with pictures and website links. The Harbor-front project is funded by the municipal government, thus it is a credible information source that consumers can use for research. Secondly, Empress does not show up on the first page, when Google search is performed with the keyword â€Å"Toronto cruises†; the search results are occupied by Marinara and secondary competitors. Last and most importantly, social media activities and customer engagement is inadequate, especially compared to Marinara.Empress needs to seek or more effective communication strategies, in order to defend itself from the competition (please refer to exhibit? ). PART 2: Marketing plan Target Market The Empress of Canada will use a small segment strategy that focuses on boisterousness's selling. The target market will be businesses with over 100 employees located within the Greater Toronto Area. These co mpanies may be looking to run staff parties or staff appreciation events, or use the boat as an opportunity to meet with their clients.The focus will be on older and more refined companies which are looking for quality experiences and are more likely to act as return linens, while likely providing referrals to other organizational departments an d companies. Branding At the core of the Empress of Canada is a focus on quality of service. Both owners play a prominent role on the cruise and make it a priority to always offer superior customer service; from the booking to the boarding the experience at Empress of Canada is always top notch. This quality of experience will be the focus of the companies branding.The customer experience serves to differentiate the Empress of Canada from other competing boat cruises, especially in regards to their positioning towards corporate clients. Businesses shouldn't have to worry about their companies experience when booking with Empress of Canada, t hey need to know that they are in good hands, and that they will get the best possible experience. Our Marketing efforts will aim to position Empress of Canada as a premium, formal luxury through a superior customer service experience.All media and advertising should be focused on this new branding strategy including this new identity in any outgoing promotions. The current tagging of, â€Å"Long Live the Fun† (found via Twitter cover photo) is not reflective of this business and our desired positioning of being â€Å"the loyalty' of the harbor cruises. In order to better meet the brands positioning, while keeping the quality top of mind for prospective and current customers, the tagging that should be implemented is, â€Å"Impress with E empress†.This helps to show what the Empress does for the customer, as corporate clients will want to show off their status and make sure their own clients remain with them, they will want to impress them, standing out from their own competition. Communication Strategy The main goal for this campaign is to raise awareness among the target market about the variety cruise options available when using the Empress Canada services, which will encourage both new clients to take their first cruise as well to retain current clients.The target market for this particular campaign is corporations within the Greater Toronto Area, who will be reached through a variety of communication channels and mediums. This strategy will be supported by the use of print advertisements, direct emails, and a variety of Faceable posts print The first tactic that will be utilized in this campaign is print advertising. The goal of these print advertisements is to gain new customers that ay not have heard of Empress before or have not yet considered it for a corporate gathering.Toronto Life Magazine was chosen as the publication in which to run the advertisements, as it reaches an audience of 795,000 people within the GTAG, with an average ci rculation of 90,563 per issue. Its primary readership average age is between 2554, with an average household income Of over $100,000 (Toronto Life, 2013). The magazine is released monthly, so it has a longer shelf life than weekly magazines or dally newspapers. This is a strong benefit for Empress, as the life of the ad will remain for the duration of at least a month. Toronto Life's purpose as stated on their website is as follows: † Toronto Life and tortellini. Mom are the print and online destinations for people who want to get the most out of Toronto. Our goal is to add to their knowledge of the city, helping them enjoy its pleasures and cope with its complexity. † (Toronto Life, n. D. ). The readers of this magazine look to it as a so urge to find ideas and suggestions for quality dining, entertainment, and events, which are all well in line with the services that Empress can offer. Empress will place its ad in the â€Å"features† section with premium ligamen t in order to better reach corporate groups and to associate with other businesslike offerings.If not directly reaching corporations, the rationale behind this placement is to reach a young professional demographic that may see the ad and then suggest Empress to their manager or boss for a corporate gathering. The cost of running a 1/3 page square print advertisement in Toronto Life magazine is $6,885, with an extra cost of $690 for premium placement (please refer to exhibit 3) (Toronto Life, 2013 The intent with this campaign is to run the advertisement twice: once in February 2015 and once in March 2015.The reasoning behind this timing is because corporations usually have their budgeting for the year finalized in February, so they are then able to start allocating their resources to specific costs, events, etc. February to May is usually the time in which most boat cruises are booked for the summer months, so it is important that Empress can advertise within this time frame to enc ourage more corporations to fill the available cruise time slots. An average advertisement consultation cost is $4000 for the creation of the ad.Included in Appendix is a mockup of a potential advertising concept (Exhibit 4). This mockup was created with the branding and positioning of the campaign in mind; it emits the idea of an upscale, luxurious boat cruise that would appeal to larger corporate audiences interested in a classy and elegant experience. The ad itself includes a description of possible ways in which corporations can use the services that Empress has to offer, including themed events, staff meetings, staff parties, retirement parties, and customer appreciation parties.As stated previously, the main goal of this campaign is to create awareness and inform our target market of differentiate in which report clients can use Empress, which is what this ad is achieving. There are minor potential risks involved with this aspect of the campaign. The first is that the reach of the magazine is far broader than Empress's target market, which means that cost s would be less directly targeted towards actual potential clients. With print advertising, it is also difficult to measure actual return on investment.It is important that the ad catches the eye of the reader and does not get lost in the clutter. Lastly, with a breakable response rate of just 13 bookings, there is a very limited risk of a negative return on marketing investment. Email The second part of our communication strategy is to focus on retaining past clients and encouraging repeat purchases (please refer to exhibit 5). This will be executed through the use of an email platform, with a similar design aesthetic to the print ad campaign. The general purpose is to use a personalized message to ensure all past clients feel valued and appreciated.The email will initially act as a follow to the client's past purchase, thanking them for their business and asking to hear feedback on their experience wi th Empress. The second part of the email will stimulate future sales by suggesting new ways to SE Empress for their business entertainment needs. For example, an email to a client that once used the cruise for a company holiday party may include suggestions to host client parties on board as well. A final element oft he emails will include a link to a brief survey asking the client to provide feedback on their experience with Empress.These survey responses will create an internal data source from which Empress can draw information to better their services in the future. This tactic will use the customer's familiarity and positive association with the brand to grow sales. Rather than blindly emailing thousands of encounters off of an email list, it will prove much more efficient and profitable to focus efforts on happy past consumers. The openhanded rate will be much higher for those familiar with Empress, compared to a unconsumed who would very likely delete an email from an unfamil iar company without reading it.Targeting the email strategy to encounters and resulting in a high malediction rate could tarnish the Empress brand, as the emails could be seen as spam by potential clients. A m ajar advantage to an emailing strategy is that statistics regarding the penetrate of these emails is fully available to Empress. Conveniently displayed will be figures describing exactly how many customer s opened the email, how many deleted it without opening, and how many replied or clicked through to the company website via the email.Furthermore, targeting past clients means that the contact information to send the emails is already available. Empress will not have to purchase a costly database from a third party source. Overall, this strategy is extremely inexpensive as the majority of spending will be going toward designing the email. Furthermore, it is nearly less costly to focus on retaining past customers rather than gain new ones. This tactic is efficient, costiveness , and will have a high return rate. There are minor risks to this strategy.The first is that there is still a possibility of the emails being ignored and deleted, especially if the mail unintentionally ends up in a client's spam inbox. The possibility of this is extremely low as it is expected that all past clients would have Empress in their email address book. If this does happen, it will also be easy to track through the email metrics regarding deletion rate. Secondly, it may be seen as risk to invest in a marketing tactic that is not actually expanding the client base.This is easily justified as targeting past, satisfied clients will likely generate more future sales with lower costs than targeting n ewe customers. Social Media Our final communication strategy focuses on improving The Empress of Canada's social media presence. In this we will be specifically focusing on a Faceable platform, as this is the largest and most important social media platform and will have the largest impact. Growing a large following on such a medium can allow Empress of Canada to circulate managing and promotional material in the longhorn, at virtually no cost.

Frigate USS United States Navy Ship Overview

With the United States separation from Great Britain after the American Revolution, American shipping no longer enjoyed the protection of the Royal Navy when at sea. As a result, it became an easy target for pirates and other raiders such as the Barbary corsairs. Aware that a permanent navy would need to be formed, Secretary of War Henry Knox requested American shipbuilders submit plans for six frigates in late 1792. Concerned about cost, debate raged in Congress for over a year until funding was finally obtained through the Naval Act of 1794. Calling for the building of four 44-gun and two 36-gun frigates, the act was put into effect and construction delegated to various cities. The designs selected by Knox were those of renowned naval architect Joshua Humphreys. Understanding that the United States could not hope to build a navy of equivalent strength to Britain or France, Humphreys created large frigates that could best any similar vessel but were fast enough to escape enemy ships-of-the-line. The resulting vessels were long, with wider than usual beams and possessed diagonal riders in their framing to increase strength and prevent hogging. Utilizing heavy planking and making extensive use of live oak in the framing, Humphreys ships were exceptionally strong. One of the 44-gun frigates, to be named United States, was assigned to Philadelphia and construction soon began. The work progressed slowly and briefly came to a halt in early 1796 after peace was established with the Dey of Algiers. This triggered a clause of the Naval Act which stipulated that construction would halt in the event of peace. After some debate, President George Washington convinced Congress to fund construction of the three ships closest to completion. As United States was one of these vessels, work resumed. On February 22, 1797, John Barry, a naval hero of the American Revolution, was summoned by Washington and given a commission as the senior officer in the new US Navy. Assigned to oversee the completion of United States, he superintended its launching on May 10, 1797. The first of the six frigates launched, work moved quickly through the rest of the year and spring 1798 to complete the ship. As tensions increased with France leading to the undeclared Quasi-War, Commodore Barry received orders to put to sea on July 3, 1798. Quasi-War Ship Departing Philadelphia, United States sailed north with USS Delaware (20 guns) to rendezvous with additional warships at Boston. Impressed with the ships performance, Barry soon found that the expected consorts at Boston were not ready for sea. Unwilling to wait, he turned south for the Caribbean. During this maiden cruise, United States captured the French privateers Sans Pareil (10) and Jalouse (8) on August 22 and September 4. Sailing north, the frigate became separated from the others during a gale off Cape Hatteras and arrived in the Delaware River alone on September 18. After an abortive cruise in October, Barry and United States returned to the Caribbean in December to lead an American squadron. Coordinating American efforts in the region, Barry continued to hunt for French privateers. After sinking LAmour de la Patrie (6) on February 3, 1799, he re-captured the American merchantman Cicero on the 26th and captured La Tartueffe a month later. Relieved by Commodore Thomas Truxtun, Barry took United States back to Philadelphia in April. Refitting, Barry put to sea again in July but was forced to put into Hampton Roads due to storm damage. Making repairs, he patrolled the East Coast before putting into Newport, RI in September. Embarking peace commissioners, United States sailed for France on November 3, 1799. Delivering its diplomatic cargo, the frigate encountered severe storms in the Bay of Biscay and required several months of repairs at New York. Finally ready for active service in the fall of 1800, United States sailed to the Caribbean to again lead the American squadron but was soon recalled as peace had been made with the French. Returning north, the ship arrived at Chester, PA before being laid up at Washington, DC on June 6, 1801. The War of 1812 The frigate remained in ordinary until 1809 when orders were issued to ready it for sea. Command was given to Captain Stephen Decatur, who had earlier served aboard the frigate as a midshipman. Sailing down the Potomac in June 1810, Decatur arrived at Norfolk, VA for refitting. While there he encountered Captain James Carden of the new frigate HMS Macedonian (38). Meeting with Carden, Decatur wagered the British captain a beaver hat if the two should ever meet in battle. With the outbreak of the War of 1812 on June 19, 1812, United States traveled to New York to join Commodore John Rodgers squadron. After a brief cruise on the East Coast, Rodgers took his ships to sea on October 8. Departing Boston, they captured Mandarin on October 11 and United States soon parted company. Sailing east, Decatur moved south of the Azores. At dawn on October 25, a British frigate was spotted twelve miles to windward. Soon recognizing the ship as Macedonian, Decatur cleared for action. While Carden hoped to close on a parallel course, Decatur planned to engage the enemy from long-range with his heavier 24-pdr guns before closing in to finish the battle. Opening fire around 9:20 AM, United States quickly succeeded in destroying Macedonians mizzen topmast. With the advantage of maneuver, Decatur proceeded to pound the British ship into submission. Shortly after noon, Carden was forced to surrender with his ship dismasted and having taken 104 casualties to Decaturs twelve. After remaining in place for two weeks while Macedonian was repaired, United States and its prize sailed for New York where they received a heros welcome. Putting to sea with a small squadron on May 24, 1813, Decatur was chased into New London, CT by a strong British force. United States remained blockaded in that port for the rest of the war. Post-War/Later Career With the end of the war, United States was fitted out to join an expedition to deal with the resurgent Barbary pirates. Under the command of Captain John Shaw, the frigate crossed the Atlantic but soon learned that an earlier squadron under Decatur had forced peace with Algiers. Remaining in the Mediterranean, the ship ensured an American presence in the area. Returning home in 1819, United States was laid up for five years before joining the Pacific Squadron. Thoroughly modernized between 1830 and 1832, the ship continued regular peacetime assignments in the Pacific, Mediterranean, and off Africa through the 1840s. Returning to Norfolk, it was laid up on February 24, 1849. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the rotted hulk of United States was captured at Norfolk by the Confederacy. Recommissioned CSS United States, it served as a blockship and later was sunk as an obstacle in the Elizabeth River. Raised by Union forces, the wreck was broken up in 1865-1866. USS United States Quick Facts and Figures Nation:Â  United StatesBuilder:Â  Philadelphia, PAAuthorized:Â  March 27, 1794Launched:Â  May 10, 1797Commissioned:Â  July 11, 1797Decommissioned:Â  February 1849Fate:Â  Broken up at Norfolk 1865/6 Specifications Ship Type:Â  FrigateDisplacement:Â  1,576 tonsLength:Â  175 ft.Beam:Â  43.5 ft.Draft:Â  20 ft. - 23.5 ft.Complement:Â  364Speed:Â  13.5 knots Armament (War of 1812) 32 x 24-pdrs24 x 42-pdr carronades Sources Dictionary of American Navy Fighting Ships: USS United States (1797)NavSource: USS United States ImagesHistory of War: USS United States vs. HMS Macedonian