Brand Names and Repetition

Not only can desirability and looks affect the popularity of a brand– sound can too. According to a recent study, repetition of a brand name can make a company more attractive to a consumer.

In his article titled “Study Reveals How to Create the Best Brand Names,” Brian Anthony Hernandez, BusinessNewsDaily Staff Writer, explains a study to support this idea. He writes, “In one experiment, researchers used identical samples of ice cream but gave them two different names – one that contained repetition and another that did not. Study participants more frequently chose the ice cream with the repetitive-sounding name” (Hernandez).

image source: namingnewsletter.com

Repetition of a brand name can be thought of as music. Similar to brand names, people that have only heard a song once can easily recall some of the words off the top of their head. But how?

Often times, in songs, a lot of the same melodies and lyrics repeat. That’s why songs stick with us. That’s why we remember the words– because of the repetition. The same could be said about brand names. “Hubba Bubba, Tutti Frutti, Bits & Bites, Lululemon and Tostitos” are all brands that we remember. The repetition used by these companies makes it easier for consumers to remember their names. But are there ever times when repetition or even non-repetition doesn’t stick with us?

There are cases where brand names can actually hurt companies. Ever heard of Cadabra? Cadabra was the former name of Amazon. People, however, found that they had trouble spelling it. Researchers also found that a brand name can’t deviate too far from a consumer’s language, because it doesn’t often click with the consumers.

So what should you name your company name? Probably stick to English, and make a brand with a little repetition for starters.

Next research question: how effective are targeted ads?

Experiences With Multicultural Marriage

Experiences With Multicultural Marriage

www.theodysseyonline.com

If you decide to marry somebody from another cultural other than your own it can be one of the best experiences that your life may bring. Although it may also be one of the hardest experiences also. An article from the Inter Nations information website called, “Common Issues in Mixed Marriages,” they talk about the cons to marrying somebody from another culture or religion. The author also talks about the good things that their love brings in a multicultural marriage. In this brief essay I will talk about the cons to multicultural marriage and how to fix them.

Today it is very easy to meet somebody that comes from another culture or even another country. It is also very common to find love with that certain person. InterNations is a website that helps couples work out their problems within their relationships. It highlights the fact that when you marry somebody from another culture their parents don’t always live close by. To get close with their family they say that “It always makes sense to find out as much as possible about your partner’s family but it makes special sense to do so in mixed marriages – especially concerning the culture and its traditional family structures.” It is very important to be close with your partners family but it can often be very hard to do that.

Although having a partner with family in another country can be hard there are some positives to the situation. The author talks about Liz, an American woman who married somebody from India. She explains. “I mean, I see some of my family members maybe once a year, if that. Here in Jaipur, family is more important. My husband’s parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and their in-laws are a fairly tight-knit bunch. Sometimes, I find this rather exhausting.” It can be very difficult to keep up with the family traditions, ceremonies, and cultural commonalities. Although Liz felt left out at times from all of these things, she found the positives in the relationship and was able to overcome it. Liz bonded with her husband’s cousin and learned a lot about their culture through her. They also became great friends and Liz was able to forget about the things and people she was missing back home. At the end of the day, when you find the person you love you can overcome anything. Even though it may take a little more than just effort, it is worth it.

Future Research Question:  If there are problems, what can couples do to fix them?

Sporting Event Attendance

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Sports games are some of the most attended events that entertainment has to offer and everyone knows that. Something interesting that most people don’t know, is what the most attended sport is.

According to Business Insider, the more people attend MLB games than the NFL, NHL, and NBA combined over the course of a season. Business insider is a highly visited website where people gather the latest news and they got their graphs and data from ESPN. A reason why MLB attendance is so high is because of how they play 162 games, but the fact that the attendance of all of those other three sports combined doesn’t add up past the MLB blows my mind. I knew that the MLB was popular, but I thought those other sports, especially the NFL, could’ve been even more popular and attended than the MLB. It even stated at the start of the article that the NFL attendance has been rising lately.

In another article by Business Insider, it states the NFL has the highest single game attendance numbers, but with only 16 games as opposed the the MLB’s 162, it doesn’t add up over time. In that same article it has a chart of the highest attended sporting leagues worldwide. Following the NFL with 68,000 per game came the soccer leagues in Germany, then England, then Australia before reaching another US league which I found interesting. If the first study was done worldwide I wonder how those soccer leagues would rank up with the NFL.

Do better players jerseys cost more than worse players? If so, how much?

Korea's Cultural Beauty Standards

Which country do you think has the highest rate of plastic surgery in the world? The U.S.? Brazil? Nope, it’s South Korea. For this blog post I have gotten my information from three sources, two of which are from personal stories and one on research and surveys. Many aspects of Korean culture has a great influence on the consuming choice of women, cosmetic surgery being one of the biggest.

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Personally, growing up it wasn’t at all that uncommon to hear from family members that I was getting fat. Or that my skin was getting darker and I needed to invest more on skin-lightening creams and skin care products. When I politely declined their offer, the next thing I know are packages of skin-care products sent from Korea. Despite constant picking and nagging about how I should look, they justified bullying my self-esteem buy saying it was for my sake. There’s a limit to how far cultural values should go. It shouldn’t go to the point where it wrecks families and more unfortunately, yourself.

As pointed out in the opening of Beyond Beauty with Grace Neutral, the pressure felt by women to conform to beauty ideals is experienced across many cultures, but South Korea has one of the highest, if not pickiest standard. “It could be summarized as large eyes (with a crease, of course), straight, small nose, V-shaped jawline, and poreless, porcelain skin. But that's just the face. You'll also need to be thin and tanned skin is frowned upon — though currently, the trend is also to be more muscular in a subtle, sculpted way.” These characteristics are just some of the things society expects all women to have. And the expectations sometimes hit too close to home. Sabrina Shim, the author of What It’s Like Growing Up With Korean Ideals shares a personal experience of hers: “She [her mom] would tug on the tip of my nose to stretch it somehow. She talked a lot about how it was necessary to be pretty and smart in order to succeed. She delighted in the fact that I didn't have a flat face and that I already had relatively large eyes, despite the mono lids. She kept me out of the sun. As I became a teenager, weight became a concern for her even though I was slim. "Be careful, the Shim family genes means you'll be fat," she regularly warned. I was immediately sent to a dermatologist once I started getting spots. She bought me "brightening" (ie, lightening) skincare products. Needless to say, my self-esteem became a little fragile”.

As Patricia Marx of the New Yorker puts it, Korean pop culture “shapes not only what music you should listen to but what you should look like while listening to it,” adding that nose jobs and double-eyelid surgeries are now common high school graduation presents in Korea. According to the BBC, 50 percent of South Korean women in their 20s have now had cosmetic surgery. Julianna Haahs stated, “I'm sharing this personal story because I want to change culture.” Like me and Sabrina, her family told her that she used to be pretty, but she gained weight and her "appearance has 'deteriorated'" since her last visit. Despite the fact that these commenters were her elders, she retorted that they couldn't talk to her like this, because it was hurtful (not to mention factually incorrect). Her family said she should be eager to hear this kind of critique, because “Americans aren't as direct”.
Although the growing popularity of cosmetic surgery and product usage isn’t going to die down anytime soon, the culture behind it and the crooked mentality of how you're supposed to look to represent your country should be changed to focus on the love the women should have of her own body.

Microinfluencers: How beauty and fashion brands utilize the everyday consumer

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Micro-influencers, everyday people chosen to advertise and share their opinions on a product, are relatable to the everyday audience that scrolls through their news feed. They appeal to them because they have something in common. These people are bloggers and social media users who are willing to provide content about the said brand in a relatable, genuine way. According to Faye Harris in her Huffington Post article, “The Rise of the Micro-Influencer,” this trend is described and also shows how exactly it is effective.

According to Faye, “That’s why social media is so effective in driving purchases. Based on a study by global management consulting firm, McKinsey ‘consumer word-of-mouth generates twice the sales compared to paid advertising’, and ‘sixty-one percent of consumers made a purchase after reading about it in a blog post.” Though the paid branded content from celebrities is still effective because of their reputations, the authenticity of micro-influencers is likely to appear more trustworthy to audiences because they seem more genuine.

How it works is that micro-influencers are often offered product in exchange for an honest, thoughtful, review or feature via social media. For example, beauty and fashion bloggers may be sent samples of makeup to try out, post about, and link back to the brand so that readers are able to find out more, leading to a possible purchase.

Websites like Sidebuy are often utilized to find these micro-influencers. These sites make it easy to find the perfect fit for each brand. If brands are looking for extra exposure through social media, they will work with websites like Sidebuy to connect with them. According to Faye, “Sidebuy manages to stay on top of a rapidly saturated market by connecting brands with the right people; micro-influencers, who have a deep reach within a specific category and lie within specific geographic areas.” For example, a beachwear brand that sells swimwear, towels, shoes, and clothing for warmer climates may look for people located in areas like California or Florida because they may be more likely to buy them due to the location.  

This shows how marketing and networking with others in the industry can make a big impact in the sales and appeal of the brand overall. In the next post, I will look at how trends can be created, spread and often become viral via social media.

The Government is Choking Us

Our government can’t get anything done to help the world become a clean and safe place for our future generations.

America depends on the future who the next president is who are the people that or country is going to follow and build the economy. If the government doesn’t start helping in the solution for a better and cleaner world no one will.

Source

The government has been denying the fact there is a global climate change. Our own president said this “Nov. 22 interview at the New York Times, according Factcheck.org.  President-elect Donald Trump said he had an “open mind” about climate change, but he went on to repeat some of the same false and misleading claims that have been used by those who reject mainstream climate science.”

Our own government denies climate change, so our government isn't doing something about the fact that it is snowing in Illinois in March after having 2 weeks of a up to 70 degree weather. Our government not only fails to recognize the problem it's hurting the current institutions that are trying to do something about it. For example the EPA's overall budget was cut by 1/3 which, according to Anna Aurillo, of the Environment America organization which is national group trying to protect the environment, means the "agency cannot adequately enforce our clean air and clean water safeguards. It is basically a 'get out of jail free card' for polluters. ”

The our government is having poor people suffer at the moment from them cutting the EPA is budet. The reason why is because they are trying to save money instead of fixing the water crisis let alone fix the air pollution. Anna Aurilio mentions it in her article America’s clean air, water, health come in dead last in “America First” Budget says this “In addition Trump’s proposed budget underfunds environmental issues that matter to millions of Americans—like climate action, clean energy, and our national parks”. This means that many things that our critical to our survival our getting destroyed with no one to stop or help stop it.

The government has to find a way to get a least the people to help and solve this growing problem that we have in the US. They’re not going to do something, but we can do something about it. There are solutions for everything around us. Wherever there is a problem there is a solution. Now let's hope the people care more about the world than our government.

The government needs to do more

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When it comes to the food industry, the government has not really done a lot to help it, or at least not enough.  State and local governments are years ahead of the federal government when it comes to the healthiness of foods, what certain foods do to your body, etc.  This is not good for the health of americans because common citizens do not have the knowledge on foods and healthy eating that they should have.  Jill Filipovic, a NY attorney and writer for Cosmopolitan’s online blog, wrote more about the lack of effort the government has been making to educate citizens on the unhealthy ness of certain foods in her article titled “To save Americans' health, government must intervene in food industry.”  The government should provide the common citizens with more knowledge on healthy and unhealthy foods, as well as be more involved in the industry by adding more health and safety regulations.

In the article, the author starts it out by talking about how the food industry has to rely on the industry for it to regulate itself, and not the government.  The government has not intervened in the food industry for decades.  While there are government programs that try to regulate the safety, cleanliness, and other aspects of the industry, their involvement is not nearly where Jill Polivic says it should be.  The government implemented food safety standards as a part of the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, which was the last piece of government involvement we have seen or heard about.  The last time before 2011 in which the food industry has had the government step in was decades ago.  Although the government implemented new standards when it comes to safety, none of the new implemented regulations were anything new to restaurants and kitchens across the country.  It did not affect how the industry worked and the changes were not major at all.

Another thing that the government is lacking is knowledge.  As a part of the their safety act in 2011, they touched on the unhealthiness of trans fats.  While this is good news that trans fats will be regulated and used less, it is scary to think that for as long as the state governments, local governments, and common citizens have known that trans fats are so unhealthy for you that the federal government is only doing something about it now.  Scientists have even proved trans fats caused heart attacks and heart failures, and statisticians have claimed that a ban on trans fats could prevent 7000-20000 deaths annually.  With this type of knowledge being common knowledge, it is astounding as to how the government has not done anything about it, especially when it could save lives and prevent heart attacks.  While it is easy to say that the government needs to do this and that, we really should be thinking of specifics things that they could implement.  With that being said, some of the things I think the government should look further into could be gluten free diets, superfoods such as kale, wheatgrass, quinoa, etc.  Also food supplements that could be in pill form or tablet form but are filled with vitamins, minerals, omega 3s, etc.

Does immigration harm working Americans?

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The debate as to whether immigrants are taking over all the countries job opportunities has been going on for some time now. Some may argue that these immigrants are stagnating the economy by taking jobs, while others feel that their presence has actually had a jump start effect instead, simply replacing rather than displacing American jobs. Recent news stories and political campaigns have further highlighted this debate and has created tension between lower/middle class Americans and the influx of immigrants. David Frum, a senior editor at the Atlantic and former presidential speech writer, argues that immigrants are helpful for the economy in his article “Does Immigration harm Working Americans?” because they stimulate growth, provide needed labor and skills.

In the article he says “on average, immigrant workers increase the opportunities and incomes of Americans. Foreign-born workers don’t affect the employment rate positively or negatively.” Similarly he also states"Immigrants expand the U.S. economy’s productive capacity, stimulate investment, and promote specialization that in the long run boosts productivity. What this means is that although the thought of foreigners may seem scary or even daunting to the prospects of the economy, they actually have the opposite effect. By adding an increased work force competition, the quality of work will improve and make jobs more specialized by adding more people. Through specialization and workforce competition increasing, this stimulates and growth therefore affects the economy in a positive and productive manner.

Despite all the experts agreeing on this issue almost unanimously, why is there still outrage and debate enveloping the country on this very issue? Perhaps the real reason is that some of these immigrants end up arriving in this country illegally, but even if that is the case these illegal immigrants only make up for a small portion of immigrants coming over to work. Nevertheless, Immigration should not be feared nor rejected especially off the basis of our own economic concerns. In fact, our country is built off the blood, sweat and tears of Immigrants who have come to this country looking for a better life. So in this sense I don't see how these immigrants could be "taking" jobs if its not necessarily our jobs to have in the first place. However, there are other concerns that may worry the American public: do immigrants pay taxes similarly to American citizens?

Community Service: If you didn’t take a pic, did it really happen?

Photo credits to Monte Vista Christian School

http://www.mvcs.org/

On social media it’s hard not to see soroity girls posting pictures with their friends along with a caption that goes something like “Kappa Kappa Kappa Dance-a-Thon!!!” Most people will believe that the girls just took the picture, danced for 30 minutes, and then left. In this post we will look at community involvement within the greek life. I am sure some cases your previous thought is true, but according to an opinion piece written by Kristin Musulin for U.S. Today: College this thought is false.

In Musulin’s piece, Voices: The positive, underreported aspects of Greek life, she shares statistics and her thoughts on the good that Greek life does. “Greek life is, by the nature of its foundation, a positive and enriching institution.  Fraternities and sororities engage in these positive actions every single day. Yet, because the media’s primary focus is to cover hard news, the benefits of Greek life are often blurred by the rare, negative occurrences that happen.” The basis of Greek life is to do good in the community around you, but because of social media we highlight the bad things like: hazing, racial comments, and underage drinking at parties. Musulin uses a statistic from the 2013-14 year presented by the National Panhellenic Council,  “sorority women from across the nation raised over $5.7 million for philanthropies and reported nearly 1 million hours of community service in the last academic year alone.” And, according to the The North American Interfraternity Conference “$20.7 million for philanthropies and completed 3.8 million hours of community service.” So clearly, it’s not all about the picture for students participating in Greek life.

Community service is a great way to spend free time, help you make future connections, and feel good about your doing good. All these factors are a reason students could want to join Greek Life, they just want the involvement.

Like mentioned above Greek life does have negative aspects that will be highlighted in my next blog post.

Against the grain; Quinoa

The background on the article is the rise of quinoa, a grain that quickly rose among healthy eating circles as a “complete protein", meaning it has all amino acids thus making meat unnecessary. It tastes as good as rice or oatmeal and pairs well with any cuisine, making it the newest fad much like kale or almond milk. The grain grows best in the South American Andes in Peru where eating the grain helped the local people survive for centuries. While NASA first noticed in 1993 “While no single food can supply all the essential life-sustaining nutrients, quinoa comes as close as any other in the plant or animal kingdom.”, in the last decade, it boomed in American diets, reaching its peak in 2013 when UN called 2013 the “International Year of Quinoa.” However, the issue comes in when the Andes people soon began farming the grain for millions of more consumers and the increase in the price hit the villages hard when they could not afford to buy their food staple, which brings up the question: does increased economic opportunity really help small societies?

Quinoa Farmer in Peru

Slate.com

The price of quinoa tripled to $6-7 a kilogram with the new demand for quinoa from first world countries, which caused a decrease in quinoa consumption in the Andes. However, it’s not as severe as the drop seems—with the new economic opportunity came new spending money for the modernizing Peruvian people. Quinoa stopped being the staple of the farmers because they didn’t need it as a staple. A study by Andrew Stevens at the University of California found that quinoa only accounted for 0.5% of household spending in the region. The incomes of the farmers rose with the new economic opportunity, with quinoa producers suddenly gave them 46% more spending power, which helped out the local non-quinoa economies as demand for more products grew. For every 25% increase in the price of quinoa, average household consumption in the region increased by 1.75%. So in 2013, the Year of Quinoa was benevolent.

Until it wasn’t. See, the demand for quinoa alone doesn’t hurt farmers, but now that other countries started to produce the grain—50 more countries, that is—people don’t need the grain from remote regions in Peru and Bolivia when they can ship it cheaply from places like Colorado, so after the prices rose, prices dropped from $6-7 per kilogram to $2 per kilogram, while the average farmer depends on $2.6 to make a comfortable living. What the article proves is that it isn’t the demand for a foreign “specialty” that hurts small economies, it’s the drop in the demand, especially after so many Peru and Bolivian people jumped on the quinoa popularity train. Food fads cause harm.

The article appeared as a column in The Economist which as the title suggests informs readers with a non-partisan stance about current economic subjects. 

Slate.com

Companies look at LGBTQ+ and only see an effeminate “G”

 theothermccain.com

As the LGBT community is becoming more and more accepted throughout society, companies have begun to incorporate people of the LGBT community in advertising for their products. Julia Hanna from the Harvard Business School explores the stereotypes of LGBTQ+ members used in advertising in her article “How Advertising Depicts Gays and Lesbians.” In this article she discusses how companies who are uneducated on the many different types of people in the LGBTQ+ community resort to stereotypes made by society giving people a false idea of what everyone in the community is like. While the LGBTQ+ community is becoming more represented in advertising, the images and the way they are represented in many cases re enforces stereotypes, so may work against the intended effect of increasing tolerance and awareness.

What many companies fail to realize is that their advertising can have a “positive or negative effect” on how people “perceive one another.” In her article, Hanna says that “ the characterization of the LGBT community” in mainstream television commercials is “sorely lacking in diversity, with stereotypes ranging from diva queens to scary leather men.” I find this to be true in many commercials I see, even today in 2017. One commercial that is a wonderful example of this, as stated in the article, is a commercial for Salon Selectives hair products.
In the commercial an effeminate man sits with his lap dog in a hair salon working as a hairdresser, alluding to the stereotype that all gay men are feminine. Later in the commercial we see the man looking very out of place and uncomfortable working as a car mechanic now that his clients can do their own hair thanks to the product. While many people may find this amusing it gives people, especially people only exposed to the LGBT community through television and media, a false idea of what all members of the community are like when really there are many different types of people. I believe this is unfair to the community because they have worked so hard for so long just to be accepted by society, and simply because companies are uneducated and lazy, people have stereotypes in their head of how LGBTQ+ people should act that completely contradicts what the LGBTQ+ community has tried to.  

The main issue with these companies is not that they are choosing to depict the LGBT community, but it’s that when creating commercials they do little to no research and depend only on what they know of the community through society and media, which more often than not are stereotypes. According to the article out of all the companies that have LGBTQ+ members in their advertising Subaru is one of the only companies that has a member of the LGBTQ+ community as their spokeswoman, using the Lesbian tennis player Martina Navratilova in their ads and commercials, which was her “first major endorsement since she came out in 1981.”

Other than that and a few other companies such as Cover Girl who’s spokeswoman is Ellen DeGeneres, little to no companies actually use real members of the LGBTQ+ community. As a result of this combined with not doing proper research they have no way to accurately represent every part of the community, which completely cuts out many different types of people. Companies typically only represent white gay men, more often than not having them be comically effeminate. While there are gay men in the community that are effeminate, not every gay man is.

As I stated before companies also rarely have ethnic diversity in their LGBTQ+ commercials, creating an idea in people's heads that only white effeminate men are gay when that is simply not true. Take Shaun T for example, a world-renowned health and fitness expert, TV host, motivator and creator of many famous fitness programs including INSANITY, HIP HOP ABS, FOCUS T25, INSANITY MAX:30 and CIZE, who also happens to be a gay black man. My sister Asia swears by his fitness programs, having completed his program INSANITY more than three times. A couple years ago she saw a post on his instagram with a picture of him and his husband, and said to me “Wait, Shaun T is gay? I had no idea! He doesn’t seem gay.”

This is exactly what is wrong with the way media portrays the LGBTQ+ community, in this case gay men. The reason he didn’t “seem gay” to her-which is ridiculous in itself because how can anyone seem like their sexuality?-all goes back to the way companies make gay men out to be white and effeminate, never black and manly. For society to progress this needs to change and change soon.  

Future research question: What are the risks & benefits of marketing to the LGBTQ+ community?

The “Rush” of Joining Greek Life

Photo credit to The Fraternity Advisor

http://thefraternityadvisor.com/

Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Kappa Alpha Theta, these are sorority and fraternity names. In this post, I am going to explore the process of getting into a fraternity/sorority. Looking at University of Michigan's article on Joining the Panhellenic Association article and The Sorority Life website I will uncover every step of the rushing process. The rushing process can be seen as unfair since not everyone gets into a greek association, so I want to look at the process and find out in the end “How does the culture of Greek Life influence people to decide to join them?”

First students have to look at their universities website to see the Greek Life options. Once they do this, students narrow down a list of associations they are willing to rush and potentially join. Earlier in the school year, some universities provide a Mass Meeting which “provides important details about the rush process. More information is available at the Sorority Forum, which presents the opportunity to meet members of each sorority and ask any questions.” Then, formal recruitment starts.

Formal recruitment is four sets of parties. There are Mixers where students take the time to look at each chapter (sorority of fraternity) form a first impression of our sorority community as a whole. The dress attire is casual meaning clothes you would wear to class. Second Set events will include tours of the sorority house, again this would be casual dress. The third set of parties focus on philanthropy, a fundamental value of sorority life. For the third set of parties, students are required to wear nicer clothing such as casual dresses or skirts. Finally, the preference parties which are formal events at which members express personal feelings about the meaning of their sisterhood. At these parties students wear cocktail attire. Finally, the bids start.

Bid day is “the last day of recruitment" when potential new members receive bids to join chapters and become new members. Each chapter will usually host a Bid Day activity to help the new members get to know each other and the rest of the chapter,” said The Sorority Life. From there students will make a list of chapters they would like to join, if a sorority on the student's list wants them to join then they are in the chapter.

The rushing process creates social events, which new students view as exciting and another activity to get involved on a new campus. Also, lots of students participate so people tend to follow the masses. The selection process seems to be what really draws people to rush greek life, it creates an exclusive club and it’s human nature to want to be with the elite and exclusive.

In my next post I am going to look into how community involvement and greek life work together.

Epitome of Flawless: How Might Media Affect Product Usage?

Korean beauty products first emerged into Western cultures around 2011. Now, its popularity is increasing even greater than ever. South Korea’s beauty industry has grown phenomenally embedding new cult favorites into more cultures. This blog post consists of a variety of beauty sources and professional studies and reviews done to evaluate the business aspect of Korean beauty product sales in both Korean and other Western countries.   Korean beauty products are becoming more accessible and popular in the Untied States due to growing marketing of their effectiveness and the beauty standards they represent.

http://www.slate.com

It’s not at all foreign to see familiar products in television shows or movies whether it was placed purposely or not. Product placement is a very clever and subtle way of engaging the audience into becoming familiar with the product, drawing them into it’s benefits by using celebrities or models using such products. Advertising has only grown as much as the advancement of technology, and it has come a long way. However, other countries are still a little bit cautious as to how they strategically place their products. Companies need to statistically target a certain demographic in order to create the most income. An example of conservative product placements are companies in Korea or branches of such;  “Korea’ advertising industry of Korea, valued at about $6.1 billion, is the ninth-largest global advertising market as well as one of the largest advertising markets in the Asian-Pacific area (Madden, 2004).”

With the increasing popularity with Korean beauty products, many new trends have dominated the social media by beauty bloggers and aficionados alike. According to Fusion, “The growing influence of Korean beauty—from their intensive skincare routines to BB creams and cushion compacts—on Western culture is the culprit for the internet’s fascination with wanting to look like they “woke up like this.”” An article about the growth of Korean beauty on The Cut revealed that the first half of 2015, according to the Korea Customs Service, the total export value of Korean beauty products to the U.S. was $52 million, a 60 percent increase from last year. America is the third biggest export market for Korean cosmetics companies, after China and Hong Kong. Personally, I don’t blame the for the obsession, I myself is a fan of these products however one difference for me is that I was born into the expectation to have flawless, pale skin, free of blemishes. It’s quite difficult to do in an environment where tanning and contouring is currently the mainstream beauty fad. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the influx of skincare products on monthly shipments from the motherland to cure and protect the one thing we hold to the highest value.

The vast popularity has certainly reached the ends of two worlds, Marie Claire dubbed Korea the new skincare superpower, calling them about 12 years ahead of skincare innovation globally. The beauty standard to have that flawless skin is without a doubt one of the biggest driving factors in market sales for product consumption. On top of that, Korean consumers have a voracious appetite for skincare, which in turn helps fund extensive R&D. With thousands of beauty brands all competing for market share, the result is a Hyper-competitive, incredibly innovative industry that's at the forefront of the beauty world. In conclusion, the media is a starting platform for new beauty fads to arise in popularity, heavily impacting the influence of product usage.

Why Do People Marry into Different Cultures?

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Marriage is union of two people as partners in a personal relationship where you are forced to make sacrifices for one another. Marrying into a different culture calls for a lot more sacrifices to be made. In this brief essay I argue why couples will go through with cross cultural marriage despite the sacrifices and the hard times that they have to face like new traditions and different languages.

When marrying into another culture that comes from a whirlwind of romance or a strictly technology based relationship, it can often lead to a stressful relationship. María J. García San Martín is the author of her own blog called “Stop and Learn English.” A piece titled “Advantages and drawbacks of cross cultural marriages,” where she talks about why people actually go through with a cross cultural marriage despite the problems that a couple would face. The author is knowledgeable about the topic because she married a foreigner and is talking about her personal experiences. According to the source “marrying a foreigner is an exciting adventure, and despite the variety of special, new and strange issues it might arise, it could be though, interesting and challenging.” I agree with the idea of new things being implemented into your life. Marrying somebody from another culture brings new traditions and adventures that you may never get to experience unless somebody is there to do it with you.

In addition to having new experiences if a couple plans on having children in the future, their kids will have such an amazing background and will get to experience life so much brighter than most kids. Martín states, “When it comes to raise children, I entirely agree the influence of another cultural pattern of behavior can be extremely positive, as it might broaden their minds.  Actually, only if both parents try to speak their own native language at home, the children are raised bilingual, which is a great thing nowadays.” I agree that to have your children be able to grow up bilingual is a great thing and can greatly impact their future. In spite of all the drawbacks that cross cultural marriage comes with, the most important things to make a marriage work is true love, trust, and respect for one another. Marrying someone like a foreigner can be difficult at times but if you are truly in love, it is all worth it it.

FUTURE RESEARCH: What are the pros and cons to a cross cultural marriage?

Ex convicts are great entrepreneurs

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Why would a respected, well run administration give former convicts who have been convicted on things like drug charges over 2 million dollars to start a new business? It is not uncommon for something like this to happen. It was one newspaper article from the Chicago Tribune that highlighted a 50 former prisoners from the Chicagoland area who are hoping to start their own business. The announcement from The Aspire Entrepreneurship Initiative, an effort of the Small Business Administration and two charitable groups plans on starting this project in Chicago as well as a few other cities. The groups involved have started this in hopes that it will not only change these people’s lives but motivate other convicts to pursue career paths when they get out of prison. Projects that give loans to ex-convicts to start businesses will not only give hope to current prisoners but it may show how entrepreneurial and hard working former convicts are to other businesses increasing their future economic opportunities.

Giving ex convicts a second chance is something our country has struggled to do in the past but with opportunities like the one being offered from the SBA, it shows businesses still care about these people. In Chicago, there were “ 50 candidates will be picked for the program, with a goal of getting 30 to graduate from training and at least 25 to receive microloans.” The loans are just some seed money for the business but if the candidate has shown their passion to a certain level and the idea seems feasible, the loan could reach $50,000. With this kind of money and resources there is a good chance some of these businesses will be quite successful. The Chicago Tribune article also highlights that “Entrepreneurship can be a "ladder of opportunity" for citizens who have paid their debt to society but are still struggling to find employment after incarceration". A large number of these ex convicts have much more motivation than a regular person because they are dependent on their second chance. If they are able to get one job but can’t maintain it, the chances of them getting hired again are slim to none.

Business owners both small and large often overlook the ex convicts because they believe they would not be loyal employees. However, often times these are the employees who would show the most loyalty because they know they are most likely not going to get another chance. Most, if not at all businesses do background checks and it becomes harder and harder to get a job the longer you are unemployed. Getting a job soon after the person is released from prison is important for not only that person to support themselves but can help businesses. More specifically how can the hiring of ex convicts help society as a whole?