The Elements of Style Stylistics in Literature

Stylistics is a branch of applied linguistics concerned with the study of style in texts, especially, but not exclusively, in literary works. Also called  literary linguistics, stylistics focuses on the figures, tropes, and other rhetorical devices used to provide variety and a distinctness to someones writing. It is linguistic analysis plus literary criticism. According to Katie Wales in A Dictionary of Stylistics, the goal of most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text; or in order to relate literary effects to linguistic causes where these are felt to be relevant. Studying a text closely helps to unearth layers of meaning that run deeper than just the basic plot, which happens on the surface level. Elements of Style in Literature Elements of style studied in literary works are what is up for discussion in any literature or writing class, such as: Big-Picture Elements Character development: How a character changes throughout the story  Dialogue: Lines spoken or internal thoughtsForeshadowing: Hints dropped about whats going to happen later  Form: Whether something is poetry, prose, drama, a short story, a sonnet, etc.Imagery: Scenes set or items shown with descriptive words  Irony: An occurrence thats the opposite of whats expected  Juxtaposition: Putting two elements together to compare or contrast them  Mood: The atmosphere of a work, the attitude of the narrator  Pacing: How quickly the narration unfolds  Point of view: The narrators perspective; first person (I) or third person (he or she)  Structure: How a story is told (beginning, action, climax, denouement) or how a piece is organized (introduction, main body, conclusion vs. reverse-pyramid journalistic style)  Symbolism: Using an element of the story to represent something else  Theme: A message delivered by or shown in a work; its central topic or big ideaTone: The wri ters attitude toward the subject or manner with choosing vocabulary and presenting information, such as informal or formal Line-by-Line Elements Alliteration: Close repetition of consonants, used for effectAssonance: Close repetition of vowels, used for effectColloquialisms: Informal words, such as slang and regional termsDiction: The correctness of the overall grammar (big picture) or how characters speak, such as with an accent or with poor grammarJargon: Terms specific to a certain fieldMetaphor: A means to compare two elements (Can also be big-picture if an entire story or scene is laid out to show a parallel with something else)  Repetition: Using the same words or phrases in a short amount of time for emphasis  Rhyme: When the same sounds appear in two or more wordsRhythm: having a musicality to the writing such as by using stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry or sentence variety or repetition in a paragraphSentence variety: Variation in the structure and length of consecutive sentences  Syntax: The arrangement of words in a sentence Elements of style are the characteristics of the language used in the written work, and stylistics is their study. How an author uses them is what makes one writers work distinct from another, from Henry James to Mark Twain to Virginia Woolf. An authors way of using the elements creates their distinct writing voice. Why Studying Literature Is Useful Just as a baseball pitcher studies how to properly grip and throw a type of pitch a certain way, to make the ball go in a certain location, and to create a game plan based on a lineup of specific hitters, studying writing and literature helps people to learn how to improve their writing (and thus communication skills) as well as to learn empathy and the human condition. By becoming wrapped up in a characters thoughts and actions in a book, story, or poem, people experience that narrators point of view and can draw on that knowledge and those feelings when interacting with others in real life who might have similar thought processes or actions. Stylisticians In many ways, stylistics is an interdisciplinarity study of textual interpretations, using both language comprehension and an understanding of social dynamics. A stylisticians textual analysis is influenced by rhetoric reasoning and history. Michael Burke describes the field in The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics as an empirical or forensic discourse critique, wherein the stylistician is a person who with his/her detailed knowledge of the workings of morphology,  phonology, lexis, syntax, semantics, and various discourse and pragmatic models, goes in search of language-based evidence in order to support or indeed challenge the subjective interpretations and evaluations of various critics and cultural commentators. Burke paints stylisticians, then, as a kind of Sherlock Holmes character who has expertise in grammar and rhetoric and a love of literature and other creative texts, picking apart the details on how they operate piece by piece—observing style as it informs meaning, as it informs comprehension. There are various overlapping subdisciplines of stylistics,  and a person who studies any of these is known as a  stylistician: Literary stylistics: Studying forms, such as poetry, drama, and proseInterpretive stylistics: How the linguistic elements work to create meaningful artEvaluative stylistics: How an authors style works—or doesnt—in the workCorpus stylistics: Studying the frequency of various elements in a text, such as to determine the authenticity of a manuscriptDiscourse stylistics: How language in use creates meaning, such as studying parallelism, assonance, alliteration, and rhymeFeminist stylistics: Commonalities among womens writing, how writing is engendered, and how womens writing is read differently than mensComputational stylistics: Using computers to analyze a text and determine a writers styleCognitive stylistics: The study of what happens in the mind when it encounters language Modern Understanding of Rhetoric As far back as ancient Greece and philosophers like Aristotle, the study of rhetoric has been an important part of human communication and evolution as a result. Its no wonder, then, that author Peter Barry uses rhetoric to define stylistics as the modern version of the ancient discipline known as rhetoric, in his book Beginning Theory. Barry goes on to say that rhetoric teaches its students how to structure an argument, how to make effective use of figures of speech, and generally how to pattern and vary a speech or a piece of writing so as to produce maximum impact. He says that stylistics analysis of these similar qualities—or rather how they are utilized—would, therefore, entail that stylistics is a modern interpretation of the ancient study. However, he also notes that stylistics differs from simple close reading in the following ways: 1. Close reading emphasizes differences between literary language and that of the general speech community. ...Stylistics, by contrast, emphasizes connections between literary language and everyday language. 2. Stylistics uses specialized technical terms and concepts which derive from the science of linguistics, terms like transitivity, under-lexicalisation, collocation, and cohesion. 3. Stylistics makes greater claims to scientific objectivity than does close reading, stressing that its methods and procedures can be learned and applied by all. Hence, its aim is partly the demystification of both literature and criticism. Stylistics is arguing for the universality of language usage while close reading hinges upon an observation of how this particular style and usage may vary from and thereby make an  error relating to the norm. Stylistics, then, is the pursuit of understanding key elements of style that affect a given audiences interpretation of a text. Sources Wales, Katie. A Dictionary of Stylistics. Routledge,1990, New York.Burke, Michael, editor. The Routledge Handbook of Stylistics. Routledge, 2014, New York.Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester University Press, Manchester, New York, 1995.

Summary Of There Is Always A Rainbow After Every Rain...

â€Å"There is always a rainbow after every rain storm†, was a quote that was preached to me many times throughout my childhood. I never truly believed it since I had a harsh childhood; but it wasn’t until I was about thirteen years old, a freshman in high school, that I started to see the beginning of the rainbow. My father was in a rough place in his life and had bumped into one of our family friends, Josue Tapia, whom we haven’t seen in months. Josue, or as we like to call him Don Hector, has been in an unstable position just like my dad. After a few minutes of talking Josue said that he knew how to turn my dad’s life around for the better. He was very interested in this conversation, and was willing to take the opportunity. Sitting down in the living room watching television with my sister and mother, when suddenly my dad walked in saying, â€Å"So guess who I saw today?† My mother faced him and said, â€Å"Who?† â€Å"Don Hector, and he invited us to church and I think we should go.† â€Å"Wow. This is new. Why do you want to go? â€Å" â€Å"I just think it will be a great opportunity for me to change and be a better person not only for me but for us as a family.† â€Å"Okay yes! If that will make you happy, we can go,† she said with a smile on her face. It was Sunday morning, I woke up to loud music playing outside my front lawn. I walked outside my front door and saw my dad singing along with a huge smile on his face. I walked back inside my house with a smirk on my face because I enjoyed seeing himShow MoreRelatedInfluence of Immigration on the American Culture and Language14362 Words   |  58 Pages†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦... 4.4 Dutch Influence on American English †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 4.5 German Influence on American English †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 4.6 African Influence on American English †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.... 4.7 Influence of Later Immigrants †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Summary †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Sources †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. Appendix †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. INTRODUCTION The United States is a society of immigrants. Ever since its formation in 1776, and even before that, the UnitedRead MoreIgbo Dictionary129408 Words   |  518 PagesDictionary. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 1. Includes an English-Igbo finderlist 2. Aims to be comprehensive (the Igbo-English section is pages 3-175) and does not identify with a specific dialect although locations are occasionally marked after particular lexical entries. 3. Marks the subdotted vowels with a diaeresis, thus á » ¥ appears as à ¼. 4. Marks tone with bracketed symbols following the word, thus (HL). Downstep, rising and falling tones are not marked. 5. Is virtually without scientificRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesWhat Are Management Skills? 9 Improving Management Skills 12 An Approach to Skill Development 13 Leadership and Management 16 Contents of the Book 18 Organization of the Book 19 Practice and Application 21 Diversity and Individual Differ ences 21 Summary 23 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 24 Diagnostic Survey and Exercises 24 Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS) 24 What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 28 SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 30 SCORING KEY AND COMPARISON DATA 42 Personal AssessmentRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 PagesOutcasts to Culture Bearers is that it correctly traces the connection between the emergence of Rastafarianism and the history of resistance and black consciousness that has been part of the Jamaican experience for years. The truth is that there has always been a committed Jamaican counter- culture that celebrates and sees redemption in Africa and rejects the European values that have oppressed a society. But prior to the advent of popular culture and especially the music recording business in theRead MoreProject Managment Case Studies214937 Words   |  860 Pagessurrounding these cases and situations are the same today as they were twenty years ago. Unfortunately we seem to be repeating several of the mistakes made previously. Recommendations for enhancements and changes to future editions of the text are always appreciated. The author can be contacted at Phone: 216-765-8090 e-mail: hkerzner@bw.edu Harold Kerzner Baldwin-Wallace College Part 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES As companies approach some degree of maturity in project management, it

Emergencies Inflammation or Infection

Question: Discuss about the Emergencies for Inflammation or Infection. Answer: Introduction: Hot inflamed toe may occur due to different reasons. Most of the time sudden redness, swelling and pain in big toe are the results of gout- a condition in arthritis where uric acid crystals build up in a joint. Besides, rheumatic diseases, tendinitis, retrocalcaneal bursitis and minor fungal or viral infections may cause toe to be inflamed (WebMD, 2015). Generally speaking, hot inflamed toe is the result of uric acid rise in the blood. When the levels of uric acid get too high, it simply results in toe inflammation. In human beings liver is the main organ involved in the metabolism of uric acid whereas kidney is involved in urine excretion. However, sometimes it occurs that uric acid amount that is being formed in the body becomes too high as compared to the amount that is being excreted in the form of urine. As a result, inflammatory mediators and chemicals start releasing from tissues that are damaged. This gives rise to hot inflamed toe. Rubor (redness), calor (heat), tumor (swell ing), dolor (pain) and functional disabilities are some clinical symptoms of toe inflammation (Dobson, 1999). On the whole, inflammation encourages later healing process by removing harmful agents. Inflammation involves collective events like accumulation of fluid in the tissues, blood flow increase, leucocytes migration, pain, pus formation and increased body temperature. In the process of inflammation, circulatory system plays a significant part. It is obvious that there is heat and redness on the particular area wherever a wound or an injury happens just due to the accumulation of blood in the wounded area. Basically, at time of any injury, the circulatory system allows more flow of blood towards injured area till the time that healing starts. Increased flow of blood offers more oxygen to cells that gives rise to cellular activity to accompany inflammation process by reddening or swelling the inflamed area or sometime gives rise to a condition known as oedema that is also associated with inflammation. In case of toe inflammation, the process begins with redness and swelling of the toe. Ho t toe also expands as a result of inflammation because the process turns the circulatory system active and the blood starts flowing around the irritated or injured area. This gives rise to reactions on the injured area produced by the activity of circulatory system like pain, swelling, heat and redness. The system gives response in a way that the toe seems hot and inflamed. Aching as well as burning in the toes also occurs due to the same responses of the circulatory system towards inflammation and healing process. The patient may also suffer from severe pains that are caused due to the pressures on the nerves or sometimes due to the effects of inflammatory mediators (Dobson, 1999). In a nutshell, it is evident from above mentioned discussion that circulatory system plays its part towards hot inflamed toe through increased blood flow towards the affected and injured area or through the buildup of tissue fluid until healing process begins. References: Dobson, R. (1999) Health: The Agony of Good Living, [Online], Available: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/health-the-agony-of-good-living-1074887.html [12 Jan 2017]. Immune System- Revision Notes, [Online], Available: https://essentiallyeducation.co.uk/learning-resources/degree-level/immune-system-revision-notes.pdf [12 Jan 2017]. Inflammation, [Online], Available: https://www.mccc.edu/~behrensb/documents/documents/2011Inflammation.pdf [12 Jan 2017]. WebMD. (2015) First Aid Emergencies: Inflammation or Infection of a Toe, Foot or Ankle, [Online], Available: https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/inflammation-or-infection-of-a-toe-foot-or-ankle [12 Jan 2017].

The Art of Consumer

Introduction Are consumer insights so elusive? This is a question that requires a broad answer. Consumer insights became a trend in 1992 when Lisa Fortini-Campbell introduced the term in her book Hitting the Sweet Spot.1Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Art of Consumer-Insights Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More And now with computers and the Internet, Information Technology and globalisation, consumer insights may be a thing to reckon with. It has become complicated however and needs to be refocused to meet the needs and wants of consumers. In this essay, we will distinguish what consumer insight means, both in singular and plural forms. There are variations to their meanings and usage. In simple terms consumer insight refers to consumer focus, consumer needs and wants and satisfaction, all molded into one. The underlying topics of market research are redirected to this point. Today’s marketers have the world as their marketplace. It is a bigger place to introduce and sell products but also a wider place to analyze and deal with. Before, marketers could only focus with consumer insights of a particular place and community, now they have the ‘global village’ to deal with. It was in 1992 when marketing could be done through one-to-one approach. But now with the popularity of the Internet and the information revolution, â€Å"mass customization† is becoming a trend. A question that always seems to linger in the marketer’s mind is: What do consumers think and want? This question cannot be addressed to one group of consumers but to the world, the global village. Global organisations, or businesses, think of more appropriate terms and strategies in this new, exciting (?) or challenging marketplace. There is more than one way to kill a cat, and marketers have to be flexible and creative in communicating to the outside world. This is the â€Å"exciting † world of business in the twenty-first century.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Insights and Theories Insight can be just another term for market research. But it can also mean many things because of the vast information and knowledge available for organizations and businesses today. Today’s marketers have to refocus and find new ways of collecting and analyzing marketing intelligence because of the new forces and trends in globalization. Information is the key; there are vast amounts of information about consumers out there that have to be collected and analyzed. This new wave of information needs broader and creative ‘geniuses’ to arrive at fresh insights for the consumers’ needs and wants to be met. Moreover, a genius is not necessary. What is needed is â€Å"insight† and a careful study of the vast information acquired from the li terature and from the field collected by sales people. Globalization has revolutionized many aspects of marketing. Organizations have to adopt and introduce measures and changes in marketing strategies. This includes product orientation, employee management, and other organizational strategies.2 Organizations have to refocus and acquire more knowledge since knowledge is a very ‘important asset’3. Knowledge is very important in consumer insight. Organizations share knowledge with each other, but there are barriers in this activity. One example is the so-called internal stickiness. Barriers impede the transfer of knowledge from people to people or department to department within organizations. Experience of organizations proved that it is not easy to transfer knowledge or best practice. This is termed internal stickiness.4 Cultural diversity has also become a trend. Adaptation and standardization are also added to product diversification. There is a demand for local produ cts but customers also want global ones, or imported products. Marketers adapt local products to adjust to cultural differences.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Art of Consumer-Insights Marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Meeting the customer’s needs and wants is a business trend in the age of intense globalization. Marketers aim for customer focus and loyalty. Organizations aim for customer loyalty while keeping cost of production low. This is multi-purpose but difficult to achieve; difficult because meeting the customer’s needs and wants at the same time minimizing cost of production do not ensure quality product or service. Customer satisfaction is an important strategic part of marketing. Products and services are geared towards customer focus, and customer satisfaction is a goal in a value added supply chain. In order to address the problem of customer loyalty, firms apply product a nd service innovations. This is also the main objective of market orientation – customer satisfaction through superior performance of products and services. Customer relationship marketing (CRM) creates value for the customer5. Kotler et al. includes the idea of value in the definition of marketing, which is â€Å"the relationship between what is paid and what is received, and can be increased or reduced by marketing activities.†6 Marketing involves a lot of issues, including a database of information, data and knowledge. There is the question of the marketing mix that also requires more information about consumers. The marketing concept looks at the depth of selling which is searching for ways to satisfy the needs and wants of the customer. Organizations have to find out what will satisfy customers, then, create satisfying products. The marketer must continue to apply innovations. This is what they call continual improvement in the company’s product.7 There is another trend in marketing and that is, ensuring that the customer longs and wants for a ‘remake’ of the product; in other words, the strategy is to aim for the customer’s coming back to want for more. But customer satisfaction does not necessarily mean loyalty on the part of the customer. Many authors suggest that having continuous communication with the customer is one step to loyalty.8Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Customers have to be asked to rate the importance of particular attributes and performance levels of the product/s. They have to be asked about their willingness to repurchase and to recommend the products that they had bought. These steps can lead us to the concept of customer loyalty. Consumer Experience Marketing research on experience focuses on what the customer wants. Benefits are in the form of satisfaction and customer experience of the product. Consumer behavior for example has three aspects which are: creation of information, behavioral concept theory, and consumer attitude theory. These concepts provide consumer insight on consumer experience.9 In response to the complexities of the time, i.e., the existing pressure of globalization, marketers have reformatted the way they collect and utilize market intelligence. Marketers need more information and are redefining goals to suit to the present trend of intense globalization. In a study by Morash and Lynch, they found that c ustomer closeness is one of the requirements for customer focus and loyalty. It is important in demand-oriented capabilities and performance. Customer closeness is associated with responsiveness to customers and customization. Supply chains can also be aimed at customization. It is a strategy that combines operational excellence with customer closeness.10 Flexibility is another important factor in having customer closeness. Flexibility refers to being able to change and react to customer demands, or requests. A flexible organization reacts to quick changes in the product mix. Flexibility has other ‘flexible’ connotations, such as financial performance. There are many questions that managers and marketers ought to answer about the customer when looking for customer focus and loyalty. A study should be made on how customers behave, how they react to the product, and how they experience the product. Some questions that need to be answered by the marketer are: Why do custo mers want and like this product? What attracts customers to my product? How do customers receive the information advertising and commercials? When is the appropriate time to convince them to buy the products? An important strategy being applied by global firms in meeting the needs and wants of customers is introducing an approach to supply chain that focuses on the customer. Knowing the customers’ needs have become a foundation for which a company is founded. A company has to be marketing orientated, and for this, a number of changes have to take place in the organization, for example practices and attitudes. The marketing concept has evolved over the years of business and globalization. In the study of consumer insights, we refer to behavioral sciences that tell us more about buyer behavior. But it is more than that. Knowledge, information, technology, these are some of the vast amount of resources needed to know consumer insights and consumer behavior. A customer can be de fined in different ways. An airline company can look at it in a different angle. But for a pharmaceutical company, a customer can be a physician or the patients in the hospital. Organizations, with their marketers and sales people, have to manage and integrate their actions to different kinds of customers. Gathering all those information can be laborious and requires a lot of time and resources. But innovations and programs of activities have to be focused along this line of activities. Organizations can shift focus to analyzing the various information and data, turning it into knowledge and expertise. The company can conduct its own survey, using its own people and resources, in order to know whether customers still want the company’s products, or if they are shifting to the competitors. The information on the customer satisfaction is vital in the improvement of the product or service.11 On the other hand, customer focus and loyalty is important to supply chain. The marketer should understand customer experience of the product, and the customer should be able to interpret the customer experience by answering what still needs to be done. The Meaning of Insight There is no puzzle about what is insight. We all have this, but consumer insight is unique because only marketers have expert knowledge of it. Consumer insight is referred to as â€Å"voice of the consumer†; it can influence or become a basis for better decision making of a company or organization. Product planning and development, customer relations, department communications and management are more made effective when there is fundamental understanding of the consumer.12 Historically, there were some organizations that recognized the need for a separate department to handle the vast information for consumer insights and so concerned CEOs formed the account planning unit. Other organizations established their own directorships – Director of Consumer Knowledge Development, Manager of Consumer and Market Knowledge, etc. Managers were in charge of interpreting and applying information to the different departments in an organization.13 The term insight has two meanings: one is plural and the other singular. The plural form, â€Å"insights†, refers to ideas or discoveries that can provide opportunities. The marketer can be aided with tools like customer databases and market research. The singular form, on the other hand, â€Å"insight†, refers to one’s talent or capability to think clearly and deeply. It refers to a marketer’s deep knowledge of the consumers, which can help in decision making.14 This type of insight is very important; it is a deciding factor in customer loyalty. Every marketer ought to have it. This is not about knowing some pieces of a puzzle but having all the necessary ingredients to produce a complete picture. Everyone involved in marketing, particularly those who personally deal with consumers, should know and see t he picture. Consumer insight cannot be attained from simple research but from combined sources, such as databases, planning data, reports, market intelligence, feedback from people in the field, even consumer complaints, and everything about consumers. The importance of consumer insight to marketers has been established. The implications for business and organizational growth with a well-defined and well-research customer insight are significant. But consumer insight will continually change over time because of the demographic changes and the changes in the market forces. Marketers will have to adjust, introduce new innovations, and continue to need customer insight because of the following factors: Customers will not make themselves available to traditional marketing. Brands will be very important as customers will prefer a select few. That is why, it is important that organizations have a database of consumer insights.15 Customer interaction in websites can help in having more in formation about customers and their preferences. Marketing peers, such as those from the media, will be less cooperative and so there will be resent among the various groups in the media. Brands will not be easy to build. Consumers will be more bright and wise and so traditional brand builders will find it difficult to succeed. A new demographic of employees will emerge as most of those over fifty years old will remain employed. Another thing is the employee backlash as everyone becomes a customer, and an alienated customer at that. An example is your wife or employee who complains about your product.16 Database Marketing and Consumer Insight Database marketing refers to the relationship of consumer and organization when both are in the process of communicating, exchanging all possible information for a particular and actual purchase of a product or about certain service issues that a consumer wants clarified. While the traditional characteristics of the marketing mix focus on cons umer and relationship with supplier and product, database marketing is narrower. This is focusing on the organization’s desire to sell more.17 Database marketing has a lot of good and positive results for an organisation. Its benefits are what businesses expect of market research. Database marketing turns interest into profits. It does clear action, also referred as brand advertising. We know how important a brand or name of a product. Database marketing upholds brands. Brands are like names of countries; they represent a people, they carry a reputation. Remarkable names or brands are those whose reputations cannot be questioned. Database marketing also delivers what is expected. Consumers to good advertising. It fosters customer interaction. This kind of communication can be done through the Internet. A company’s website should have customer interaction feature wherein customers can ask question and lodge complaints.18 Another focus on this particular strategy of ma rketing is customer care.19 Customer care is simply taking care of the customer. This includes everything, or every activity and product that satisfies the customer. Examples are: a well-polished and beautiful store where storeowner and employees wait and expect the customer’s â€Å"orders†, a state-of-the-art website where organization and customer interaction is one of the awaited features and readily available with an administrator providing 24-hour service to customers’ questions and complaints, and everything about good service. Supplier staff and employees treat well the customers. These are some of the features of customer care. Database marketing is more focused on the individual consumer but customer care recognizes the role played by people like relatives, friends and neighbours of the customer. In this instance, there is the role of the influencer or the person who influences the customer to buy the product. Another one is the decision maker who has t he budget to buy the product.20 Database marketing can become a science by itself, as what managers and marketers hope it to be. This is because in this kind of activity, a marketer or a salesman, or anyone who is charged to have direct contact with customers, can conduct experiments and tests and be able to control the results. Case Study: Getting into Customers’ Insights Understanding consumers and offering them products they want are one of the most difficult jobs in marketing. But this is the job of marketing research firm AC Nielsen – to understand the behavior of customers who purchase consumer goods in their everyday lives. AC Nielsen aims to provide clients with knowledge and information on how to meet consumers’ expectations. Nielsen’s clients are big names in consumer retail, such as Wal-Mart, Kraft Foods, Tesco, and more.21 These companies are the global ones that invest much on capital and people. Millions of dollars are at stake and they have to target the right customers, the right approach with appropriate insights needed to win their trust and loyalty. AC Nielsen Homescan Spectra, a global branch of AC Nielsen, makes use of the latest technology in doing research, such as a software that allows the company to communicate with clients and groups that conduct software development, database management, in order to provide client-centered services.22 When a client approaches AC Nielsen, asking for consumer insights and how to increase sales on a particular segment, AC Nielsen studies the target consumers. They know, through previous researches, consumers who buy products in different stores, and they can also forecast consumer attributes through market intelligence and other studies in the market. It is important that they know the client needs.23 Their strategy is to work with research staff that compare sales rates to the shoppers in the stores. Through calculations, they could tell which stores were selling more prod ucts be determining the kinds of customers the stores served.24 The importance of consumer insights is stressed in this case study. A lot of information about customers, the products they want, how and when they want those products were important inputs in knowing how to increase sales of which stores. Selected Examples When Zara, an international apparel and fashion firm with a chain of approximately 2000 stores worldwide opened a Melbourne branch, it needed a research company to research on consumer insight in new its new market. The research team should answer questions like: How would the new market increase sales? How and when is the time the industry peak its sales? How should customer focus be dealt with? The company had to refocus and acquire more knowledge about the new segment and demographic. Knowledge is an important asset to the company. The results of the survey-research helped Zara cope with the new market. Another example is that of a chain of restaurants known as Da rden Restaurants. This company owns hundreds of restaurant brands known as Red Lobster and Olive Garden which specialize in seafood menus. Before opening a new branch anywhere in the world, the company would hire a consulting firm to conduct research-survey on external analysis. The company is aware that restaurant business is complicated business. Industry competitors use all sorts of strategy in the marketing mix – advertising, promotion, product, prices, and places. The industry is also management- and capital intensive and brings along with it high capital requirements. Because of this strategy, Darden Restaurants has become successful in every country it wants to penetrate.25 Conclusion The subject in this essay can be summarized in two terms – customer insight. This is a simple subject that can lead us to many underlying topics of interest for marketers and consumers (although consumers wouldn’t really care). It is the marketer and the organization where h e/she belongs who should look at things in many perspectives. Acquiring more profits is not anymore the main objective. By making it a secondary one and by understanding customers, a business firm can progress. It is also a difficult job to achieve. With globalization, products are multiplied every minute, every second of the day. There are more products in the global village while customers are becoming fewer, many are hiding in their ‘global village’ homes. The industrial revolution, the consumerism in America, standardization and adaptation, they have all made products cheaper and consumers never wanting for more. Customer insight is linked to customer satisfaction and loyalty and focus. Global organizations compete to gain more customers. They try to understand customers, interpret consumer experience, and put this in their program of activities in order to maintain customer loyalty. It is not enough that customers buy the products; it is important that they pass th e word, and subsequently come back. A partnership between the business firm and the customer can make the company happy. This is about the new strategy in the new world – understanding consumers through consumer insights. Bibliography ACNielsen. Consumer-Centric Category Management: How to Increase Profits by Managing Categories Based on Consumer Needs. New Jersey and Canada: John Wiley Sons, Inc., 2006. Blythe, Jim. Principles Practice of Marketing. London: Thomson Learning, 2006. Boone, Louise and David Kurtz. Contemporary Marketing. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2009. Callingham, Martin. Market Intelligence: How and Why Organizations Use Market Research. United Kingdom; USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Chan, John. Toward a Unified View of Customer Relationship Management. The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, Staffordshire University Library, 2005. Darden. Company History. 2011. Web. Gamble, Paul, Alan Tapp, Anthony Marsella and Merlin Stone. Mark eting Revolution: The Radical New Approach to Transforming the Business, the Brand the Bottom Line. Great Britain and the United States: Kogan Page Limited, 2007. Jobber, David and George Lancaster. Selling and Sales Management, Sixth Edition. England: Pearson Education Limited, 2003. Schmitt, Bernd. Experience Marketing: Concepts, Frameworks and Consumer Insights. Foundations and Trends ® in Marketing, vol 5, no 2, pp 55-112, 2010. Stone, Merlin, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss. â€Å"How Customer Care and Database Marketing Use Customer Insight.† In Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get closer to Your Customer, edited by Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss, 59-68. United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Stone, Merlin, Alison Bond, Clive Nancarrow and Sharon Rees. â€Å"Consumer Insight and Market Research.† In Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, edited by Merlin Stone, Alis on Bond and Bryan Foss, 111-112. United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Stone, Merlin, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond, Martin Hickley and Nick Orsman. â€Å"Privacy, Risk, and Good and Bad Consumers. In Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, edited by Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss, 209-211. United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Stone, Merlin, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond and Steve Wills. Introduction to Consumer Insight: How to use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer. Edited by Merlin Stone, Alison Bond Bryan Foss, 1-3. United Kingdom and United States: Kogan Page Limited, 2005. Stone, Merlin, Clive Nancarrow, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond and Nick Orsman. â€Å"Using Consumer Insight in Developing and Retaining Consumers.† In Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer. Edited by Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss, 160-161. Uni ted Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Stone, Merlin, Julie Abbott, Bryan Foss, Paul McDaid and Doug Morrison. â€Å"Consumer Insights Systems.† In Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, edited by Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss, 228-230. United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004. Szulanski, George. Exploring Internal Stickiness: Impediments to the Transfer of Best Practice Within the Firm. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17 (Winter Special Issue), 27-43, 1996. Venkatraman, N and John C. Henderson. â€Å"Four Vectors of Business Model Innovation: Value Capture in a Network Era.† In From Strategy to Execution: Turning Accelerated Global Change into Opportunity, edited by Daniel Pantaleo and Nirmal Pal, 259. Heidelberg: Springer, 2008. Vitale, Dona. How Smart Companies Apply Customer Knowledge to the Bottom Line. New York: Paramount Market Publishing, Inc., 2006. Footnotes 1 Dona Vitale, How Smart Companies apply Customer Knowledge to the Bottom Line (New York: Paramount Market Publishing, Inc., 2006), 2. 2 Vitale, 2. 3 Martin Callingham, Market Intelligence: How and Why Organizations Use Market Research (United Kingdom; USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 23. 4 George Szulanski, Exploring Internal Stickiness: Impediments to the Transfer of Best Practice Within the Firm, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 17 (Winter Special Issue), 27-43, 1996. 5 John Chan, Toward a Unified View of Customer Relationship Management, The Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge [e-journal], Staffordshire University Library, 2005. 6 Jim Blythe, Principles Practice of Marketing (London: Thomson Learning, 2006), 5. 7 David Jobber and George Lancaster, Selling and Sales Management, Sixth Edition (England: Pearson Education Limited, 2003), 15. 8 Merlin Stone, Julie Abbott, Bryan Foss, Paul McDaid and Doug Morrison, â€Å"Consumer Insights Systems,† in Consume r Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, eds, Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 228. 9 Bernd Schmitt, Experience Marketing: Concepts, Frameworks and Consumer Insights (Foundations and Trends ® in Marketing, vol 5, no 2, pp 55-112, 2010. 10 Jobber and Lancaster, 15. 11 Merlin Stone, Clive Nancarrow, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond and Nick Orsman, â€Å"Using Consumer Insight in Developing and Retaining Consumers,† in Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, eds, Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 160. 12 Vitale, p. 9. 13 Vitale, 9. 14 Merlin Stone, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond and Steve Wills, Introduction to Consumer Insight: How to use Data and Market Research to get Closer to Your Customer, eds. Merlin Stone, Alison Bond Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and United States of America: Kogan Page Limited, 2005), 1. 15 Paul Gamble, Alan Tapp, Anthony Marsella and Merlin Stone, Marketing Revolution: The Radical New Approach to Transforming the Business, the Brand the Bottom Line (Great Britain and the United States: Kogan Page Limited, 2007), 70. 16 Gamble, Tapp, Marsella and Stone, 70. 17 Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss, â€Å"How Customer Care and Database Marketing Use Customer Insight,† in Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get closer to your Customer, eds. Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 59. 18 Merlin Stone, Alison Bond, Clive Nancarrow and Sharon Rees, â€Å"Consumer Insight and Market Research,† in Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, eds, Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 111. 19 Stone et al., 111. 20 Stone et al., 62. 2 1 Louise Boone and David Kurtz, Contemporary Marketing (Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2009), 338. 22 ACNielsen, Consumer-Centric Category Management: How to Increase Profits by Managing Categories Based on Consumer Needs (New Jersey and Canada: John Wiley Sons, Inc., 2006), 275. 23 Merlin Stone, Bryan Foss, Alison Bond, Martin Hickley and Nick Orsman, â€Å"Privacy, Risk, and Good and Bad Consumers, in Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer, eds, Merlin Stone, Alison Bond and Bryan Foss (United Kingdom and USA: Market Research in Practice, 2004), 209. 24 Stone, Foss, Bond, Hickley and Orsman, 209.. 25 Darden, Company History, 2011. 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