DUNKIN DONUTS CASE STUDY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DUNKIN DONUTS CASE STUDY - Essay Example In their attempt to sell only good quality products, Dunkin Donuts have created a Coffee Quality Checking Lab, in which every aspect of the coffee is checked, so that the consumers get the best value Dunkin Donut product, no matter wherever it is sold. They have also increased the value perception by giving consumers "what they want". For example, they introduce only those products which are demanded by the consumers and do not come out with random products. This is how Dunkin Donuts is increasing its value perception and having great success in matching their philosophy which is 'great quality with affordability'. Its value perception is similar to that of KFC and McDonalds. They also try to give the maximum quality to their consumers and waiting time for their burgers is only 3 minutes. This is like if Dunkin' Donuts could not sell their coffee in 18 minutes they throw it away, in the same way KFC and McDonald throw away their burgers if they are unable to sell them. The positionin g strategy of Donut Dunkin is very simple as they target a mass market without any distinction of different classes, different level of education etc. According to William Kussels, Dunkin' Donuts Senior Manager, whenever you take a ride to one of our outlet, you always see Mercedes parked with pickup trucks, this shows that we do not target any specific consumer class but we target a mass market.

Write ur own ending Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Write ur own ending - Essay Example Lucy and Susan were rather scared as the Lion was going astray and was losing conscious. All of a sudden, the sky went all dark, and strange dark clouds took over the entire mansion and soon, the entire scenery was found covered in darkness. Cold Chilly wind started blowing and suddenly, the trees started turning pale. Aslan, the Lion, was now feeling weak and stale, and soon after he started mumbling, ‘Water! I need some Water’. Poor Lucy and Susan were more confused than frightened, questions rambling inside their minds. ‘Susan, you`ve turned blue, what is happening to you?’ exclaimed Lucy. A tear drop fell from the eyes of frightened Susan, which instantly turned into ice. At this moment, Lucy realized that their bodies were losing temperature and they were suddenly turning into ice. Aslan, the Lion, was already lying on the floor, turning into ice slowly and gradually, as if his body is being trapped into a container made out of ice. Lucy and Susan ran up to Aslan, trying to wake him up. Lucy slowly rubbed the paws and face of Aslan, hoping he would be relieved. Though unconscious, Aslan slowly gathered the power to speak as he looked into the eyes of both Lucy and Susan, turn by turn, ‘Return to your land, the witch`s spell has gone stronger than ever’ he said with much wretchedness. ‘Soon, you`ll both turn into ice statues and would never be able to return’. †˜What? We can`t leave you here, if we abandon Narnia, no one will ever be able to rescue the statues ever’ said Susan. ‘And what about Edmund, we haven`t found him yet’ cried Lucy. ‘Aslan is right. Both of you must return to where you belong before it`s too late’ exclaimed Edmund, appearing from nowhere. Unlike the surroundings, and the condition in which Lucy and Susan were, freezing and dying of the chilly winds, Edmund was joyous and healthy, in fact he looked better than he had ever looked.

Consumer Buying Decision Process Marketing Essay

Consumer Buying Decision Process Marketing Essay Behavior is defined as any activity, physical or mental, performed by an individual. Studying consumer behavior can help enterprises understand what consumers need, so they can create, develop, and improve their products and marketing strategy. The basic questions that the marketers have to understand about the consumers are what products they want to buy, where they buy, when they buy, and how much they want to buy. Moreover, they would understand what factors that impact to consumer behavior and their buying decision (). Purchasing goods and services depends on the consumers needs, preferences and purchasing power (Kahn, 2007). According to Solomon (2004), the consumers also buy products as an experience (emotive or aesthetic reaction), as an instrument of integration, as a classification scale (how we are ranged in the society), or as a game. Voice of the customers is very important because businesses do not know all what consumers want to get from their products and services, and it can lead products fail. So product research would help businesses improve existing product and to identify gaps in current products (). However, the businesses need to concern in the long term, because the opportunity of today for a trend is not necessarily than tomorrows (). 2.5 Consumer buying decision process The decision-making process starts from the mind of consumers. This process includes the consumer first understanding what they need. Then, they will search for information while considering internal and external factors. Next, they will have an evaluation and make a selection, and eventually make a purchase (see figure 1). The post purchase behavior can give companies information about whether or not their products are successful. Sales and after sale services can also have an effect on consumer satisfaction and lead to repeat purchases (see figure 2). It shows that the purchasing process starts from the consumers needs and finishes with their satisfaction. The marketing strategies will be successful if they have the best solutions to solve the consumers problems (Kahn, 2007). Companys total product Competitors total product Consumer decision process Superior value expected Sales Perceived value delivered Consumer satisfaction Fig. 2 Creating Satisfied Customers (Source: Kahn 2007) Problem recognition Information search External and internal Evaluation and selection Store choice and purchases Post-purchase Behavior Fig. 1 Decision Process (Source: Kahn 2007) Consumers have different shopping behaviors. There are many stores and many goods and services that consumers can choose from while they are shopping. The places to buy products are different, and consumers choose where they want to buy based upon what kind of products they want to buy. Some consumers are loyal to certain stores, while others are considered store switchers because they are willing to buy similar products in more than one type of store. There are many factors that can affect the consumers decision to select where to buy products. Price is one of the main factors that influences buying decisions with some consumers preferring to shop in stores that have everyday low prices (EDLP), and others that like promotion prices (HILO) (Bell, Bucklin Sismeiro, 2000). Stavkova, Stejskal, and Toufarova (2008) studied about the factors that influence consumer decision to buy various products. From their study, they found the most important factors that influence consumer behavior for 10 different types of products. Each of the product types showed different factors. For example, for food and non-alcoholic drinks, the most important factors are necessity of need, quality, and former experience. For clothing and footwear, the factors include quality, products characteristics and parameters, and design of product. For transport, the important factors are necessity of need, price, and quality. Lorinczi, Bacs, Nagy (2009) studied about factors that influences consumer decision on carbonated soft drinks consumption, and the result of their study showed that, flavor is the most important factor that influences consumer decision. Trademark and price are also important factors, but health and speed of purchase are not really important for them. Basically, food and drink are related to what is important to the consumers such as their survival, health, life expectancy, personality, lifestyle, and family (European Commissions, 2009). According to the (), there are 3 factors that influence the consumer food choice decision making-process; Properties of the food, person-related factors and purchasing environmental factors, while communication is related with all these factors. It is highly influence by social factors and increasingly motivated by necessity (European Commissions, 2009) However, we can still assume that consumer food choice is influenced by prices, quality, and income, but quality of consumers perception today are impacted from sensory, heath, process and convenience (Grunert). Sensory are taste, appearance and smell. However, the consumers would know taste of products only after purchase, so they use signals from brand, price, and quality to predict the taste experience. Health is related to information communication, signals, and learning history of the consumer. The consumers are interested more in process of making products such as GMO-free and Organic. And convenience is related to saving time and energy of consumers. 2.6 Factors influence consumer behaviors Consumer behaviors influence by socio-demographic characteristics of the individual consumer or marketing activities (). According to Kotler Armstrong (2009), there are external factors and internal factors that influence consumer behaviors. External factors are cultural and social, while internal factors are personal and psychological (see figure) Cultural Culture Sub-culture Social class Social Reference Groups Family Roles Status Personal Age life cycle stage Occupation Income Life style Personality Psychological Motivation Perception Learning Beliefs Attitudes Buyer behaviors Source: Kotler Armstrong (2009) 2.6.1 Social and Cultural Factors Each market may be unique in term of social norms and tradition. Culture is a key determinant of the consumer behaviors (Wallance, 1965; Jung Kau, 2004). Culture provides us with what we know to be true and knowledge of how things are (p.25). They are usually support by learning from generation to generation, changing only slowly over time. According to Jung Kau (2004), brand loyalty and decision making are found difference in consumers across sub-cultures. Food products are particularly sensitive to sub-cultural influences, it cans differences between nations or groups of nations. Difference cultural and countries might influence difference in knowledge, information, and attitudes on acceptance of foods (14). A group is defined as two or more individuals who share a set of norms, values, or beliefs (p.199). Reference groups influence consumer behavior by their information of knowledge, experience, recommendation, communication, and word-of-mouth. According to Riedl et al. (2002), word of mouth promotion leads to successful and high margin of consumer products. Primary group are friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family (e.g. family size and age of children) while secondary groups are more formal such as social and sports clubs (p. 199). According to (p.299), the family is a major influence in the learning process for young people. It also can be comparative influence such as teenagers want to accept to peer groups and to be a part of their groups (). For teenagers, it is also comparative influence that they want to accept from their peer groups or wish to be a part of them. Stead et al. (2011) found that young people used foods and drinks choices for judging others, accepting friendship and peering norms. According to Sylow Holm (2009), more than its nutritional and calorific content, food also can be a socio-cultural product. In many groups and cultures, choosing or rejecting foods and drinks depends on their individual, status, society, and image (eg Fox Ward, 2008; Tivadar Luthar, 2005). Society influences healthy eating (Stead et al, 2011). The respondents of their research cared about their image and peer groups. One group of respondents who play sport said that healthy eating can increase their sporting ability. Most of groups know that if they become obese it would damage their image. So it lead some of them have unhealthy behavior like skipping meals. However, some of respondents showed that healthy eating did not important for their image, because they prefer junk and other unhealthy foods. They also found that some respondents think that people who selected healthy foods such as fruits, yoghurt, and water in their meal are untrendy. 2.6.2 Personal factors According to Kotler Armstrong (2009), personal factors which influence consumer behaviors are age and life cycle stage, occupation, income, lifestyle, and personality of the consumers. In this study we will focus on the consumer lifestyles. Lifestyle is the way an individual choose and uses possessions (p.23) (Engle, Kollat Blackwell, 1973) or also means personals pattern of living as show in their opinions, interests, needs, activities, and value which can show who they are, and also can show their self image and their culture (Reynolds Wells, 1977). Lifestyle is closely related to consumer behavior. It is as motivator of consumer behavior and basic source of the information (p.23). The consumers consume products which can respond their needs and it also can change to their lifestyles. Socio-demographic impacts to consumer behaviors ( ), According to (), age is related to buy of different kinds of functional foods and difference in consumer views(6,7,8). For gender, men and women tend to buy different types of products and use different criteria when choosing want to buy. They found that women are willing to pay a higher premium of products with health benefits. Also they found that age, gender, education, occupation, and income, can show purchasing pattern. For example, young-single spend more on clothing entertainment, fast food than other groups, while couples, families paying for food. According to research of Safe food (2009), they found that smoothies were more popular among women, younger age group and higher social classes. 2.6.3 Situational influences Situation is defined as set of factors outside of and removed from individual consumer as well as removed form the characteristics or attributes of the product (p.58). Managers and marketers should beware about consumer situation also. There are many kinds of situations that can influence consumer behaviors. According to (), situation variable are physical surrounding, social surrounding, temporal perspective, task definition, and antecedent states (p.58). For example, generally consumers prefer low price of products but sometime they want what is more convenient and willing to pay in higher price. The table below shows the sample of situations in nonalcoholic beverage consumption, they show that in different situations they might consume different kinds of drinks. For example, during the summer, they would prefer water-based waters which sour and can quench their thirst. Situations Context-specific ideal beverage clusters Desired Attributes During the summer Water-based drinks Not relaxing Sour Thirst quenching During the winter Hot adult drinks Served very hot Good for my health Energy giving For breakfast Juices Primarily for children Good for my health Energy giving For lunch Hot adult drinks Served very hot Best with food Not thirst quenching When friends com for dinner Hot adult drinks Primarily for adults Sour Light When you are thirsty Water-based drinks Not relaxing Sour Thirst quenching When you wish to relax Water-based drinks Relaxing Sweet Not thirst quenching When you need a pick-me-up Milk-based drinks Served very hot Good for my health Energy giving Source: Hustad, Mayer, Whipple (1975); Hawkins, Coney, Best (1980) 2.6.4 Psychological Factors Psychological factors that influence consumer behaviors are motivation, perception, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. (See figure). Studying about consumers helps businesses improve their marketing strategies by understand consumer psychological that how the consumers think and feel. Consumer knowledge and information influence decisions. Knowledge and interested about health and nutrition is very important. () show that level of consumer knowledge about food ingredients and consumer understanding of relationship between nutrition and health are important to consumers attitude towards of functional foods. Studied of () showed that tendency to read the nutrition information on food products was found to be important factor affecting the purchase of omega-3 products (9). Learned in their lives, personal experience, experience of others, this opinions lead to beliefs can lead positive or negative attitude which can be difficult to change. Beliefs and attitudes believe in benefits of functional foods was found to be the main positive determinant of acceptance of functional foods (15). Moreover, Perception of healthiness products and health and nutrition claims found in positively influence purchasing choice (). Perception of information consists of facts estimates predictions and generalized relationships that are used by consumers to recognize and solve problem (p. 264). 2.7 Consumer Motivations Motivation is viewed as an inner force and refers to wish, feeling, and need (p. 305). Consumer motivation is known as a driver of behavior that brings consumers to purchase the products (Kim Jin 2001). Consumers are motivated to buy products when they believe that those products will satisfy their most immediate (). Consumers start to look for more than just basic functions from their product differentiate by adding value. They can add value to their products by changing or transforming their products from their original to more valuable state (Coltrain, Barton Boland, 2000) to reach more consumer satisfaction. They also can increase the products value by services. Consumer motivation and decision making process are influenced by products and services, level of importance or interest ().Motivation is an important factor that impact to consumer buying decision of certain types of products especially healthy food (). According to Hoo Munusamy (2008), there are four factors that can influence consumer motives: social factors, situational factors, psychological factors, and marketing mix. (see figure) However, this research the researcher will only study about marketing mix factors. 2.8 Factors influence consumer motivations Social Culture Sub-culture Social class Reference groups Families Situation Physical features Social features Time Task features Current conditions Psychological Product knowledge Product involvement Marketing mix Products Price Place Promotion People Consumer Motives Figure: Factors influences Consumer Motives 2.8.1 Marketing Mix The marketing mix in this study is defined as 5 Ps which are products, prices, places, promotions, and people. Each element of the marketing mix can affect to consumers in many ways (Peter Donnelly, 2007). Marketing mix uses in company to deliver marketing purpose and control variables in a market target (Kolter, 2000). The businesses need to create a successful mix of the right products, sell in right place, right price, and the most suitable promotion. Product Product is defined as everything that the businesses offer to the consumers in an exchange process can be in a form of physical good, service or both ().According to Borden (1984), product is about quality, design, features, brand name, and size. Service are closely relates and will both contribute to consumers satisfaction, for example, buy food in super markets quality of service provide by super market will also affect their level of satisfaction and purchasing decisions. Health and nutrition claims become important factors that influence consumer buying behaviors of foods and beverages (16). Branding does not necessarily mean food products would taste better to those not used to the brand but the brains of those who recognize a brand tell them other wise. However, taste is very important for them also. According to Lorinczi, Bacs, Nagy (2009), they found that if the consumers like the flavor of products such as carbonated soft drinks, they do not care about health, even they aware that it is unhealthy, and aware of its potential and negative physiological impact. Safe food research (2009) agreed that most of people drink smoothies because they like the taste more than healthy and increase their fruit intake (Safe food, 2009). The businesses need to concern what product means to the consumer. Physical appearance, packaging and labeling information of product also can motive consumer buying decision. Moreover, Peter Donnally (2007) show that differentiate their products from competition and create consumer perception that product is worth purchasing. In term of specific products, consumer motivations seem highly dependent on the situation (p.325). Adding value to products can enhance famers businesses (). The consumers concern more about nutrition of products and convenience, so it is an opportunity for businesses to create or improve their goods and services. One of the samples of adding value from fresh fruits and vegetables is transform them to other kind of products such as jams, jellies, and other preserves, cut and frozen vegetables, including dried herbs which made for medicinal. The businesses need to concern about consumers needs in quality, packaging, and variety of products which are more important than price (Connor et al.; Benny, 2005). Branding and packaging also can increase value and market development for businesses. Benny (2005) agreed that value added goods provide better handling and results, he studied about value added products from green tea extracts and found that the standardized extract of green tea can reduce obesity and prevent the disease and it can change in a form of capsules, but it has a bitter taste and can consume not much. However, they can expand the green tea extracts by transform it to a component of cosmetics, ice-creams, and others and can add some vitamins and herbal to have more value and nutrients. Value-added also can be production methods such as organic, grass-fed, hormone free and others. It showed that creative, knowledge, and differentiate can motive consumer interest and buying decision. However, value-added products can fail if the products can not respond to consumer needs and consumer satisfaction. Price Price is related to satisfaction, brand loyalty purchase frequency of the consumers (Kalyanaram Little, 1994). The consumer become more knowledgeable as to its quality and value (Zeithaml, 1988), consequently when the consumers better understands the value of the product, they are more sensitive to changes in value (e.g. if the price were to increase) which may affect the intention to purchase (Chang Wildt, 1994; Lodorfos, Mulvana, Temperley, 2006). According to Lin, Li, You (2011), a profitable price made by businesses to match segmentation target, create enough attraction and competition. Effect of price can increase on consumer behavior (Klaus et al., 2009; Lin, Li, You, 2011). The higher price is, the less we want to buy it in case of normal goods (Lorinczi, Bacs, Nagy (2009). Perception of the price determines what the consumers are willing to buy (Lin, Li, You, 2011). However, consumer Place Place or distribution channel is a set of interdependent institutions , for delivery of good and services to the consumers. Promotion Marketing and advertising managers should strategically place their product prominently in promotion in order to guarantee the desire impact (Van Der Waldt et al., 2007; Lin, Li You, 2011). According to Pedraja Yague (2011), the consumer use information from advertising, and information provided at the restaurant when searching for external source of information, used information and advertising as a source to reduce perceived risk and uncertainty. Kasikorn Bank (1997) studied about consumer behavior of supplement foods. They found that, the factor which influence in choosing supplementary food consumption is advertisement. At first the consumers might consume supplement foods just because they want to try. But after they concern that it is good for them, they would retain to purchase. However, the respondents of this study comment that most of the businesses advertise the products more than their properties. Sale promotion such as discount, special offer, can act as short term to motive consumers to choose (Mill, 2007). According to Jackson, Titz DeFrance (2004), high price restaurant, benefited from coupon promotions to a greater extent than low price restaurant (Sriwongrat, 2008). According to European Commissions (2009), free trial and price promotions can help the businesses promote their food products, and trying to take up healthier food is likely to be more effective than trying to convince them to give up unhealthy food. Sometimes a persons awareness and preference for product can result from repetitive brand advertising (European Commissions, 2009). People

The Destructors :: Literary Analysis, Graham Greene

The gang members in Graham Greene’s â€Å"The Destructors† are catastrophic young children and teenagers who are unfortunately being greatly affected by their surroundings. Placed in wartime London, their town is in rubble from bombings. Peer pressure is no help when a destructive surrounding and vulnerable ages are strongly influencing the instinctive human behavior of the members, which causes many of their horrific actions. The characters of Greene’s short story are different in their own way. Mike is a childish young boy â€Å"at the age of nine [who] was surprised by everything† (50). Trevor, better known as T, comes off to be one of the nicer and more hushed boys in ‘the gang’. â€Å"†¦there were possibilities about his brooding silence that all recognised† (50). Blackie was the gang member who worried that T. was too classy for the gang. â€Å"†¦he was anxious to retain T. in the gang if he could. It was the word ‘beautiful’ that worried him- that belonged to a class world†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (53). However, as the story progresses it comes to be known that Blackie has taken T to be something he is not. The gang meeting â€Å"every morning in an impromptu car-park, the site of the last bomb of the first blitz† has a great impact on their actions. The destruction of the town around them leads T to propose the destruction of a neighboring house which belonged to a man known as Old Misery. Blackie begins to appear to be the more civil of the two boys when he argues against T’s proposition saying â€Å"We’d go to jug† and â€Å"We wouldn’t have time† (53). Greene even writes â€Å"Blackie said uneasily, ‘It’s proposed that tomorrow and Monday we destroy Old Misery’s house’† (53). When the gang votes to follow through with the destruction, Blackie even contemplates giving up his leadership. â€Å"He thought of going home, of never returning†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (54). However, he gave into the pressure of wanting to belong to this gang and hold onto his leadership. After all, he had nowhere else to go. â€Å"Driven by the pure, simple and altruistic ambition of fame for the gang, Blackie came back to where T. stood in the shadow of Misery’s wall† (54). Not only does the rubble influence the children to act out, but it also desensitizes them, along with the residents of the town. This is shown very clearly when T. replies â€Å"Of course I don’t hate him†¦ there’d be no fun if I hated him†¦ all this hate and love†¦ it’s soft, it’s hooey.

Main Death Camp in 1942 Essay

Firstly, until mid-1943, the main death camps were camps similar to Sobibor, Belzec, and Treblinka. However, when all of the ‘non desirables’ had been liquidated, these camps shut down. Death camps were only meant to be a temporary place, and once their job was completed, they would quickly be dismantled. Auschwitz was different. It incorporated a Labour camp – so was designed for a much longer use than its’ contenders. The fact that it was one of the few camps that wasn’t temporary, meant that Jews from other areas of Europe – not just from nearby districts – were sent to Auschwitz to be dealt with accordingly. This made Auschwitz’s population grow to way beyond the amount it was originally designed to hold around 11,000. However, in August 1944, the population was a massive 105,168. Secondly, the camp also had other uses, apart from a death camp. Auschwitz I was the base camp, in which the whole of Auschwitz-Birkenau was operated from, which also incorporated a few gas chambers, and prison cells. Auschwitz II-Birkenau was the main death camp, where the majority of the 1.5-2 million Jews were killed. Auschwitz II also incorporated a separate camp for Roma and Ukrainian Gypsies, where Gypsies were sent from Ghettos such as Lodz, and from countries in the Nazi Empire. Auschwitz III was the main Labour camp, where Jews and other ‘less desirables’ were held and worked for the Reich. Auschwitz also had 45 sub-camps, in the surrounding areas. These sub-camps were concentration camps, where ‘non desirables’ were held until they were moved to Auschwitz itself. The vast array of camps in Auschwitz made it the main extermination camp, as it was a lot easier sending the ‘non desirables’ to Auschwitz via train, that to build several hundred temporary Extermination camps. Lastly, Himmler ordered for the camp to increase in size, saying ‘the existing extermination centres in the east are not sufficient to cope with an operation on such a scale’. The war emphasised the quickly progressed the killings in the Death camps, and Himmler knew that there were no camps big enough to ‘deal’ with the ‘undesirables’ on an industrial level. Auschwitz by this time was quite a small camp, with good railway links to Germany and  the rest of Poland. During this time, Himmler also, said that Auschwitz should be the main camp for the proposed â€Å"Final Solutions†. In conclusion, the main reason why Auschwitz was the main Death Camp was due to the fact that Auschwitz was one of the few permanent ‘killing stations’. This meant that ‘undesirables’ were sent there from all over Europe, and overpopulated the camp. This resulted in the camp increasing in size, and overall, having over seven gas chambers and crematoriums.

Bias in Womens Sports Essay

The world of sports is strictly dominated by a male hegemonic structure, which is not exactly welcoming to the thought or idea of sharing this love of sports with the opposite sex. The term hegemony is defined as the dominance of one state or group of individuals over the others. Although women have shown a passionate interest for sports, their ability to join this culturally powerful organization as respected professionals has not been completely accomplished. They have been given opportunities to participate in athletic areas that are not the most culturally popular venues within American culture (i. e. golf, gymnastics, swimming, and tennis), but their inception and respected entrance into the American conglomerates of the sports world (i. e. basketball, baseball, and football) have been favorably denied. Men suffocating treasure their superior domination of this cultural superstructure and fear the idea of allowing the opposite sex entrance into their precious stratum. Men’s ultimate trepidation is sports not being only their secret possession. Women have passionately fought to prove themselves as strong enough, knowledgeable enough, and tough enough to survive in the historically constructed system men have carved out: the association of sports and the manner in which it operates. Although their desperate attempts have allowed them to chip through the first few layers of this concrete barrier in which they are faced with, their attempts to delve deeper to ultimately reach the core of its existence has been a disappointing failure. Despite the increase in female athletes participating in sports at a college and professional level, the use of female athletes as product endorsers has been limited. Some female readers like my wife has suggested that there may be an obvious media bias against female athletes and other problems related to how women’s lack of being feminine is portrayed to the public. I feel that women athletes don’t get enough recognition compared to male athletes in the media, and how they don’t appear as profitable product endorsers in magazines or commercials as men. Only five percent of media coverage is devoted to women’s sports (Adams ;amp; Tuggle, 2004). The time media spends to publish these articles of women athletes are significantly less; compared to their male athlete. Many companies choose not to endorse women athletes (Grau, Roselli, and Taylor, 2007). Men’s sports journalists tend to focus on coverage of team sports for men, while women’s sports coverage usually is focused on individual sports. In several articles, the media defends its biases claiming that it is what the public wants, and not all viewers are interested in women’s sports. I feel the number of women playing professional sports has drastically increased over the past decade, but the media’s news coverage of women’s sports has not increased with this movement of women in sports. On ESPN Live news radio, they have mentioned over the last ten years, there has been almost no change in the percentage of national airtime that was designated for women’s sports. Only about one in ten sports articles and TV sports stories include women while eighty-two percent of television sports stories cover men’s sports. Women make the cover of magazines or sports pages less than fifteen times a year (Huffman, Tuggle, ;amp; Rosengard, 2004). According to Adams and Tuggle (2004), in 1995, the length of men’s television sports stories were a little over a minute, where stories covering women’s sports were only about forty seconds. With two professional sports leagues, it was assumed that the coverage of women’s sports would increase, but this is not reality. The coverage of women’s sports on the television show, ESPN’s Sports Center, has actually decreased. In 1995, Sports Center aired about 730 stories on men and only about 30 on women. The ratio was 25:1. In 2002, 780 stories covered men’s sports. Only 16 stories were about women and the ratio was more than 48:1. ESPN did dedicate a weekend to women in sports. During this time, Sports Center only aired three stories that included a woman; the other 60 were about men. Kian, Vincent, and Mondello (2008), found that about seventy-five percent of the New York Times and USA Today’s articles covered men’s basketball. Less than one percent of the articles included both men and women, and twenty-four percent focused on just women’s basketball. Huffman, Tuggle, and Rosengard (2004) analyzed several universities’ coverage of women’s sports. Though forty-one percent of the college athletes are female, seventy-three percent of the sports newspaper articles focused on male college students. Eighty-two percent of television sports stories were dedicated to male athletes. In both newspaper articles and television stories, baseball was covered the most. Men’s basketball was twice as likely as women’s softball to be covered. Less time has been devoted to women’s sports coverage, and when it is, it is usually an individual sport compared to women’s team sports. This is a great example of The Elaboration Likelihood Model. It states that there are two routes through which persuasive messages are processed. My central route would be to provide and give examples of the statistical analysis increase in audiences viewing women’s sports, and it would be a good investment. In these modern times, women are more successful and looking for role models of strength and beauty, like a successful empowering female athlete. Celebrity women athletes can be positive catalysts in selling apparel and have great news worthiness. In my opinion, the media seems to favor women’s individual sports compared to women’s team sports. Out of 16 Sports Center stories that covered women’s sports, 12 were individual sports. Only two were about women’s basketball, though it was almost the end of the WNBA season (Adams ;amp; Tuggle, 2004). In the 1960’s, there were less articles on women’s Olympic sporting events compared to articles published in the 1990’s of the same genre. In 1996, 36 years later, NBC announced that woman’s team sports would be emerging. Even with this big announcement, NBC only aired a few minutes of a women’s soccer team winning the gold medal over China. They did not even have a reporter available at the women’s gold medal winning softball game. Over half of the women’s Olympics sports covered were individual sports. These sports included swimming, diving, and gymnastics. Serena Williams, a tennis player and Marian Jones, a track athlete, are the only females that have been on the cover of ESPN Magazine in the course of five years. Female athletes in individual sports are twice more likely to be in magazines than as those who play on team sports. In several related magazines like Sports Illustrated for Women, female’s models are dressed as athletes rather than real athletes and being pictured posing with props like soccer balls, to add more sex appeal to the magazine. Some journalists say this is because women’s individual sports are considered more feminine than the team sports like basketball and soccer where women look frazzled and sweaty (Grau, Roselli, and Taylor, 2007). Men’s sports are still the ones that bring in the big bucks for ticket sales and popularity. Seventy percent of the NCAA division athletic budget goes to men’s basketball and football. For every dollar that is spent on women’s sports, three dollars of the same budget is spent on men’s. For example, male coaches in almost every instance are paid more than female coaches (Huffman, Tuggle, and Rosengard, 2004). Women athletes are given much fewer multimillion dollar endorsement contracts than a male athlete. In 1998, 200 female athletes from many sports signed various endorsement contracts. The NFL alone had 250 players that signed deals with Nike. Over 400 male athletes from football, basketball, and soccer had endorsement contracts with Reebok that same year (Grau, Roselli, ;amp; Taylor, 2007). If the viewers wanted to see more of women’s sports, then the network would great fully air what the viewing audience would like to see. During an ESPN television show, Town Meeting, a female viewer in the audience asked the Senior Vice President and Manager of editing, why does ESPN not report more on women athlete’s and women’s sports? I can remember David Shaw turning to look at her directly in the face and saying â€Å"ESPN’s job is to report and cover the news and sports that our viewers are interested in†. He leaned forward and reiterated that their goal as a sports broadcast network was to get the highest rating possible, and they must air the sports news the public wants and will watch. Mr. Shaw also mentioned that the network cannot generate interest in women’s sports without solid data of interest, and if that is what they want to see they need to make this interest known. I feel some diehard male sports fans have a sense of Cognitive Dissonance theory. They think that it’s not cool to cheer for women’s sports, it’s not as exciting or fast paced as men’s sports. The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions or adding new ones to create a consistent belief system. An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to watch women’s sports and knowing that media doesn’t have interest ; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the constant element that sticking to your guns is worth short term benefits. The network does air WNBA games on ESPN and ESPN2, but they seldom air highlights. Christina Brenamen, a commentator for ESPN, said that she feels the network doesn’t care and not to expect any changes anytime soon (Adams ;amp; Tuggle, 2004). Grau, Roselli, and Taylor (2007) found that many companies do not use female athletes as endorsers of their products, because they think that the average female consumer does not identify with female athlete, like males do with men athletes. Some of the companies assume that the average female consumer do not fallow women’s sports. They also suggest that some female athletes are too masculine and therefore do not have sex appeal. Angelini (2008) surveyed many individuals asking views about watching men’s sports vs. women’s sports. He wanted to uncover the stereotypes that individuals have on sports. Most of the participants believed that women’s sports were not as thrilling or exciting to watch as men’s sports. Those who participated in the study were asked to watch several sports clips while their heart rate was analyzed. After the clips were watched they were asked to answer recognition questions about what they had seen. Both male and females scored higher on the recognition questions after viewing female athletes. If the heart rate increased while the participant was watching the sport, it was determined that their arousal was high. If their heart rate was stable or deceased while watching the clip, it was determined that the participant was not aroused. Though most participants said that they were more aroused when watching the men’s sports, their heart rate actually determined that their arousal rate when watching women’s sports was the same as men’s at the beginning of the clip. Toward the end of the clips of men’s sports the arousal rate actually decreased. Angelini (2008) determined that because of the way the media depicts female athletes, the public thinks that men’s sports are going to be more exciting, through with extensive physiological research determined there are really no major differences. Since Universities viewed basketball as too masculine for women to play, and did not want to represent the women athletes of their school. The NCAA did not hold a women’s Division 1 tournament until 1982. In 2004, a women’s Division 1 championship game received the highest national television rating of any women’s or men’s basketball game that had ever been on a cable channel, up to that point. After analyzing two national newspapers and two sports web sites, during the 2006 NCAA and women’s sports tournaments, five main themes seemed to emerge from all of them. One, women’s basketball players were often compared to men. Two, men were never compared to women. Three, the female athletes were often said to be experienced players because most of them had grown up playing against boys. Four, the fathers of the athletes were interviewed more often than the mothers, because of their athletic ability. Finally, gender was mentioned as a main topic compared to the articles than men’s sports. In every article men’s basketball was reported before women’s. I would assume that there would be fewer gender biased remarks from the writers, but this was not the case. Even though writers have a little more time to evaluate on what is being written, unlike live television commentary, biases often still emerged (Kian, Vincent, ;amp; Mondello, 2008). Though the number of women playing sports has drastically increased, the media coverage has not kept up. The women’s sports covered typically are more feminine and individual like swimming, gymnastics, tennis and golf. Those sports activities are viewed as more masculine, like basketball, soccer, and softball, received significantly less media coverage. The media blames society and society blames the media for the differences in gender bias of sports (Grau, Roselli, ;amp; Taylor, 2007). It is unknown if television networks such as ESPN actually do research on what people would like to watch. They do not know that fifty percent of women say they watch television sports regularly and forty-six percent of men say that watch some women’s sports (Adams, ;amp; Tuggle, 2004). The 2004 NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball championships received the highest rating of all college basketball before then. One would think that after this evidence of interest, women’s basketball would receive greater attention. This is a great example of Evaluation Dimension in which our inner systems (beliefs, attitudes, values, etc. all support one another and when these are also supported by external evidence, and then we have a comfortable state of affairs. We also have a very strong need to believe we are being consistent with social norms. Like in the case of following other sports fans that are interested in women’s sports. When there is conflict between behaviors that are consistent with inner systems and behaviors that are consistent with social norms. A fitting Example would be the potential threat of social exclusion often sways us towards the latter, even though it may cause significant inner dissonance. Take for example, if I would approach my fantasy football team and said; â€Å"can we create a team in women’s sports†, that would really start some conflict within my group dynamic? I feel more research needs to be conducted to determine if it is really the public that is biased, or is the media just fallowing the same trend that they always have, and they just choose to report sports in the same standardized way. If we start to challenge the idea that masculinity defines sports at the cultural level. I believe that we will one day be able to develop an ideology that teaches and defends this innovative idea of gender quality throughout the educational process. The ultimate goal being that the foundation of sports promotes and abides by the system of gender equality at the professional level of women’s sports.