.

Friday, December 28, 2018

A Reflection Paper on Gintong Pamana

The evidences that will prove that Filipinos deliver a rich culture in pre-colonial period be the gold Jewelries and their technology. Firstly, coin is a precious metal that surpasses tout ensemble ores in the world. It is the or so expensive to the operate people search for it, fight for it, and level kill for it. But that wasnt the case in pre-colonial period. All classes?the nobles, freemen and the two types of slaves (lapping Mahayana and lapping salesgirl)?wore gold Jewelries.There are many uses of gold fend for then, only hey were Just an ornament on their bodies, utensils, decorations, orifice ornaments for the deceased when they laid to rest, and more. Lastly, their manual of arms technology on how they molded the gold. In the television system, seeing the belts, figurines and the stunning over the raise halter weighing four kilos of virtuous gold do me gasp and deeply think. Just how on earth they made those ornaments? I thought. They made it manually and wi th the tho help of a crucible to campaign the gold and so they were able to uncover works that are superior.The film unquestionably challenged my assumptions. I assumed that the Filipinos have unequal culture because they dont have the modern technology but I was completely wrong. The kinsfolk who inhabited the islands nearly a millennium ago were already so pass on In their craftsmanship which was also admittedly at different points of our history in the beautiful textiles, baskets, embroideries, etc. Watching the video made me project that I do not such grand stuff and nonsense hereditary pattern In my house but I do have the heritage of knowledge and values.I already gained It at the clock time I had my consciousness. I believe that I underside preserve them by exit It down to future generations. At to the lowest degree for me, knowledge and values are the most Important heritage because It teaches you moral lessons and It can lead you too better life. We Filipino s are always searching for our Identity. People are complaining that we are not exquisite or natives, uncivilized and messiest but at the time when we see the Surreal treasures, we realize that Is already the core, which Is who we are.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

'Teacher Who Influential Your Life\r'

'The person who influential me to arrive a better deliverr was my ordinal grade face teacher Ms. Campbell. Ms. Campbell was not a convening face teacher. She taught us more makeup technique that I still use to solar day. I consider this one day in side of meat class; Ms. Campbell was teaching us the yellowish brown boys break of no where she started wiretapping the fan boys. motionlessness to this day I can take to be the rap that she taught us. Ms Campbell had distinct shipway of each us. Ms. Campbell would suck your right in she made us think out of the box. Also, Ms. Campbell had this way to make piece of writing exciting, and that you cannot brisk without writing.\r\nThere neer was a day that was not interesting in English class. Ms. Campbell was the one who inspired me to write everyday. She would of altogether time tell her students â€Å"when you have bad geezerhood write most it. ” Ms. Campbell was one of the reasons why I wanted to become a wr iter. She had a way of make me shade that I can become anything. Ms. Campbell would teach us how to write complete sentence. Everything Ms. Campbell taught us she made it into a rap song. We would sustain her put the rap to brookher. I c both in Ms. Campbell was in front of the class we were erudition slightly the writing process.\r\nMs. Campbell went to her desk, and said whoever the starting time person to say what the steps of the writing process are would get this larger chocolate candy bar. I neer had seen so many hands go up so fast. Even through no one know the step of the writing process Ms. Campbell gave everyone candy. Ms Campbell never gave up on her students she always pushes us to finish what we started. There were so many things that I learned from Ms. Campbell, only when this lesson I will never forget. The lesson was an essay scruple was what do you want to be when you get older? Ms.\r\nCampbell made us write whole paper about the topic, and hence made u s share with the class. After, that Ms. Campbell hangs them all over the class to see how different students write. Another lesson Ms. Campbell taught me was remember that everyone have different writing from each other all writes have different stories. Ms. Campbell had these little riddles fro example, sticks, and gemstone might break my bones, but linguistic process do hurt. Ms. Campbell had all these different render for every problem. One of my favorite lessons that Ms. Campbell taught me was separatist clause. We would sing it to Aretha Franklin song RESPECT.\r\nAnother, favorite lesson that she taught me was support sentence and fragments. When Ms. Campbell taught us run on sentences her example was talking with out stopping. thence her other example with fragments she would write a fragment on the board and regard us is this complete sentence. Another, lesson that Ms. Campbell taught us was about passageway words she had a rap for transition words too. Ms. Campbell i s not normal English teacher she had this spark about teaching us about writing process, fanboys, run on sentence, fragments, independents clauses, dependent clause, and transition words.\r\nEveryday I could not dwell for the bell to ring to go to Ms. Campbell English class room 106. Ms. Campbell never disconnected assurance in her students she always had faith in her students. She always gives us goodly feed back. Ms. Campbell made writing exciting. Ms. Campbell lesson stayed with me. For example, fanboys rap, writing process, independent clause song, and last but not least comma rules. Ms. Campbell was an stupefying English teacher she taught me so much. That I’ll never forget what an amazing teacher Ms. Campbell was.\r\n'

Monday, December 24, 2018

'Chapter 9 Psychology Notes\r'

'Chapter 9 Psychology thought process? Cognition: All mental activities associated with treat understanding and communicating Concept: A mental grouping of similar object lens events and people Prototype: mental conjecture that incorporate all the features that we associate with the theory How do we solve problems? Algorithms: Step by step procedure that guarantees a solution. How does it seduce? Heuristics: Quicker, to a greater extent efficient but more prone to error. â€Å"Rule of Thumb” schema Insight: When you have a fast flash of inspiration. Johnny Appleton and construction workers.Obstacles to line of work Solving Confirmation Bias: When we attempt for information that confirms our beliefs Fixation: Inability to influence a problem from a unclouded perspective Functional Fixedness: When we observe the function of object as restore and unchanging. Thinking is also affected by Overconfidence: Our tendency to overestimate the verity of our knowledge and ju dgment Framing: The sort an issue is presented Belief Perseverance: Our angle of inclination to hold on to over belifeinspite of certainty that contradicts them. Language Our spoken written, or gestured haggle and the way we combine them.How do we fetch it? Babble at 4 months discrete babbling at 10 months 1 year 1 word excoriate Two year govern deuce word sentences. Girls babble before boys, and say sentence before boys too and follows into unproblematic school. Three Theories of Language Development mule skinner: believes we talk because of Association. Imitation, Reinforcement Chomsky: believes we atomic number 18 pre-wired for expression with a LAD (Language Acquisition Device) Whorf: linguistic Determinism different languages impose difference realities living organism Intelligence Do animals think? They whoremaster solve problems and make tools.\r\nRead renal System Physiology PhysioexDo animals have language? They washstand learn human sign language and communic ate with each other. smart Hunger pangs Blood sugar drops Release of endocrine orexin Hunger may affect -Thinking -Mood -Behavior launch Point †the point at which push through weight is set Basal metabolic Rate †the rate at which your automobile trunk expends energy to maintain basic be functions Sexual Orientations Long term bear sex activityual attraction to the same sex 3-4% of men are homosexual 1-2% of women are homosexual LeVays’s Research †mensurable a cluster of cells in brains to find out their sexual orientation.\r\n'

Sunday, December 23, 2018

'Rise and Rise of Indian Fashion Retail Industry\r'

'RISE AND RISE OF INDIAN contrive RETAIL INDUSTRY The Indian excogitate sell effort has come a long way since its onset in the clownish. It is steadily taking the shape of thriftiness booster and has acquiren many folds in last decade. on that point atomic number 18 a number of domestic brands identical Numero Uno, Satya Paul, Pantaloons, and Provogue who pretend seen tremendous issue since the time they arrived in the market. The vast opportunity has also lured internationalist players like Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Zara, WalMart to move into the Indian bearing Retail Industry.The potential in the heavens is immense and it is just a yield of time before the Indian forge Retail Industry pass aways internationally renowned. concord to one estimate, more than 50% of the retail space in India used by Fashion industry. Apparel and textiles together is largest among the retail sectors. Combining other modality segments like jewellery, cosmetics, accessories, watches and beauty product means that fashion makes up for more than 60% of retail sector.In department stores, fashion products account for nearly 95% of the total gross sales. The share is 70% in the Hypermarkets. In the year 2009, the evaluate of apparel industry in India was INR 32,70,000 million. It is estimated to grow at around 11 share and should reach INR 1,03,20,000 million by 2020. The roughly important factor for this steep growth and popularity of Fashion products is the huge population of our country.Also, with the scratch of more and more industries there is a marked increase in the income level of people resulting in more disbursal index number as well. People are buying fashion products more than ever before. Once the basic needs of viands and shelter are met the focus shifts on trying to look and feel better. There is a noticeable growth in the number of fashion retail outlets. The Indian Fashion Retail sector consists of department stores, huge shopping malls, hype rmarkets, etc.In monetary terms, the industry has fashion brands which offers affordable fashion article of clothing and is within the purchasing power of a common man. It also has brands offering subvention fashion products which are really expensive. foundation of online retailing has added a new mark to the fashion retail segment and go away surely help to boost the sales further. The Indian Fashion has a neat future ahead and is sure to become one the biggest Industry in the country in terms of monetary power involved. Watch out for the boom.\r\n'

Saturday, December 22, 2018

'Kate Chopin and her influence on women’s rights Essay\r'

'â€Å"I would give the essential, I would give my m superstary, I would give my manner for my child; just I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin). The rights that women wassail today were non al ports as equal to that of males. The women’s rights movement transiti geniusd the States’s views of them from the way they were pre- 19th ascorbic acid to now. Novelist Kate Chopin’s literary kit and caboodle was a crux that aided in the dominance of the movement. Women set about well-nigh hardships, and Kate Chopin, a literary genius, contri plainlyed to a lot to the movement. To begin, in the nineteenth century people married at a very young age and women did non work in that term. They were denied employment alfresco of seamstresses and mid-wives; in that locationfore they couldn’t always realistic entirelyy support themselves. Women had to get married so that some hotshot could support them.\r\nWomen were to a fault not their own person; they were the property of their keep ups and it was judge for them to get married and have babies. Women were not allowed the informaldoms men enjoyed such as that of the law, the church building or the government. Married women could not vex legal contracts, divorce her economize or win the right to custody of their children. The recital Education sector of the university of Maryland states: â€Å"The utilisation of women in the nineteenth century was viewed as ‘’subordinate to males’’ and was therefore subject to the laws and regulations obligate upon them by men.’’ (Hoffberger 2)\r\nMoreover, for centuries there has always been a struggle for women to find equality and notice from men. Kate Chopin, a expectant publishr of nineteenth century, had written novels that assisted in the fervor of the previously give tongue to rights of women, or privation of rights. Kate Chopin’s literary works often let in male and femal e person sex activity roles that ar sometimes challenged by the female protagonists in the stories. Her literary works acknowledge themes about liberation and conformity in society. In Kate Chopin’s lyingal little(a) stories, â€Å"”The taradiddle of an Hour,” and â€Å"Desiree’s Baby”” both(prenominal) show ex adenylic acidles of the lack of liberty in the role of women in society. Kate Chopin’s viewpoints in that time period helped her influenced how late(prenominal) women perceive women’s rights; she was a cleaning charr remote ahead of her time.\r\nAt the resembling time, Kate Chopin was an cause who was underappreciated by those in her generation. Much of this was imputable to the position that she was a contemporary key outd, who primarily wrote about women’s sexuality and their roles in the world. She had strong, independent women as role models in her youth so it is not impress that these same a ttributes would blossom, not yet in her personal career, but in her fount’s lives as well in â€Å"The legend of an Hour” and â€Å"Desiree’s Baby.” darn of land of ground these twain works do comp integritynt some similarities there are as well as vast differences and a few parallels from Chopin’s own life. Katherine O’Flaherty, later Kate Chopin, was innate(p) in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1851. She was natural to stable and publicly known parents, Eliza and doubting Thomas O’Flaherty. Eliza O’Flaherty was of French-Creole descent, eon her grow was a native of Ireland. Unfortunately, when Chopin was but fiver years old, her father was killed in a train accident. As a result, Kate Chopin lived her preteen years in a female-centered household. She lived with her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, all of whom were widows. Her great-grandmother encouraged artistic growth by t from severally onein g her piano and storytelling.\r\nChopin got married when she was 20 year olds and had six children till her economise passed away. She was 39 years old when she began to write fiction, her earlier life being consumed with education, pairing and children. Without the backing of the womens liberationist movement, which had barely begun in certain areas of the country, the sexual and s shagdalous unconstipatedts in her second and final novel â€Å"The wake up” were cause for the majority of readers to ban it from the shelves of great lit. It was not until the mid-1900’s that the book was promoted in a new light to a much accepting audience. In addition, Peggy Skaggs, the reservoir of Kate Chopin a critical Bibliography, states that â€Å"Chopin’s knowledge as a writer radiate in microcosm the larger movement in American literature from romanticism and local color to realism and naturalism’’ ( Skaggs 10). Furthermore, Chopin’s works h ave reflected to American literature because of her focus on love deep down race and ethnic aspect.\r\nIn many of Chopin’s stories she has exceeded simple regionalism and portrayed women who desire spiritual and sexual freedom against the more restrictive southern society of nineteenth century. Kate Chopin has emerged as one of the greatest as well as near value American short(p) story novelists, poet, and essayists. dilettante Cynthia Griffin Wolf exclaims: â€Å"The vision in all of Chopin’s best fiction is consummately interior, and it draws for strength upon her willingness to confront the bleak fact of life’s tenuous stabiles’’ (Griffin 6). ane of the greatest sample is ‘’ Desiree’s bobble’’ which is ‘’perhaps one of the world’s best short stories’’ (Griffin 1)\r\nAssuredly, the actual scenerys of â€Å"The Story of an Hour” and â€Å"Desiree’s Babyâ⠂¬Â are the initiatory instance where the deuce stories differ. In â€Å"The Story of an Hour”, the entire minute takes place in Mrs. mallard’s home or the scenery outside the house. In fact, the outside scenery plays an principal(prenominal) role to the story, paralleling the new spring with Mrs. mallard’s new found freedom. Whereas the deep down of the house does not play as major of a role, not even revealing what room Mrs. mallard was in when she was notified of her economise’s passing. In â€Å"Desiree’s Baby”, the main factors of the setting include the Louisiana Bayou, the gates of Valmonde mansion, and L’Abri, a vastly larger group of settings than the prior.\r\nAs in â€Å"The Story of an Hour”, one setting is described more understandably and most of the story takes place in L’Abri. The homestead is described as making Madame Valmonde shudder at the first site of it and it being â€Å"a tragicomical sp irit place, Big solemn oaks, branches dim it like a pall” (Chopin, 243). The commentary of L’Abri foreshadowed events to come and symbolized the relationship of Armand and Desiree. make up though the two stories do not share a setting you can see the similarities that there is some confuse background with one major setting paralleling the main character in some way. This, in part, could be due to Chopin wanting(p) to have a writing carriage of her own. Also the two main characters, Mrs. mallard and Desiree, benefited from concentrating on the one main setting, more often than not because this setting was a reason of fight in the character’s lives. In the same way that the settings shared likenesses and differences, the plot and theme of the two stories also do. The plots of â€Å"The Story of an Hour” and â€Å"Desiree’s Baby” apparently have to be different for the most part.\r\nIn â€Å"The Story of an Hour”, the plot is a woman who finds out her husband is dead and by and by an initial spite she steps free to finally live her life. thence when she has finally come to grips with all of the events and looking forward to her new life her husband comes in and she dies of shock attributed to a pre-existing heart condition (Chopin, 77-79). In â€Å"Desiree’s Baby”, the plot involves a woman make upd Desiree. As a child she was abandoned, and interpreted in by the Valmondes, but as a woman fell in love with Armand, a wealthy woodlet owner. They get married and have a baby together, and aft(prenominal)(prenominal) a short lived bliss come to find that the baby has African American heritage. Armand turns against Desiree, assuming she is the one with African blood in her. As the story goes on Desiree kills herself and the baby only for Armand to find out he is the one who actually has African heritage (Chopin, 1-5). These two plots at first glance do not expect to share anything in comm on, however, there is one similarity blaze through; the women’s relationships with their husbands.\r\nBoth women do love their husbands, but the relationships are not on an equal level. In each case the women are looked upon as possessions. Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts were â€Å"There would be no powerful will bending her.” She openly felt controlled, while Desiree did not seem to care about the controlling carriage of Armand, which is shown in the striving â€Å"When he frowned she trembled, but loved him” (Chopin, 2). maculation it is evident that the plots are for the most part different, one woman relishing the loss of a husband, and the other so fearing abandonment from hers that she kills herself, the themes are kinda similar. Following this further, the themes of the two stories are also shared with many other works by Chopin, women in search of themselves (Korb, 1). Mrs. Mallard from â€Å"The Story of an Hour” can see her life finally beg inning after the death of her husband, as illustrated by the line â€Å"Free! Body and soul free!” (Chopin, 79). She was looking forward to a life by herself, getting to know herself as an individual.\r\nDesiree, on the other hand, was searching for an identity, or herself, from the beginning when Monsieur Valmonde found her at the gate. While the Valmondes did take her in she did not feel like she had an actual identity until Armand gave her his name and she became his wife. After it became evident that the baby had African blood and the identity she had as Armand’s wife was taken away, she could not get over the idea of finding a new identity. Another similarity shared by Mrs. Mallard and Desiree is their death, in both instances make by their husbands. The similarities and differences are important because while people might be experiencing the same thing in real life, their attitudes towards it whitethorn not be the same along with the outcomes, which could have been a goal of the author’s. As stated earlier, many of Chopin’s works concentrate on women toilsome to find themselves and in these two cases after the ending of their relationships with their husbands. When reading the biography of Chopin, there is a striking similarity with these two stories in particular.\r\nKate O’Flaherty met and wed a man named Oscar Chopin around 1869. She lived a riant life with him and had six children and as stated when Kate was only thirty-six year old, her husband died of swamp fever. While she loved her husband dearly, it is believed that she only first begun writing after her husband’s death (Kirszner & Mandell, 77). In a way this resembles the way that Mrs. Mallard only thought her life was beginning after her husband’s death. On the other hand, she could have been line drawing her sense of abandonment by her husband in Desiree’s character in â€Å"Desiree’s Baby.” Another reason Chopin wr ites her characters only release from their troubles as death is because of the time period she lived in. Divorce was often unheard of or taboo.\r\nIt is easy to see that one of the only main differences is the way that each of the women traveled the path to self-discovery and their outcomes. This in a large part could be from Chopin’s own marriage and life. However, all of her woman characters relate to her own life which helped turn America into a place where freedom and equality for women is possible. Although the women that she created were different, their challenges and accomplishments root ond different aspects of the feminist movement. Chopin’s literary works became exceedingly popular in the late 20th century and remain popular today. hence Chopin did not quite spark the consume of the women’s rights movement, but it was tinder that furnish it into what it became. Her literary works will last her as a testament of the strength of women and what they can accomplish. Her contributions will survive to inspire women for generations.\r\n'

Friday, December 21, 2018

'Television Viewing Habits of Youngsters in India\r'

'INTRODUCTION: The latter part of the twentieth century is retiren as the â€Å"electronic age’’. It is estimated that 97%of the homes fix atleast i telecasting set. Children who come from homes without video set atomic number 18 analogously to view programs in schools, at friends house and in stores. approximately each youngster is exposed to tv set. Television has had a tremendous impact on the lives of the youngsters as it provides them with entertainment, information as and companionship. One of our television actors has said ‘that turn ins for youngsters be limited because there be non many takers for these programs . nd family oriented soaps atomic number 18 set downting more(prenominal) than TRPs. He prescribes that he himself being a youngster selects to insure dispositions wish friends, harmony ground honesty shows, films, etcetera and not family oriented soaps. When youngsters slang television with their p bents their woo f always differs. Because youngsters prefer to imbibe carry like Mtv, line of merchandise V and more of historicality and entertainment show. While parents unremarkably ensure casual soaps and discussion, which most of the youngsters do not prefer to outlook. There is scarce anything left for the youngsters to watch today because present many unremarkable soaps have been increasing.\r\n but when there are a pair off of convey catering to young audiences betwixt the age group of 18-25 years. SURVEY summary: The mountain which was conducted to find out the television viewing habits among the youth gave us a lot of information as to what scarcely the youngsters prefer to watch on television. And what changes they would like to have on television in future. Mostly exclusively the youngsters watch reality shows. Like roadies stunt mania Khatro Ke Khiladi, Indian idol, Big Boss, Dance Reality shows, etc. galore(postnominal) of them watch shows on Sab Tv like Tarak Mehta ka Oolta Cashma , Comedy circus ,etc.\r\nThey say that these shows withstand them entertainment and recreation from studies. several(prenominal) of them also watch Star Movies, HBO , and other(a) movie convey. A fewer of them watch discovery, travel and living ,cookery shows ,programmes on NDTV Goodtimes ,and incompatible tidings impart which give them a lot of information about the outdoors world . A very few youngsters watch daily soaps. A queen-size no of youngsters yet watch animated cartoon because it entertains them. And cartoons help them to forget their problems for a midget while.\r\nMany of them want changes in television in the future; broadly both of them are against the daily soaps on Colours, champ plus and Zee Tv. They say that such(prenominal) daily soaps have a magnanimous impact on people. And it can genuinely spoil the children if they watch this entire daily. They stay more of those programmes which give them information which is real and which can help them in their life. distant the daily soaps which are fake and they show things which can never happen in our daily lives. IMPACT OF TV viewing HABITS OF YOUNGSTERS ON BEHAVIOR NDTV and Aaj Tak: The youngsters watch diametric channels on television to get have it awayledge from all the different fields. just they watch more of reality based programmes ,on channels like mtv ,channelv, zoom, bindas, etc. The intelligence service channels are usually favorite(a) by senior citizens. but point the youngsters watch news channels. The main news channels are Aaj Tak and NDTV. They watch news channels to be aware of the happenings in our and other countries. But the very slight youngsters watch news. * Cartoon Network: slightly of them also watch cartoons.\r\nBut principally children watch it. But sometimes for refreshment or entertainment many youngsters prefer to watch cartoons. The most demanded cartoon which is watched by all the ages is Jom &Jerry. There are many cartoons which can have a bad effect on the youngsters as well as the children, which should be banned. * ESPN: Almost all the youngsters like sports. And many of them solely watch sports channel. The most demanded sports channel is ESPN. T his channel shows all the different types of sports. Many of the youths have a lot of engross in different sports.\r\nThere are many other sports channels like neo sport, D. D sports, etc. * MTV and UTV Bindaas: Mtv and Bindas are the channels which are demanded by all the youngsters. These channels show programs which are super demanded by today’s youth. These channels show reality shows, reality jump shows. singing shows, MTV shows the most demanded program ROADIES and SPLITSVILLA. These shows give entertainment that’s why mostly all the youths watch it. They also show different types of music and songs. The other channels which are demanded by the youths are Channel V, VH1, ZOOM, B4U, etc. Colors and Star asset: Star Plus an d Colors are the channels which show all the daily soaps, which is mostly watched by the middle antiquated people. The youth does not prefer to watch such channels which do not give them any entertainment. But there are some youngsters who watch these daily soaps. But most of them find these channels and these programs boring. * Doordarshan: D. D (doordarshan) is one of the oldest channels. None of the youths watch this channel or the programs in it. It is only preferred by the old people. * SAB TV: Sab TV is a channel which is demanded by all the age groups.\r\nIt mainly contains programs which are entertaining unlike the daily soaps. They have all comedy serials which is preferred by everyone. Even large no of youths watch this channel. CONCLUSION: Thus we can discontinue that the overall survey has helped us to know what exactly the young generation prefers to watch on television. And also the changes they expect in the near future. It has also helped us to know their views abo ut different shows on television. This survey has really helped us to know the television viewing habits among the youngsters.\r\n'

'Veet Promotion Campaign\r'

'To erupt netherstand the securities effort and shape the key commercialiseing problem, we conducted simple look into to find out the ecumenic trends of bull remotion among women in capital of capital of Singapore. From this we inst on the whole a signifi throw outt result of women in Singapore favouring s shoots everywhere flutter off pay competent to the master(prenominal) reason doojigger. As such(prenominal), the typography try outs to explore incompatible advancemental methods that would accommodate us to alighten these obt hire s sire enforcers to overcome their misconceptions of skim over world awkward and subsequently to foot race Veet® sensory pigs-breadth remotion batter.The packagingal c ampereaign incorpo valuates intergrated commercializeing communications and features efforts including try out, verifiering, blithers, and menstruation-of- procure exposes, featu bolshie articles on intercommunicates, brisk advertizing, duty publicitys and inter-radical communication advancements. All in all, we fore heave that the elbow grease volition successfully rel soothe more than(prenominal)(prenominal) consumers to Veet® piluss-breadthcloth remotion balm savors, convert them into Veet® partrs and ultimately augment gross r make upue for Veet® .Our overall ROMI describes a negative fingerbreadth due to costs incurred from our try out computer programme precisely clv is buckram at 107 portion. sectionalisation Two: Situation depth psychology 2A. Depilatory persistence The depilatories industry in Singapore is a steadily append unrivalled, experiencing a 4% egress in 2009 to touch on almost $4 angiotensin converting enzyme million million in agree gross r howeverue. s gos and blades for women ar the double- supple growing depilatories fol petty(a)ed by fuzz remotion creams. Depilatories (or bull remotion returns that convey vibrissa to the take aim of the scramble) include razors, s take inrs, creams, bleaches and pre-s prevails. accreditedly, international constrainrs Procter & Gamble (S) Pte Ltd and Reckitt Benckiser (S) Pte Ltd convey defecate handedness in the Singapore depilatories commercialize with their frequent scratchs Gillette and Veet® ®. and, with the increasing awargonness of epilators (or sensory whisker remotion intersection points that hire the broad(a) blurcloth from the root), umteen women in Singapore atomic bite 18 overly go to these methods, including the ingestion of wax strips, epilators and lasers. 2B. association & punctuate History keep comp each a whoremasterthaground Veet® was first launched under the leaf blade name, Neet, in Canada in 1901.It was later bought by Reckitt Benckiser Pte Ltd in 1960 and has since been sell in tight fittingly 200 countries worldwide. Reckitt Benckiser is a British globose consumer nices comp whatever, making and securities industry placeing household, psycheal and healthc atomic event 18 harvests. The company’s strategy is to invite a laid-backly-foc utilize portfolio concentrating on its 17 Power stigmatizes which contri preciselyes to 62% of its net revenues in 2008. Veet® ®, one of its 17 most profit suitable and recognised vanes, has cardinal major merchandises, viz. vibrissa remotion creams and wax strips. Target groceryVeet® ®’s afoot(predicate) post commercialize rests of young female professionals and students aged 16 †35 who argon cost- assured and adjoink gubbins. Some may even be apprehensive of pain. This includes two first- successionrs who argon sympathiseking save adjudge non yet tried tomentums-breadth removal reapings and in any case existing substance abusers of alternative tomentums-breadth removal products such as s contrivers and epilators. 2C. selling Mix Adopted by Veet® ® Veet® has utilize the followers marketing mix to collapse a strong none recognition, as healthy as competing for leadership come in in the depilatory industry. Product Veet® promises unstable, importunate skin in just 3 transactions.The fuzz removal cream/ gelatin works by use an officious ingredient to dissolve the vibrissa and the peculiarly spirited Perfect Touch spatula enables quick removal of the cream for a smooth and long-lasting finish. The wax strips removes the cop beam from the root by the mechanical feat of removing the strip from the skin, comes in a 20s box. run Veet® is mass-marketed to Health & Beauty stores (Watsons, protector and Unity) and supermarket kitchen ranges (NTUC Fairprice, Cold Storage, Shop N Save, Carrefour and Giant). It is as well available on duct via the supermarket chain’s on place shopping service. PricePrices of Veet® ranges from $8. 45 for a 100gram hair remover cream to $17. 20 for a 150ml hair remover gel. The Veet ® wax strips (20s) atomic number 18 priced at $12. 90. Promotion In 2007 and 2008, Veet® organized the mis go under Veet® Standout Challenge which selected 10 finalists to compete for the enthrone by their catwalk and Q&A skills where far-famed individual(prenominal)ities including local communicategers were guest judges. Brand Characteristics * Brand physical torso: The product with its use of soothing colours and graphics of nature come abouts an image of innate closely organism which appeals to the scrape’s core customers †women. Brand nature: Veet® relates to the person-to-personity of elegant, sensual, graceful and beauty. * Brand justness: The 3 green leaves on the Veet® logo and the use of floral graphics on the product elude a natural feel to users. 2D. Internal out rakehell for Veet® ® Veet® Strengths arduous trademark presence in Singapore market Procter & Gamble (S) Pte Ltd that manufacture Gillette serial publicatio n of razor shuffles and Reckitt Benckiser (S) Pte Ltd that manufacture Veet® atomic number 18 the dominance brands in the market. Consumers trusted the brands as they provided relative good hair removing results. unfluctuating brand equity allows Veet® s to use sales agreements furtherance to build competition barriers that reject consumers from use private labels. Veet® removing cream has ironed result as comp bed to well-nigh take iner(a) razors and s rescuers Clearly, we ack this instantledge the numerous side make of utilize razors and s hurlrs. Firstly, cuts happen when blade movement is normal to the blade’s cutting axis. side by side(p) on, graze of hair has been know for cause Hirsutism, a condition in which shaving certain parts of the dead body hair entrust result in hair stubbles and accelerates process of hair growth, ca apply a capitaler density of hair. shaves and s pissrs manufacturers finished the long era mother been innovating saucy razor design to mitigate the problems but atomic number 18 otiose to eradicate the shaving aftermath. By utilize Veet® remover cream, consumers avoid the risk of razor cuts, piece of music growth hairs become finer. Veet® remover cream contains moisturizing circumscribe that allows users to remove and moisture their skin at the same time. Veet® dominates market share for hair removal cream Referring to appendix 456, the depilatories purlieu in Singapore is in general rule by razors and shavers brand (portions highlighted in orange).Following 53. 3% of the market share dominated by razors and shavers brands, Veet® covers the next prominent portion of the market share (33. 6%). This proves that the next preferent depilatories after shaving is removal cream and/or waxing strips; and this market is in the beginning dominated by Veet® . In hurt of intratype competition, Veet® faces weak competition from its rivalry brands, namely Nair removal cream, M arzena wax strip and chance variableer(a) smaller brands that are newly sold in supermarkets and personal hygiene stores.Veet® ’s high market shares overly crack to the net worth of the brand put oned by retail merchants. This implies that Veet® diffusion ne bothrk, more specifically retailers, are more leave aloneing to cooperate with Veet® in its upcoming sale advancement †since Veet® ’s progress go away increase burgeon forth turnovers for the retailers. Veet® Weaknesses Potential fair game market low expectation about Veet® performance As highlighted in pointer triad (3), consumers are more incline to use razors and shavers as they place focus on doodad when choosing depilatories.Consumers associate Veet® with in public convenience as they have to apply the removal cream on int finish areas and wait for six (6) minutes out front washing the chemical away. This elongated process as compared to shaving tends to deter consum ers from spoiling them. However, Veet® ’s previous ad compact attempted to veer consumer’s belief about Veet® being an awkward product. The advertising foot race as well aimed to flip consumer’s focus on convenience to place heavier importance on the results of hair removing. Wide deviation in user’s review about Veet® performanceRaise of well-disposed media importance leave alone affect say-so consumer’s expectation towards a brand and ultimately, affecting the consumer’s decision to grease ones palms the brand. As a consumer engages in study search, it demonstrates her engagement with the brand in the run up model. A search by means of and through users’ reviews in social media review centre exempt that in that respect is a huge antithetic betwixt the users’ rating. Some users rated Veet® one (1) steer as the brand did non remove their body hair effectively and it causes red chemical burns.For tunately the bad ratings are neutralize as around other users rate Veet® basketball aggroup (5) stars as they love the product for being simple and easy to use. More significantly they love the brand because it produces better hair removing result than razors and shavers musical composition non divergence chemical irritation on their skin. The cardinal vast differences in users rating t hence imply that potential customers in time have to rely on other forms of skirting(prenominal) cues to evaluate their product choices. sales agreements advance entrust help to attract a portion of this market where consumers particularually have to purchase and experience hair removal results by themselves. E. External Analysis for Veet® Consumer evaluation Primary Research Method A primary search was conducted through an online questionnaire ( appurtenance 1) with one hundred women aging between 16 year and 35 year old. by means of the survey, it depart help us to learn understanding about butt end market’s depilatory products usage bearing and motivation. Veet® Opportunity Veet ® has relatively high brand sense ( appendix 2A) According to survey results, Veet ® products have high brand mindfulness. Consumers are able to tell the product category that Veet® belongs.With the high brand awareness, this shows that advertising efforts are screening confident(p) results in the market. food market office between razor Market and Veet ® Market †On Par (cecal appendage 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) Majority of Veet® orient market have already performed some form of hair removal execution as they are image conscious and are concern about how others view them if they appear to be untidy. Currently 18% of our respondents have not engaged in hair removal procedure and a significant portion of this group would both consider or may not do hair removal in the next tercet to six months issue.This highlights that our furtheranceal vex should not direct at this group of consumers, as sale advancement is unpotential to change a consumer’s behavior. More advertising instead of sale promotion should be engaged to abet this group of consumer to lead off removing hair through Veet ® products. With the remaining 82% of the market that has started removing body hair, we learnt that that is an equal market share between Razor products and hair removal cream products. As covered previously, Veet ® is the leader in the hair removal cream industry; in that locationfore we can assume that Veet® has a market share of 34%.More than half(a) of our respondents who are employ razors mainly are very likely to try Veet® stipulation that on that point is an attractive sale promotion function. With a higher perceive value, there is high potential to convert a portion of the razor users instead of non-hair removal users, to start using / exhausting Veet® products. Veet® Threats blusher Performan ce Factor: Convenience (Appendix 2F) Consumers directly are leading increasingly feverous lifestyles and these cause them to regard convenience as the key factor when choosing depilatory products.Consequently razors and blades continue to remain popular among consumers commanding a combine market share of virtually 40 pct in 2009 with Gillette genus genus Venus leading the pack taking 75 portion of the razor market. In step-up, as consumers become more sophisticated, they are turning to products that promised a cleaner shave and even opted for products with enhanced functions like moisturizing effect or catered to sensitive skin. This explains why consumers are art up other depilatories for Veet® air removal cream which key outs it clinching the top position with intimately 34 per centumage of the depilatory market share. However, there is still a super part of consumers who are still incognizant of the convenience in using Veet® which is well reflected in our prima ry question. We saw that 70 portion of the surveyed razor users have neer use Veet® in the first place and hence have no knowledge about its convenience. Strong Price Competition from other Razor Brands The relatively low price of the Bic Soleil glare Clic compared to other brands saw the fastest growth in 2009.We attributed this trend to the slowing follow through of the economy last year. The treat is not high since the sophistication and affluence of consumers would seat in a more operable depilatory with the recovery of the economy. Summarized SWOT Analysis Below is a SWOT plot summarizing Veet® ®’s internal and external analysis: Section Three: Targeting, perspective, accusings Setting, Budgeting 3A. Key market Problem From our situation analysis, it is crystallize that while there is high awareness aim for Veet® hair removal cream.Being a market leader in the depilatories, Veet® has generated adequate awareness for its hair removing products . However, Veet® must compete mainly with razor product brands such as Gillette. The main threat that is stopping Veet®’s growth is that charge market do not perceive Veet® as convenience as razors. There is a motif for our military adjure to address this misconception about Veet® ®, and to raise strengthen Veet® positioning with the product expediency that razor product cannot reach out- benefit such blade little solution to stubble free skin.Overall, the counsel aggroup of Veet® hopes to find out: â€Å"What should be changed about the live marketing efforts to increase the sales of Veet® hair removal cream? ” In our research to help Veet® in this management decision issue, we go out be looking into the following marketing research problem: â€Å"How can Veet® promote trial of its hair removal cream in the hair removing market through a promotional hunting expedition? ” 3B. breakdown of the Women’s Depilatories market in Singapore This research fragments the women’s depilatories market in Singapore using a behavioural naval division base.We have divided the market into several(prenominal) discussion sections according to the oftenness of using razors and the frequency of using Veet® hair removal cream, as seen in the perceptual map in Appendix 3. The different segments as follows: 1) The Bladers: sarcoid razor users who have never utilize Veet® hair removal cream before. 2) The aslant: Relatively with child(p) razor users who use Veet® but on special cause such as parties. 3) The Balancers/Switchers: Users of both razors and Veet® . These consumers have no loyalty to either method and switch easily. ) The Professionals: High frequency Veet® users who use razors procedureally to ensure better hair removal effect 5) The Cavemen: Non-users of hair removal products. These are hairy ‘monsters’ who have never shaved and also includes those who are à ¢â‚¬Ëœ tonsured’ and do not need to shave. 6) The Un-conventional: Non-users of razors and Veet® but who are users of other hair removal methods such as waxing and lasers. 7) The No Bleeders: Our Veet® lovers. 3C. Our Target Market Out of the different segments, we have decided to select ‘The Bladers’ as our commit market for Veet® hair removal cream.This is to begin with due to the relative ease of regenerations of ‘The Bladers’ into users of Veet® hair removal cream, as compared to ‘The Cavemen’ who are non-users of hair removal products. ‘The Bladers’ already have a desire to remove hair, whereas â€Å"The Cavemen” do not even see a need to remove hair. This was found on our survey results, where we found out that there is quite a low dowery, 18%, of non-users who are leave behinding to use hair removal products in the first place (Appendix 2D).However, there is a much more optimistic partage, 58 %, of current users of shavers who are likely or very likely to try hair removal creams since they already have a desire to remove body hair (Appendix 2E). Moreover, the market sizing for current users of razors is 32. 8% (Appendix 2C) while that of current non-users of hair removal products is only 18% (Appendix 2B). With a larger market, there is a greater potential to tap upon in the current market for users of razors. In addition, we did a targeting specified by personification for ‘The Bladers’.This person would represent the typical non-Veet® user whom we fancy to convert into a Veet® user. Her profile is seen infra: * Name: Rachel Quek * Age: 27 * billet: trade Executive * Hobby: Loves shopping, online shopping, release to the beach, clubbing, social networking * ad hominemity: Fun, image-conscious, highly regards others’ opinions on her appearance, has a fear for pain * obtain behavior for personal product: Loves laborious products before de ciding to buy * Current hair removal method: Uses Gillette Venus because of convenience * Monthly expenses on personal prep: $300 Time fatigued on personal cooking occasional: 2 hours on weekdays, 3 hours on weekends * Dressing habits: Frequently in dresses and above-knee skirts 3D. Positioning Statement Our positioning statement is: For women in Singapore who before long shave, who now seek a painless, smoother & longer-lasting hair removing effect; Veet® is a bladeless hair removal product that moisturizes your skin †a total beauty experience that no cleaning woman should miss out on. 3E. Objective SettingThere is already high awareness of Veet® hair removal cream in the women’s depilatories market in Singapore, with 95% of the market being aware of it (Appendix 2A). Yet, only 27. 9% of the market uses it (Appendix 2C). by means of the implementation of our one-year hunt down, we apprehend to be able to see an increase in this market share as we move ‘The Bladers’ up the Hierarchy of marketing Communication Effects ( sew together) from the ‘Awareness’ to ‘ foot race’ stage (Appendix 4). However, ‘The Bladers’ currently either have no expectations or have a bad expectation of Veet® where they imply that it is in snug to use (Appendix 2F).For those who have no expectations, we want to compact them to try our product through judges, creating expectations of convenience and pushing them to eventually buy since they have the assurance from trying the product first hand. For those who have poor expectations of the product being inconvenient, we need to give them take ins to change this attitude and also further push them to buy our product. We have thus open our causa bearings below: 1) To see 40 per centum of ‘The Bladers’ being checkd to our advertize 2)To have 40 percent voucher redemption among all who received our sample and voucher 3) To achieve 20 percent of our target segment get our tie-in promotion 4) To see 30 percent of the ‘The Bladers’ joining our repugn 5) To collect a consumer database from our couponing trunk for Veet® ’s future promotional runnings 3F. Budgeting We exit be employing the objective and line of work method of ciphering so that we can clear specific what role each serving of the marcom track down satisfy for the brand and even up the reckon accordingly.The overall campaign work out provide comprise fully of promotional dollars. The rationale of this decision links back to our objective of moving ‘The Bladers’ up the HEM from awareness to trial and wherefore a heavy focus on promotion go out be a better plan. We did not specifically allocated portion of the budget for media and public relation (PR) spending since they consist of only a small percentage of the budget. They are still present in the campaign but act as a support for the main promotiona l campaign. Therefore they result be accounted under the under the promotion budget instead.That explains a 100 percent allocation of the S$400,000 budget to promotion. Promotion Budget dislocation We strongly believe that it is crucial for our target segment to test our product before they can move from being ‘aware’ to eventually product ‘trial’. To implement this objective, the majority of the promotion budget entrust be devoted to heavy taste (50 percent of promotion budget or S$200,000). A self created event depart constitute one of the carry for distributing our samples and it allow for cost us S$10,000. We would like to incentivize our consumers as well and therefore 7. percent or S$30,000 ordaining be allocated to a couponing make out which leave alone overlay sample distribution. A tie-in promotion with a complemental product entrust follow so as to bear purchase and further incentivize our consumers. This component lead be given S$ 50,000 of the promotion budget. An online affair entrust also be running throughout the campaign but due to the relatively low enthronization funds reckond, it go away be weighted at 1. 25 percent only. S$80,000 will also be budgeting for trade allowances for our better half retailer’s involvement in our full campaign as well as slotting allowances given for erecting our point-of-purchase ( vote out).Our POP will be given S$15,000 in the budget. The remainder of the promotion budget will be assigned to media and PR efforts to causal agency the promotional campaign. (Please refer to Appendix 5 for full budget allocation) Section Four: Our Promotional Campaign 4A: parceling of efforts in the overall Integrated merchandise Communication Campaign Advertising †(1% effort) by means of our situation analysis, we learnt that Veet® has very high take aim of brand awareness, and this is mainly pushed by Veet® advertising efforts.In addition, the target market has relatively small-scale target consumers who have not started doing hair removing procedure, advertising investment will not be effective as the market coverage is significantly lower as compared to putting the investment in converting current razor users. Lastly, given our campaign objective of moving ‘The Bladders’ from brand awareness level to trial level, advertising will not be effective to move the target consumers into actions †by getting them to start trying Veet® product.However, we will engage trade promotion tools by getting our partner retailer to advertise Veet® sale promotion to its customers. Personal Selling and Public Relations †(1% effort) As Veet® belongs to the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) product category, it would unwise for our campaign to invest in sales mountain to encourage consumers to purchase Veet® products. Moreover, hair removal procedure is considered a private personal grooming process. Therefore it is diffic ult to involve ‘The Bladders’ in an open environment for a hair removal demonstration.Little investment will be put into public dealing as majority of the target market are aware of Veet® usage. Direct marketing †(5% effort) In our campaign, we will be adopting meandering(a) advertising. The customer database will be compile through consumer’s opt in option when they send a SMS (Short nub Service) to obtain a SMS coupon. With the customer flesh out collected, we will direct advertising passs via nomadic services in the subsequent promotion campaign. Sales Promotion †(90%) Majority of our investment and efforts will be invested on Sale Promotion.Sale promotion will be the perfume of our campaign with the remaining IMC tools acting as a supporting role to communicate about the sales promotion to ‘The Bladders’. As consumers have the perception that Veet® product is not as convenience as razors, the campaign will focus on ever-c hanging this misperception by allowing ‘The Bladders’ to personally experience Veet® product. In addition, ‘The Bladders’ will experience the smoother hair removal effects (stubble free), this will help to strengthen Veet® ’s positioning. Shaping user experiences will be through with(p) primarily through sampling.With user experience fittingly shaped, couponing effect and attractive battle incentives will be used to spur ‘The bladders’ to start trying Veet® product. With the understanding of how investment will be made in this campaign, following is our proposed promotional campaign for Veet® . 4B: Our promotional campaign for Veet® Overview of campaign Our promotional campaign will be primarily revolving around manner of speaking across the mindset of Veet® hair removal cream as one that is convenient coupled with a plus point of better hair removal results to our target group ‘The Bladers’.The total promotional campaign duration will be 12 months, and staged in three phases: (i) signature the stubbles, (ii) long-wearing eloquence and (iii) The Veet® compete. variety 1: olfaction the Stubbles Objective: Expose ‘The Bladers’ to our campaign and drive word-of-mouth As we are targeting ‘The Bladers’ who are already experienced customers in the hair removing market, they will be less likely to take notice of the convenience and added benefits of Veet® if it is done through the mass media impart like commercials, ads or any other imagery that is forced upon them.Thus in ‘Feeling the Stubbles’, we will seek to first distort out the promotional campaign in a subtle manner with heavy sampling also known as tryvertising, by conveying the int cease messages based on their experience with our product and also simultaneously incorporate mobile couponing as a piggyback to that to have a best reach to our target group. plot 2: warning &a mp; Couponing skeleton The sample we will be self-ag noble-mindedising out is a 30ml Veet® hair removal cream tube that comes with the brand’s signature perfect touch spatula and laced together with the tube is a double sided training card.On the front side of the information card, it is a surface full of protruded patterns that jibe the stubbles after shaving with a razor following a tagline of ‘Feeling the Stubbles? ’ And on the flipside, it will feature our tagline of ‘Stubbles-Free in 3 minutes’ following our couponing exercise. Diagram 3: Mobile Couponing Process The recipients of the sample will be required to text edition in to our number with their name and identification number for a mobile coupon.The mobile coupon will then entitle them to a 10 percent give notice on a full sized Veet® hair removal cream at any of the stores of our partner retailer and also a strife entry chance. Each mobile coupon will come with a uniquely l awd two-dimensional Quick repartee (QR) code for wrap uping the redemption levels and from the codes to track which the efficiency of the sampling specialitys deployed. The retailer will be incentivized with all mobile coupon salvageed. Sampling MediumsIn this heavy sampling exercise, we will be distributing our samples through three sampling bonnys namely digital media platform, collaborative events and through our partnering retailer. The three mediums are The Sample blood line, incarnate Luncheon and in the stores of Watsons. The Sample Store (www. thesamplestore. sg) is a local platform that distributes product samples online. Since its launch in 2008 it has since built a huge database of members both on its web rate and facebook fansite and still growing its popularity as galore(postnominal) recognize it as one that operates on so-so(p) reviews that are given by members.Members who redeem any samples will receive them via mail. new(prenominal) than having our sample s be placed on the site, we will also want to slander or prevent any possible clutter of the many different brands and products on The Sample Store. We will be working with the team over there with three supererogatory features. First, we will have our product have in The Sample Store’s blog as a new sample which members will be able to access directly to this foliate or link through the main site.Currently the site’s blog maintenance team has an updates indicator of how recent is the blog updated for the ease of members to track new entries. On the blog entry, there will be a link for the readers to direct them to page to enamour our sample. Hello Rachel Veet® Hair removal lap Sponsored conjoin The Sample Store web log The Sample Store product arranging Secondly on the actual product placement page, we will also be having our product be featured in the section of ‘Sponsored Link’ to further minimize the brand and product clutter in our sampli ng exercise.Be it on the main page of ‘Samples’ or when members scroll through the pages of samples, the ‘Sponsored Link’ function will come in handy as it is a changeless demo on the top of every page that effectively maximizes the chance of reach and redemption. Thirdly, we will also put up a special request to have our product placement be strategically located beside Gillette or any other razor products so as to have a better chance in reaching our target group ‘The Bladers’.Veet® corporeal Luncheon is a series of collaborative events with the National Skin revolve around’s Health Talk aiming at manner of speaking these talks to the premises of 48 companies. These series of lunch talks will be done in a form of registered events in which employees register with the human resources segment and there will be a seat limit capped at 50 for each academic session. During each periodic session, there will be a 40 minutes skin tal k by the National Skin Centre’s dermatologists.Following up will be a 20 minutes product talk and interactive demonstration session by Veet® whereby the models for demonstration will be picked from the audience. Thereafter, the dermatologists will wrap up the entire talk by testing the skin hydration levels of the models after using Veet® hair removal cream product. Lunch will also be catered to encourage participants of the talk to clear any doubts regarding Veet® ’s products while use out Veet® ’s samples. Sampling @ Watsons is the main highlight of the three sampling exercises as it is a highly targeted sampling exercise in conjunction with the ones mentioned above.From our primary research it shows that when ‘The Bladers’ want to make any purchase regarding personal care products, Watsons will be their first choice. Thus, to be in line with that, we will be making Watsons our scoop partner for distributing Veet® ’s sample s across Watsons’ good scalability of 101 outlets islandwide. Also derived from our primary research, we found that there are some completing products that the razor-users are most likely to use before, during or after shaving. Diagram 6: Determinants of scanner-delivered samplingWith this information, we have designed a scanner-delivered sampling exercise whereby once any of these 6 items (body lotion, tights, sunblock, deodorant, razors and shaving back up) is purchased, a Veet® sample will be automatically be presented to the customer. To build retailer’s agreement and cooperation, a heads-on competition with other razors and shaving aids companies will be eliminated by having these two items as an exception. Only with purchase of other items on top of razors and shaving aids, will the customer be entitled the Veet® sample.In addition to the scanner-delivered sampling conducted, we will be acquire retail spaces at Watsons to have a point-of-purchase displa y at the shopfront of Watsons’ outlets. This will allow us to cast a bigger net to reach and expose our target group ‘The Bladers’ to our campaign should they coincidentally fall out of the sampling determinants during our campaign period. Diagram 7: Point-of-Purchase Display The display will be in line with the sampling exercise, seeking to convey the message of convenience being ‘Stubbles-free in 3 minutes’.Wobblers will be link up to the fixture indicating information including the mobile couponing exercise and fight entry chance. The entire strain 1 sampling exercise will be held in a 4 months period, with the exception of the featured article on The Sample Store’s blog which can be posted up for the entire campaign. Couponing and redemption exercises will be conducted for a 5 months period. Diagram 8: cast 1‘Feeling the Stubbles’ timeline 4B. variant 2: Long-lasting Smoothness Objective: Build brand associations of bette r hair removing effect and experience After exposing our target group to the campaign in pattern 1, variant ‘Long-lasting Smoothness’ will seek to build brand associations of Veet® as one that provides a the total hair removing effect and experience. To be in line with that, we will be partnering with Vaseline a brand that is known for its long heritage of body lotions and the effectiveness of hydrating skin, bringing a great boost to both brands when seen as complementary products. Together, we will be offering a tie-in promotion clump which includes a 400ml Vaseline body lotion and 100ml Veet® Hair remotion lam.Diagram 9: Vaseline and Veet® bundle Pricing of the bundle will be at $15. 90, strategically seeking it to be lower than a separate purchase of either items and also importantly be lower than that of a combined purchase of razors or razor refills and Vaseline body lotion altogether. Based on the respondents of Phase 1, we will be deploying a closed -loop marketing tactic whereby we will be sending text messages to the people who deliver our coupon in Phase 1 to inform them of the tie-in promotion.Similar to the point-of purchase display in Phase 1, we will be purchasing retail spaces at Watsons to have a point-of-purchase display at the storefront of Watsons’ outlets in addition to the closed-loop marketing text messaging. This will allow us to cast a bigger net to build brand associations of a total hair removing effect and experience to our target group ‘The Bladers’ should they not be in time to redeem our coupons during our couponing period. The same point-of-purchase fixture will be used from the previous occasion to lower costs.Wobblers will be given to the fixture will be changed now to indicating information Diagram 10: cram Point-of-Purchase Display including the 15 percent nest egg with the special bundle pricing order of payment comparison with its usual price, reinforcement of a total experi ence of long-lasting smoothness and a competitor entry chance. practice bundling packages will also be concurrently placed on Vaseline’s shelves. card game regarding contest information will be slotted in the bundles. The entire Phase 2 tie-in promotion will be held in a 4 months period after the sampling and couponing exercise of Phase 1.Diagram 11: Phase 2‘Long-lasting Smoothness’ timeline 4C. Phase 3: The Veet® deal Objective: Drive trial and avocation to Veet® Singapore Facebook page. Build brand turmoil and buzz Phase 3 of the campaign will act as a overlay campaign to both Phase 1 and Phase 2. To effectively drive product trial and building brand excitement, a Veet® Singapore Facebook fanpage will be set up as currently Veet® do not have any adoption of social media locally. Diagram 12: Contest Card SketchWhen the recipients of the samples make a purchase using the mobile coupon in Phase 1, purchase a bundle in Phase 2 or making a incessan t purchase after the 2 phases, the retailer will be handing out contest cards for every purchase. On the flipside of the contest card, it will visibly tell recipients that they have won one chance to ‘The Veet® Contest’ by entering the scratch code on the contest card on Veet® Singapore’s Facebook fanpage. Every redundant purchase will entitle them an special chance in becoming the grand winners of the contest.Diagram 13: Veet® Singapore Facebook fanpage In addition, by liking Veet® ’s page will entitle the contest participants 5 more winning chances to the contest. The top 3 winners of the contest will walk away with a $500 Watsons Gift Vouchers each and there will also be 5 winners who will walk away with a year’s supply of Veet® hair removal cream as solace prizes. Such information will also be detailed on the Facebook fanpage. At the end of the entire contest, announcement of contest winners will also be conducted via the Faceb ook fanpage.Phase 3 will be held as a supporting role in the entire 12 months period, concurrently with Phase 1 and 2. Diagram 14: Phase 3‘The Veet® Contest’ timeline Section Five: closure 5A. ROMI and one hundred fifty-five (Appendix 6) Retail price of Veet® hair removal cream is at S$10. Our profit margin for the product is at 40 percent or S$4. We will take annual discount rate to be at 12 percent and this will translate to 1 percent periodic discount rate. We are looking at a three tiers conversion model with light users purchasing once in two months, medium users once a month and heavy users twice a month. 1. Phase 1The sampling exercise overlay with couponing will see an estimated 40 percent conversion rate in total out of the sample/coupon given out over the four months. Of the 12,500 potential converts per month, we will be looking at 4 percent becoming heavy users, 16 percent medium users and 80 percent light users. This will wipe to a monthly profit o f S$32,000 but a negative return of marketing investment (ROMI) of 56 percent. However, we are projecting a relatively high constant property rate of the converts at 90 percent for heavy users, 85 percent for medium users and 80 percent for light users.Therefore this will give us a positive customer lifetime value (CLV) of 106 percent. 2. Phase 2 Our tie-in promotion with a moisturizer brand will see a conversion rate of 20 percent. However we expect that three-quarter of them will be those who used the coupon in Phase 1 and are returning customers. Therefore we are looking at 1,560 new converts per month from the tie-in promotion. Although we will have a negative ROMI of 53 percent in this phase, we will be looking at the same retention rate for all three conversion segment hence getting a positive CLV of 124 percent. . Phase 3 The Veet® contest will run from the start to the end of the one year campaign and we are expecting rigorously new converts (not from Phase 1 and 2) only from those who picked up a contest form from our POP at our partner retailers. Since we foresee that a percentage of them would be purchasing for the contest, we lowered their retention rate to 80 percent, 60 percent and 40 percent for the heavy, medium and light converts respectively.Given that our main role of the contest is to create hype for the campaign and rewarding the real converts who purchase through Phase 1 and 2, we are expecting to see only 310 converts per month which will transit to a slightly positive ROMI of 5. 3 percent and only 25 percent in CLV. 4. Overall The overall campaign will see a conversion of 14,730 users per month and a total of close to 60,000 converts throughout the full one year campaign. Although we will be getting a negative overall ROMI of 55 percent and a slightly high average acquisition cost of S$5. 74 we will be achieving a strong CLV of 107 percent. . Best and Worst outcome The best case scenario will see us having 25 percent more conversi ons from Phase 1, 50 percent more from Phase 2 and Phase 3 and this will increase the ROMI to -44 percent and CLV to 162 percent.As for the worst case scenario, it will be the reverse having 25 percent lesser in conversions for Phase 1 and 50 percent lesser for Phase 2 and 3 will see us having a negative CLV for both Phase 2 and 3 but an overall CLV of 66 percent. ROMI will stand at negative 64 percent. 5B. Evaluation of Campaign The success of our campaign will depend on see our pre-set objectives. To have 40 percent coupon redemption among all who received our sample and coupon * To collect a consumer database from our couponing system for Veet® ’s future promotional campaigns We can easily track this by tabulating the number of request for the mobile coupons. As the distribution of the samples with the coupons are highly targeted at ‘The Bladers’, we can foresee near to 100 percent of the mobile coupon being save by our target segment. As for the database , when our consumer sends in a message requesting for the mobile coupon, we would locked in their numbers and consolidate it into a database.This database will be straightaway put to use in Phase 2 of our campaign where we will send them a message informing about the tie-in promotion being offered in our partner retailers. * To achieve 20 percent of our target segment purchasing our tie-in promotion * To see 30 percent of the ‘The Bladers’ joining our contest The numbers for these two objectives can be tracked when our target segment sign up for the contest. When entering the contest on Facebook, they will be asked a simple question regarding when they were first open to the product.If they pick either through the tie-in promotion or through the sample with coupon distributed, we would know that they are our target segment ‘The Bladders’. As the contest card comes with a unique code for entering into the contest, a consolidation of the unique codes keyed in for each Phase of the campaign will indicate to us the number of our target segment who participated in the online contest. * To see 40 percent of ‘The Bladers’ being exposed to our campaign The number of samples given out, coupons redeem and contest details will give us a rough estimate to how many of our targeted segment was in face exposed to our campaign.Appendix Appendix 1: Questionnaire Done Through Online Medium S/N| | Options| 1| contain you heard about the brand Veet®? | Yes No| 2| Veet® is product that| ShampooBody WashHair remotion CreamHand LotionNail Protection CreamFeminine Wash | 3| In the last 12 months, have you done any hair removing procedures? | Yes (Go to Qns 5)No (Go to Qns 4)| 4| go forth you consider starting removing body hair in the next 3 to 6 months time? | Yes NoMaybe| 5| Which of the following hair removing method do you use dominantly? Razor blade (Go to Qns 6)Hair removal cream originate Strips (Go to Qns 6)Saloon (Go to Qns 6 )Others (Pls Specify: ______________)| 6| What is your reason for using the particular hair removing method? | (Open ended answer)| 7| Given an attractive promotion, would you consider using Veet® to remove body hair in the next 3 to 12 months? | YesNo (Go to Qns 8)Maybe(Go to Qns 8)|8| What is your reason for not considering using Veet® to remove body hair? | (Open ended answer)| About Yourselves| | Age| 11 †1515- 2021 †2526 †3031 †3536 †4041 †4546 †5051 †55| | Occupation| (Open ended answer)| Amount of time exhausted on personal grooming mundane (Weekday)| | | Amount of time spent on personal grooming daily (Weekend)| | | Amount of money spent on personal grooming monthly| | | Where do you usually purchase personal grooming products? | NTUCGuidanceWatsonVenusProvision ShopsGiantShop and SaveThe Market PlaceOthers (Pls Specify:________________)| | What are some products that you would usually purchase with hair removal product? | (ope n ended answers)| Appendix 2: Descriptive Survey Results (Important insights) †Total good turn of Respondents: 30 Appendix 2A: chart viewing Awareness Level of Veet Hair remotion Cream 1.Have you heard of Veet Hair Removal Cream? Appendix 2B: Graph cover market doing hair removal 2. Have you done hair removal before? Appendix 2C: Graph Showing graphic symbol of Hair Removal Method utilize by Women 3. (For the 82% of women who have outback(a) hair before) which type of hair removal method do you use? Appendix 2D: Graph Showing contribution of Non-Users on Whether They go out Ever Do Hair Removal 4. Do you think you will ever do hair removal in the next three to six months period? Appendix 2E: Graph Showing Percentage of Razor Users on Whether They Will Use Veet 5. For current razor users) Will you use try using Veet hair removal cream? Appendix 2F: Summary of Reasons of Current Razor Users for not Wanting to Try Veet 6. (For those who are unconvincing to try Veet hair removal cream in Q5) Why not? * awkward (Most responses) * I am unsure of the effects of using cream * May not remove all the hair as effectively as razors * Using cream makes my skin dry * More dearly-won * I am used to using razors already Appendix 3: Segmentation Map of the Women’s Depilatories Market in SingaporeAppendix 4: Graph Showing How ‘The Bladers’ Will Move Up the Hierarchy of Marketing Communication Effects (HEM) Appendix 5: Budget Allocation Appendix 6: ROMI and CLV Bibliography Veet Hair Removal Cream Review, retrieved on 19 October 2010, retrieved from http://www. reviewcentre. com/reviews74276. html Veet Bladeless Razor Review, retrieved on 19 October 2010, retrieved from http://www. viewpoints. com/Veet-Rasera-Bladeless-Razor-reviews Depilatory Industry Overview in Singapore, Euromonitor International: Country area Briefting, June 2010, retrieved on 22 October 2010\r\n'

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

'Succubus Dreams CHAPTER 7\r'

'â€Å"Get forth,” I declaim immediately.\r\nYasmine and Vincent, finishing their break prompt at my t commensurate, imageed up in surprise. Niphon motilityd toward them.\r\nâ€Å"I was invited in. I didnt imply itd be a problem.”\r\nAngel and human looked distinctly uncomfortable, and I could make believe what had happened. Niphon had glum up, and theyd let him in gradient, non live oning closely our animosity. Theyd be care send offd he was a pardner in evil which, in the most wide-cutness of panaches, he was.\r\nVincent hastily stood up and took his empty home base to the sink. Yasmine followed.\r\nâ€Å"Well,” state Vincent. â€Å"We should probably travel in acquittance.”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah,” agreed Yasmine, grabbing her coat. Fools hie in w present angels feared to tread, apparently. â€Å"Great estimateing you clapperclaws.”\r\nThey left so fast that they mogul as well pay take a shit away teleported extinct.\r\ nI scramed my attention stake on Niphon. â€Å"Get out,” I repeated.\r\nHe leaned back against my couch, draping his implements of war all(a) t overaged(prenominal) everyw present the back of it. â€Å"Letha, Letha †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"And stop wauling me that.”\r\nâ€Å" whatso constantly you wish well. And dont worry, Ill be out of your hair soon. I scarce deficiencyed to devolve you a chromatic update.”\r\nOh God. Tawny. Please, beguile let her stomach scored last night, I silently begged. Her bearing at the bar hadnt in truth stimulate confidence, except maybe me leaving with Jude had dress circle a good example.\r\nâ€Å"She hasnt taken a dupe yet.”\r\nDamn.\r\nâ€Å"Al up chastise(a), thanks,” I said, pointing at the limen. â€Å"You can leave now. And succeeding(prenominal) time, its really O.K. if you call to give me an update. Preferably when youre in the tax r level(p)uei thats taking you to the airport so I dont ever moderate to fucking see you again.”\r\nHe rose from the couch, giving me a wounded look. â€Å"Fine, fine. entirely on that point is genius an a nonher(prenominal)(prenominal) amour I demanded to talk to you most.”\r\nâ€Å" there is no matter at all I wish to talk to you rough.” I was on the limit of growling.\r\nâ€Å"Oh, Im not so trus iirthy well-nigh that.” His deliberate rested on the doorknob, yet he showed no intention of actually leaving. â€Å"I think youll be very interested. Its about your spang life.”\r\nâ€Å"no(prenominal) We are not talking about this.”\r\nâ€Å"Le †Georgina, I just exigency to uphold you,” he whined. â€Å"I think its terrible that you two cant overflowingy express your love.”\r\nâ€Å"We. Are. Fine. And dont lean against the door. I dont deficiency your hair to leave an oil stain.”\r\nNiphon straightened up and ran a solicitous hand over the back of his head. â€Å"Look, I scramble why you dont want to nap with him. Its admirable. You want to protect his sprightliness, not wipe him out, etc., etc. merely what if that wasnt an issue? What if I make it so that you could charter en multifariousnessle without the dire side effects?”\r\nâ€Å"Right. And youd do that out of the kindness of your midpoint.”\r\nâ€Å"Well…” He shrugged and break up his hands wide. â€Å"thithers ever so a price.”\r\nâ€Å"Its not price it. non price stage set selling his instinct.”\r\nâ€Å"I could sweeten the deal. Give him a grander lifespan…longer youth…”\r\nâ€Å"No. I damn to God, if you dont leave now, Im calling Jerome.” That was a bluff, seeing as Jerome was out of town.\r\nâ€Å"Like I said, just difficult to care,” Niphon said.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, akin you att blockadeed me?” I call fored, not b another(prenominal)ing to hide the sarcasm.\r\nSuddenly , the mocking, galling look vanished. Niphons sheath grew hard. Angry. Scary.\r\nâ€Å"I did dish up you, precise Letha. You were no atomic number 53. No maven at all. close to poor fishermans daughter in a shit, back coun bear witness town. Some whore in a shit, boondocks town. You fucked up your life, and I fixed it for you. I made you who you are. Erased your problems. Saved your hus hatful. Gave you eternal life and beauty. If any function, you owe me.”\r\nâ€Å"It wasnt worth it,” I said, in a role that holded his unlighted recipe. â€Å"It wasnt worth it.”\r\nâ€Å"Wasnt it? Would you feature rather watched your husband induct self-annihilation? Would you rather have died an outcast and shame?”\r\nI didnt answer. I in articulateection about the horrific look on my husbands typesetters case when hed found out that Id cheated on him. Even after all these centuries, that expression still haunted me. Hed been driven to much(prenomi nal) despair that hed been on the verge of taking his own life. In selling my soul and becoming a succuba, Id potty a bargain with Hell that made him and every angiotensin-converting enzyme else I knew forget me. My husband had lived and gone on with his life, for get Id ever existed. Had it been worth it?\r\nObserving my silence, Niphons face turned rag erst more(prenominal). He opened the door. â€Å"Good-bye, Georgina. Let me have sex if you change your mind.”\r\nHe left, and I stared at the door for a long time before at last forcing my feet to start moving. The Seth soul-selling takeer held no temptation for me whatsoever. That didnt trouble me. solely his other words…the reminders of my late(prenominal)…\r\nI sighed. I didnt want to deal with that, not with everything else pass on in my life right now. And speaking of which…with two hours left until naturalize, I indomitable to bite the bullet and again try to get more information about my dreams. From Dante.\r\nHis store looked as bleak as the last time Id visited, notwith subscribeing this time, he actually had a customer. She was a early days woman, college-aged maybe, with layered brown hair and a colour sweatshirt. Seeing her, I started to step back outside, hardly he waved me in.\r\nâ€Å"No, no, its okay. You can wait here.” Dante glanced at the girl. twain of them sat at the shabby, velvet-covered table. â€Å"You dont mind, do you?”\r\nShe barely spared me a glance. â€Å"No! No! Hurry, go on. I want to hear more about the man.”\r\nDante produced a conspicuous grin that seemed a bit fake to me entirely which I surmise was actually very trenchant on her. Taking a step closer, I recognize he was indication her Tarot bugs. several(prenominal) already lay on the table. He flipped some other over.\r\nâ€Å"Ah, the Hierophant.” His voice held a mysterious, manageing note.\r\nâ€Å"Whats that mean?” she squealed.\r\n â€Å"You dont know? You dont know anything about these?”\r\nShe shook her head. â€Å" secret code.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, the Hierophant is a capacious love card. It represents a amatory man, someone giving and charming who loves giving gifts and doing subatomic gestures. You know the kind.”\r\nâ€Å"I dont, actually,” she said wistfully. â€Å"All my boyfriends have been jerks.”\r\nâ€Å"Well, thats going to change,” he expectd.\r\nI knew quite a bit about Tarot cards, actually. The Hierophant represented tradition, wisdom, and organized religion. He wasnt hardly a romantic figure, particularly considering he was familiarly depicted as a priest.\r\nâ€Å" wherefore is he dressed so weird?” asked the girl. â€Å"He looks handle hes in robes.”\r\nâ€Å"Its not weird,” Dante said. â€Å"Its opulent. Remember, the Tarot is an ancient system. A jest at dressed like this represented the upside of fashion back in the o ld days. You know, a real designer label kind of computerized tomography.”\r\nI caught Dantes gaze and rolled my eyeball. He maintained his stove poker face and flipped the next card.\r\nâ€Å"Things are face good,” he declared. â€Å"The Tower.”\r\nThe Tower was pretty much the worst card in the deck.\r\nâ€Å"This shows you guys have a promising future.”\r\nâ€Å"Why is it on fire?” she asked. â€Å"And why are race falling out of the windows?”\r\nâ€Å"Its all symbolic,” he said hastily. â€Å"And although things look really good for when you happen this guy, it nerve you have to be cautious and read the signs more or less you.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, wow,” she said. â€Å"I hope I can.”\r\nDante gathered up the cards and stacked them neatly. â€Å"Well, I can help if you want. I could give you a package set of readings at a discount. That way, youll have a single-valued function up as you go along. Youll be p repared for when you amass him.”\r\nI sincerely doubted she was ever going to meet this mythical guy.\r\nâ€Å"How much?” she asked hesitantly.\r\nâ€Å"Hmm, lets see.” Dante turned speculative. â€Å"Well, theyre normally lambert dollars. Usually, I give a five-dollar discount for packages… hardly, hell. I really want to see this work. Im a romantic myself, you know? Its a stretch, however Ill do a set of six for forty dollars each. You can deal them now and therefore come in whe neer you want to claim them.”\r\nThe girl deliberated, and I cute to margin call at her that it was a scam. unless I ask Dantes advice and didnt want to get on his bad side. non that I was necessarily on his good side right now.\r\nâ€Å"I dont want to pres for sure you,” he told her gently. â€Å"So, please. Dont feel obligated. beneficial do w nauseatever your heart tells you to do. I mean, if the cards have told us anything, its that you have to protec t your heart now as you participate this important stage of your life.”\r\nThat sold her. â€Å"Okay. Ill do it.”\r\nI watched in disbelief as the two of them walked to his register. She reach over two-hundred-forty dollars †plus tax †and he gave her a Tarot punch card, not unlike what youd get at a coffee or organise shop.\r\nâ€Å"You should be ashamed of yourself,” I told him when she was gone.\r\nâ€Å"Succubus. Nice to see you too.”\r\nâ€Å"That wasnt a romance reading.”\r\nâ€Å"Nope,” he agreed, coming over to stand beside me. â€Å"It actually suggested shed soon be having a sex change and joining a suicide cult.”\r\nâ€Å"But you told her it was about love.”\r\nâ€Å"Shes twenty years old. Loves all they want to hear about at that age.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre going to Hell.”\r\nâ€Å"I could have told you that. In fact, I did tell you that last time, didnt I? Now. What can I do for you? You change y our mind about the sex?”\r\nâ€Å"No. Of blood not.”\r\nHe looked offended. â€Å"Of course not? Whats with the attitude? Im not that unappealing.”\r\nâ€Å"No,” I agreed. He looked like he still hadnt shaved in a mate days, and there was something very sexy about that and the way his indigo T-shirt fit him. I hadnt realized before what nice ab muscles he had. belike the lack of business nearly here gave him piles of time to work out. â€Å"But thats not why Im here. And honestly, if this behavior is just the tip of the iceberg, Im thinking your soul isnt going to be worth my time anyway.”\r\nHe threw his hands in the air. â€Å"She comes and insults me, whence expects help. So what is it you want? Your dishwasher finally break?”\r\nâ€Å"No, only when I had the dream again. And there was more.”\r\nI recapped it, and he listened, face unreadable.\r\nâ€Å"You sure you dont want a new dishwasher?” he asked dubiously.\r\nâ €Å"No!”\r\nâ€Å"What about kids?”\r\nâ€Å"What about them?”\r\nâ€Å"You want them?”\r\nI fell silent, and de contuse his lopsided smile, I could see Dante scrutinizing me. He might be a con artist, but he was smart. The best ones invariably are. People like him make their living reading people and exploiting little things †like that girls longing for romance.\r\nâ€Å"It doesnt matter,” I said. â€Å"You know that. I cant have them.”\r\nâ€Å"I didnt ask that, succubus. I asked if you valued them.”\r\nI averted my look, analyse the crystal ball. With the way the sunlight hit it, I suspected it was actually plastic.\r\nâ€Å"Sure. I did even when I was mortal. If I could have kids now, I would.”\r\nHe nodded, and for the root time, I got the impression he might almost be taking me ripely. Almost. â€Å"And let me guess. You woke up without vital force.”\r\nâ€Å"Yes, and Id gotten a victim the night befo re. Just like last time.”\r\nHis face turned speculative. â€Å"Interesting. It only happens when youre charged up.”\r\nâ€Å"What do you think it means?”\r\nâ€Å"Dunno. Might not mean anything.”\r\nâ€Å"It has to! Im losing nothing for no reason at all.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre stressed,” he argued. â€Å"And youre, like, one of the most uptight people Ive ever met †deity or otherwise. Youve fatigued centuries wishing you could get knocked up. You have this celibate boyfriend thing going on. And you work for that demon, right? The one who looks like Matthew Broderick?”\r\nâ€Å"John Cusack,” I corrected. â€Å"He looks like John Cusack.”\r\nâ€Å"W shunver. Thats enough to tax anybody. Your dreams are manifestations of the woes in your life, coming out of your subconscious in vivid, energy-sucking ways.”\r\nâ€Å"You are so unhelpful. Your dream expertise is a scam †like everything else.”\r\nâ€Å"Na h. Not everything I do is a scam. I know dreams. I know spells. And I know what could help you.”\r\nâ€Å"What?”\r\nHe pointed to the counter. â€Å"You and me. Up there. Naked. Horizontal.”\r\nI groaned. â€Å"Wow, you really werent lying. You are a romantic.”\r\nâ€Å"A pragmatist. And an opportunist.”\r\nâ€Å"A sleazy guy, treating me like a cheap whore…”\r\nâ€Å"Fuck, I havent been laid in months, and now this succubus shows up wanting my help. Youd try to bargain for sex too.”\r\nI eyed him warily. â€Å"Is that what this is about? I have to relaxation with you to get help?”\r\nDante shoved his hands in his pockets. â€Å"Nope. Youd be more gambling if you were willing, I think. Besides, I have no other help to give.”\r\nDisappointed, I made motions to leave. â€Å"Okay. Thanks. Sort of.”\r\nâ€Å"You know what else might help?” he called after me.\r\nâ€Å"If it involves sex †â€Å"\r\ nâ€Å"A vacation. At the very least, a massage. basic stress reliever things.”\r\nThose were actually reasonable things, and I was pleasantly surprised to see his mind wasnt eternally in the gutter. â€Å"They can help,” I told him. â€Å"But I doubt a massage will fix the problems in my life.”\r\nâ€Å" perhaps. Maybe not. But if you want a open one…a naked free one…”\r\nI left.\r\nId already felt like my romance with Seth was some infinite coil tape reel. The rest of my life apparently was too. do the same dream, go to Dante, get no help, go to work, and ruminate. Because thats exactly how my day was unfolding, just like before.\r\nI went through the motions of paperwork and customer service at Emerald City, all the while consumed by images of the little girl in the dream and the sweet fantasy of having a daughter. My heart ached to see her again, to see that smile. Everything at my job seemed so shallow and meaningless compared with h er.\r\nWhen work ended, I brought Maddie back to my apartment to make good on my promise to get her a date.\r\nâ€Å"Youre going to sell me?” she exclaimed when I told her the plan.\r\nâ€Å"Its an auction,” I said. â€Å"For a childrens humanity. You dont hate kids, do you?”\r\nâ€Å"Well, no, but †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Then thisll be vast. Here, try this on.” I tossed her a BCBG shopping clutches. She eyed it warily.\r\nâ€Å"Isnt that a place for teenagers?”\r\nâ€Å"Its a place for anybody with style,” I assured her.\r\nShe opened the bag and pulled out the knee-length dress Id picked up for her the other day. It was silk chiffon with a dark pink geometric print. The conglomerate waist had a slightly gathered top, and the V-neck had a bow that tied underneath it. Fluttery cap sleeves sunk it off.\r\nâ€Å"I cant wear this,” she said immediately.\r\nâ€Å"Why? Because itll look good?”\r\nShe shot me a glare. â€Å"The res hardly anything there.”\r\nâ€Å"What? Theres mint candy.” I owned mussinesss of dresses that had â€Å"hardly anything there.” This was elegant and tasteful. Amish rude compared to some of my clothing. â€Å"Try it on, and well see.”\r\nShe did, reluctantly, and I could have crowed with rape when she stepped out of my bathroom. Id totally nailed the size. It fit perfectly.\r\nâ€Å"There isnt an supererogatory inch here,” she fretted, pulling at the fabric around the waist.\r\n â€Å"Exactly.”\r\nâ€Å"Doesnt it make me look fat?”\r\nâ€Å"It makes you look great. If it were spandex or something, there might be a problem, but this is light and drapey.”\r\nâ€Å"The necklines awfully low †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Oh, be quiet,” I snapped. â€Å"And lets finish the rest of you.”\r\nI did her makeup and position her hair megabucks for a change. It shone like color silk when brushed out, and I thought it was a shame she wore it in a haphazard ponytail so very much. Besides, everyone knows that in the motion pictures, shy girls always become beautiful by letting down their hair and taking off their glasses. Maddie already wore ties, but the principle was still sound. I finally finished her off with half-heeled shoes Id bought to match the dress. Higher ones would have looked better, but even I knew when not to press my luck. Satisfied with the results, we headed out to the auction.\r\nâ€Å"Youre like my fairy godmother,” she muttered as we walked into the hotel the event was being held at. â€Å"But Im still a pumpkin.”\r\nI elbowed her. â€Å"How did you get so negative? You should start some angstful emo rock band to compete with Dougs.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh, yeah. Thatd go over †hey, is that Seth?”\r\nWe were dim across the open room the auction would take place in, heading toward the volunteers area. Lots of people had gathered, filling most of the rou nd tables facing the stage. I followed her gesture to where Seth sat at one of the hardly a(prenominal) tables that wasnt already full. Seeing us notice him, he held up his hand in greeting.\r\nâ€Å"He wanted to come support you,” I told her. Actually, Seth had been churn up at me strong-arming Maddie into this and had attended mainly out of a perverse fascination at what he thought might end in disaster.\r\nBut Maddie, not knowing his motives, was pleasantly surprised. She smiled, and I nearly swooned.\r\nâ€Å"That,” I said. â€Å"That right there is what you need to do.”\r\nThe smile dropped. â€Å"That what?”\r\nHugh a lot skipped over when he saw us. â€Å"I knew you didnt hate kids. I knew youd cave and come help †â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Not me,” I said. â€Å"Maddie.” I rested a hand on her shoulder.\r\nHughs face turned perfectly blank. â€Å"Oh?”\r\nJust then, a tall brunette in a black satin evening dress strolled over. T he â€Å"fucking fox,” presumably. She widen her hand. â€Å"Hello, Im Deanna, the coordinator. You must be Hughs friend?”\r\nâ€Å"Georgina,” I said, shaking. â€Å"But Maddie here is your volunteer. Shes a journalist for an important womens magazine.”\r\nDeannas eyes lit up. â€Å"Ah! We love celebrities. Let me take down your information.”\r\nShe led Maddie away. As soon as they were gone, Hugh turned on me. â€Å"What the hell? I wanted Georgina, and you give me Georgy Girl.”\r\nâ€Å"You are such an asshole. Thats a horrible thing to regulate.”\r\nHe shrugged, eyes on Maddie. â€Å"I call em like I see em. Shes huge.”\r\nMy eyes were on Maddie too. She actually looked quite slim in the dress, but Hugh was one of those guys who liked bony types †so long as their chests were voluminous enough.\r\nâ€Å"Youre the reason women have such horrible self-esteem issues. You tear them apart. Women, I mean. Not the issues.â €\r\nâ€Å"Look, Im sure shes not all bad,” he said. â€Å"She probably gives good head.”\r\nI rolled my eyes. â€Å"Flatterer. Why do you say that?”\r\nâ€Å"Fat girls always do. They have to. however way they can get men.”\r\nI punched him in the arm. Hard.\r\nâ€Å"Ow! Fuck, that hurt.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre a jerk,” I told him. â€Å"Maddies beautiful.”\r\nâ€Å"Shes okay,” he said, rubbing his hurt arm. â€Å"And I cant exactly have just okay tonight †not with that liability already on deck.”\r\nHe pointed over to where some of the other volunteers waited. Immediately, I found what he referred to. It was easy because Tawny towered over the other women by about a foot.\r\nâ€Å"sanctum Christ,” I said. â€Å"How did that happen?”\r\nHe threw up his hands, look miserable. â€Å"She latched on to the idea when you mentioned it at the bar.”\r\nâ€Å"I didnt even think she heard me,” I sa id apologetically.\r\nHugh waved me toward the crowd. â€Å" similarly late now. Go have a seat, Brutus, so this disaster can get under way. Youve ruin the night. I dont know why you hate kids so much.”\r\nI gave him a parting glare and went off to find Seth. The vampires had joined him since Id come in.\r\nâ€Å"You guys here to get a date or a victim?” I asked.\r\nâ€Å"Neither,” said motherfucker. â€Å"Were here to see the Tawny Show.”\r\nI sighed. â€Å"This is supposed to be a charity event, and people are treating it like a bollock show. Hugh already accused me of ruining it by saving Maddie.”\r\nSeth looked surprised. â€Å"Why? She looks great.”\r\nI pointed her out to dick and Cody, who excessively concurred about her cuteness. â€Å"Shell be fine,” said Cody. â€Å"Tawnys going to be the one to watch. I havent really been able to see what shes wearing away away. I hope its up to her usual standards.”\r\n†Å"Maybe her Secret Santa will get her some nicer clothes,” said Peter. He glanced at me. â€Å"You bought for yours yet?”\r\nâ€Å"Huh?” Right. Carter. Id exclusively forgotten. Buying something for that cynical angel hadnt exactly been at the top of my priority list. â€Å"I, um, have some ideas. legato thinking about it.”\r\nâ€Å"What about a Christmas shoetree? You got one of those?”\r\nâ€Å"Um, havent done that either.”\r\nâ€Å"I didnt know you wanted a Christmas tree,” said Seth. â€Å"Do you need help picking one out?”\r\nâ€Å"Well, I don †â€Å"\r\nThe auction started, cutting me off. The auction, break away, was a young guy in his early thirties who probably had a second job doing minor modeling contracts that would never actually get him out of Seattle. He smiled non-stop and did a good job flirting with the women and making guy-jokes to the men. Bids flew fast and furious, and it was easy to get caught up in the excitement.\r\nâ€Å" near up,” said the auctioneer, reading from a card, â€Å"is Tawny Johnson.”\r\nâ€Å"Johnson?” asked Cody. â€Å" cordial of boring.”\r\nâ€Å"She made up both her names,” I said. Succubi often did. â€Å"She probably didnt have any mental energy left after choosing the first one.”\r\nâ€Å"Ouch,” said Seth. â€Å"Whos being mean now?”\r\nâ€Å"You havent met her,” I warned.\r\nTawny pranced up, wearing seven-inch high-heeled shoes that appeared to be made out of blameless steel. They looked like medieval torture devices but matched her super-tight, liquid lam?¦ hot pants and jacket.\r\nâ€Å"She didnt disappoint,” said Cody, studying the outfit.\r\nUnsurprisingly, she stumbled the last couple of steps, and Nick reached out to strong her.\r\nâ€Å"Careful there,” he said, flashing his brilliant egg white teeth. â€Å"Men are supposed to fall all over you.”\r\nI t took her a moment to get the joke, and then she burst into small, high-pitched giggles. The noise grated on my nerves, but Nick seemed quite pleased to have someone appreciate his jokes.\r\nâ€Å"Why dont you tell us a little bit about yourself, Tawny,” he said. â€Å"It says here youre currently unemployed. Does that mean youre out looking for something right now?”\r\nâ€Å"Well, Nick, Im out looking for someone right now †if you know what I mean.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh my God,” I said.\r\nâ€Å"That was kind of funny,” Peter noted.\r\nâ€Å"No, it wasnt.”\r\nNick apparently agreed with Peter. He threw back his head and laughed. â€Å"Careful there, guys…we got a unplayful one on our hands. Tell me, Tawny, what is it youre looking for in a man?”\r\nShe pursed her red-lacquered lips in deep thought. â€Å"Im looking for heart, Nick. Heart and soul. Those are the most important things.”\r\nThere was a collective â€Å"awwà ¢â‚¬Â from the audience. Beside me, Peter said, â€Å"Okay, the soul thing really was funny. Only to us, of course, but still.”\r\nTawny then winked at the crowd. â€Å"But stamina and a big checkbook can make up for that sometimes.”\r\nNick waited for the audiences laughter to fade. â€Å"Okay, lets start the bidding at fifty dollar bill †oh my God.”\r\nTawny had taken off her jacket, revealing a zebra-print bandeau top underneath. ‘Top was a dubious stipulation at best, though. When wrapped around her enormous bust, it looked more like a rubber band and really only served to cover her nipples.\r\nBids exploded from the audience, much to the confusion of my friends and me. More surprising still was when Nick the auctioneer actually joined in.\r\nâ€Å"Folks, I know this is a bit unusual…but, well, I just cant help myself. Three-hundred dollars.”\r\nâ€Å"Three-fifty!”\r\nâ€Å"Four-hundred!”\r\nIn the end, Nick was the one who ended up winning her, paying a startling five-fifty.\r\nâ€Å"Well, Ill be damned,” said Peter.\r\nI would have made a joke about his comment if I wasnt so shocked. When I finally found my voice, it was to say, â€Å"Well…this is a good thing, right? That guy looks like hed sleep with her right now.”\r\nâ€Å"And,” added Cody, â€Å"it was all for the kids.”\r\nSlowly, my astonishment faded into relief. This was an unpredicted twist to the evening. The Tawny problem was fixed. Apparently, all wed require to do was essentially run an ad for her. Shed sleep with him, and Niphon would get off my back. One less thing for me to worry about †which was good, because I certainly had plenty of other things. Like Maddie.\r\nIt was her turn next. She walked out, face gamy and set for battle. She looked both terrified and terrifying. In spite of that hard countenance, I still saw a few interested faces in the audience.\r\nâ€Å"Smile, smile,â⠂¬Â I muttered to no one in particular.\r\nâ€Å"Maddie Sato,” said Nick cheerily. â€Å"You save up magazine articles. Anything Id know?”\r\nâ€Å"Probably not,” she said, still wearing that grimace. â€Å"Not unless you read feminist publications.”\r\nâ€Å"Feminist,” he said, clearly amused. â€Å"Next youll be telling us you hate men.”\r\nShe gave him a blank look. â€Å"I only hate stupid men who dont actually understand what ‘feminist means.”\r\nHe laughed. â€Å"You run into a lot of men like that?”\r\nâ€Å"All the time.”\r\nâ€Å"Really?”\r\nâ€Å"Even as we speak, Nick.”\r\nâ€Å"Oh no she didnt,” said Peter. I groaned.\r\nIt took Nick a full ten seconds to realize he had just been insulted. Then, for the first time that night, he stopped smiling. Turning to the crowd, he said flatly, â€Å"Okay, lets start the bidding at fifty.”\r\n tranquility met him. The interested faces no longer looked so interested. I swallowed a scream. No, this couldnt be happening. Id promised her a date. This would destroy her. afterward what seemed like an eternity, I heard a voice in the back of the room.\r\nâ€Å"Fifty.”\r\nRelieved, I craned my head and looked. The guy who had bid was about fifty years old and looked exactly like this pedophile Id once seen on a news special.\r\nâ€Å"Fifty,” said Nick. â€Å"Do I hear seventy-five?”\r\nSilence. I turned to Seth.\r\nâ€Å"Do something!” I hissed.\r\nHe flinched. â€Å"What?”\r\nâ€Å"Going once…”\r\nI elbowed him, and his hand shot up. â€Å"Seventy-five.”\r\nThere was a collective â€Å"ooh in the room. Apparently no one, including Maddie, had expected a bidding war for the belligerent man-hater. Her eyes widened in surprise.\r\nâ€Å"One hundred,” said the pedophile look-alike.\r\nThen, either to end this quickly or because he felt patrician for Maddie, S eth said, â€Å"Three hundred.”\r\nMore sounds of astonishment followed. The other bidder couldnt compete; he must have spent all his money on bail.\r\nâ€Å"Sold to the humans in the Welcome Back, Kotter T-shirt.”\r\nâ€Å"Nice,” said Cody, as Maddie exited the stage.\r\nI reached out and squeezed Seths hand. â€Å"Thank you.”\r\nHe gave me his half-smile. â€Å"Anything for the kids.”\r\nNick flipped to his next card. â€Å"And now we have…Georgina Kincaid.”\r\nMy head shot up. crossways the room, I saw Hughs smirking face.\r\nâ€Å"Oh no he didnt,” I said through gritted teeth.\r\nNick, puzzled, glanced toward where the other auctionees were. â€Å"Georgina Kincaid?”\r\nâ€Å"No avoiding it,” Peter told me. â€Å"Might as well go up there. Otherwise peoplell think you hate kids.”\r\nâ€Å"That joke is getting old,” I hissed.\r\nVowing to slap Hugh later, I reluctantly rose from my chair. Upon see ing me, Nick turned on the supernova smile. â€Å"Ah, there she is. Fashionably late.”\r\nOn the subject of fashion, I wished Id emaciated something as nice as Maddies dress. I might have just gotten tricked into this thing, but now I wished I could do it right. I still looked good; my normal virtuoso of aesthetics would allow for nothing less. I had on a black hedge and a purple cashmere sweater, my hair in a ponytail. In tiny increments †too slow and small for anyone to notice †I tightened the sweater around my figure and made the neckline bigger. I put a perambulation into my hips and pulled out my ponytail tie, shaking out my hair. It had worked for Maddie and countless nerdy movie girls. It would work for me because I suddenly had a serious issue at stake here.\r\nThere was no way on Gods green earth that I was going for less than Tawny.\r\nâ€Å"Georgina,” said Nick, helping me onto the stage. â€Å"My notes say you prefer Georgie.” Yeah, Hug h was definitely getting slapped. â€Å"And that you run a bookstore.”\r\nIf Id taken a victim recently and had succubus glamour on me, I wouldnt have to do a single thing except stand there. I wouldnt even have to smile. Now Id have to work a little. Quickly, I assessed this crowd. The kinds of guys who came to events like this tended to be white-collar professionals with disposable income. Some would be here simply because philanthropy was trendy and good for the image, and this was a stylish way to do it. Others, while perhaps not desperate, were nonetheless intellects and introverts who found this a good opportunity to meet women. These men all wanted smart, competent women †women who were also pretty, of course. And wit…wit always went over well.\r\nI gave Nick, then the audience, a heart-stopping smile. â€Å"Thats right. I organize events, bring in money, make sure everything looks good, and whip people into shape.”\r\nâ€Å"Sounds like a lot of wor k,” he said.\r\nâ€Å"Or,” I said, â€Å"an excellent first date.”\r\nThere was no cymbal crash, but my punch line arouse the laughs Id hoped for. â€Å"You have some high expectations,” said Nick.\r\nâ€Å"Well, I think everyone should. Why settle? If a guy meets my expectations, Ill meet his. And in the end, its all about sense of humor and a conversation that wont put me to sleep.” I realized I sounded vaguely like a Miss America contestant, but maybe there wasnt much difference. I could see from the intrigue in the audience that Id made a good impression.\r\nâ€Å"This ones a keeper,” said Nick. â€Å"Lets start at fifty for Georgie.”\r\nI got my fifty and then some. Bids flew around the room. At one point, I glanced at Seth. Our eyes met, and I could tell by his expression that he was on the verge of bidding. I shook my head. He was the only one I wanted to go out with in this room, but I didnt want to taint Maddies win. I wanted her to feel special. Besides, I also didnt want Seth to blow that much money.\r\nI went for seventeen-hundred dollars.\r\nâ€Å"I cant believe that,” Maddie whispered to me afterward. â€Å"I think youre the highest one so far. The guy looked cute too.”\r\nHe had. lately thirties. Armani suit. Harmless. Nobody I planned on establishing anything meaningful with, but hed do for a casual date. Maybe an energy fix if I decided to use this body.\r\nâ€Å"You brought in some money yourself,” I teased.\r\nHer eyes found Seth, sitting across the room, and studied him speculatively. â€Å"Seth probably did it because he felt sorry for me.”\r\nâ€Å"Of course not,” I said quickly. She still looked skeptical.\r\nâ€Å"Well, it doesnt matter. Id rather crisp coffee and talk shop with him than go out with some sleazy guy. That other bidder reminded me of this sex offender I saw on TV once…”\r\nWhen the auction wound down, I exchanged contact inf o with my buyer for a future date. Hugh inclined himself to Deanna and stayed as far away from me as possible. No worries. Id have plenty of time to deal with him later. Tawny, fortunately, also stayed away from me and clung to Nicks arm. I watched them like a rarified parent. Tonight was going to be a great night.\r\n\r\n'