Health & Wellness Approach

Understanding International Market Segmentation

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The important point in international market segmentation is the impact of the geographical dimension on the implementation of segmentation, since the geographical location can play a major or minor role, depending upon the environments concerned.
It is of major importance when there are differences in customer behaviour (mainly the level of technical development), networks and norms in one area that make the segmentation used in the original country (or area) inapplicable. In such cases it becomes necessary to reconsider the whole basis of the market segmentation. The objective is to search for what, in spite of their differences, constitutes common features shared among the different territories, thereby making it easier to treat the absolute differences.
It is minor if 'another market' is so similar to those already covered that it may fit into an existing group of countries in which a common segmentation exists.
Geographically dispersed countries are in fact similar, requiring similar offers and area management strategies. France and Brazil should receive similar offers, in the same way as the UK and Mexico. The South American and European management units show very weak homogeneity in marketing terms. Thus, several dimensions of the international strategy have to be reconsidered: organisation and allocation of management responsibilities, offer design, allocation of manufacturing and marketing investments and the localisation of technical support staff or promotional policies. Such a vision of the markets allows management to approach the questions of the international coverage of the markets and the investment priorities in new ways. However, we already mentioned that segmentation, as it is presented here, is valid for the case of dispersed customer bases. As for concentrated customer bases, the importance of the single customer is such that useful methods are to be found in what we call the international management of customers and international customer portfolio management.

Powerful Factors of Market Globalization

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Market Globalization
Some powerful factors scale and experience effects, international standardisation of norms, criteria of return on investment, demand homogenisation and so on, lead more and more markets towards world unification. But this phenomenon does not affect markets in a similar way.
On the basis of the arguments just used, the debate is open as to the extent of variety and standardisation. One has to be cautious not to confuse the globalisation of competition and offer standardisation. Truly international competitors may bring different answers to the necessary compromises between forces to standardise, and degrees of adaptation to different market requirements. If a standard offer causes losses in market share in some markets because of insufficient adaptation, what does the firm win? Our idea here is that demand variety is still the major theme of thought. It is not possible to force standardisation further than customers are willing to accept. But the first step in analysing what this means for a firm's international marketing strategy is to analyse what in many cases hinders the choices open to it, and that is the firm's own initial stance towards intemationalisation.

Understanding Diversity in International Markets

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Diversity in International Markets
If the world of uniform and homogeneous would not exist. Common sense brings forward evident differences: languages, social habits, lifestyles, foods and so on. However, some innovations - the mobile phone and Internet, for example - appear simultaneously in all countries and develop in spite of these true differences. Marketing typically deal with international issues only from the point of view of consumer goods or services. Differences between countries are typified through such criteria as standard of living (Gross National Product), the structure of consumption patterns (the respective claims on disposable income of food, clothing, furniture, leisure and so on), a national preference for certain type of consumption, and local regulations. These criteria are not particularly relevant to business-to-business environments. A new technology - such as an innovative sensor bearing for the car industry - is likely to offer solutions acceptable to any customer in any country, whatever the nationality or language. But the bearing manufacturer may not meet the same degree of success in all the countries concerned, even if it expended the same effort throughout. This chapter seeks to explore why this might be so.
Reasons Behind Diversity
The most obvious international dimension is geography. Remoteness creates a kind of mental or psychic distance between a decision centre and a large number of operational fields. One spontaneous and historical trend is to simplify this variety through clustering countries within geographical areas. So, for example, IBM's world is divided into EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), the Americas, and the Pacific Rim. From a purely marketing point of view this is based on the assumption that these areas present a high degree of homogeneity on numerous criteria (and in IBM's case, the time differences in between units in one area are minimised). But this homogeneity is not universally true.
Differences in required performances come for any country from its degree of technical sophistication: the general level of education, technical training of engineers and technicians, standards 'of the research centres, level of the industrial equipment both in general and for a particular sector, and so on. This degree of sophistication is closely correlated with a more general indicator, the Gross National Product per head. The behaviour of a firm in a country is closely connected to the 'local' resources that it may call for. This is a direct application of the cluster theory. The performance and development of a firm are partly determined by the conditions of its environment. The proximity of professional practices combines several points that may have led national firms to adopt similar practices:
Norms and regulations intervene in all domains. They still playa protectionist role in many countries. Most often they are the result of joint work between public authorities and the profession. It suffices here to note how Electricite de France has been able to establish French norms in terms of transport and distribution of electricity. In has succeeded in influencing the performance of the firms acting in the sector. A firm that is used to meeting high performances is not adapted to produce simpler products at low cost. Conversely, firms used to lower performance norms do not easily comply with higher norms. Norms may slow down the entry of foreign firms as much as the export capacity of national firms does. It may be the inability to adapt to other norms or the refusal to support the related costs. Nevertheless, the trend is towards an increased influence of international norms (ISO, EC standards. and so on.).
National networks and value chains also establish particular practices: different division or allocation of the tasks from one value chain to another, different roles from the supporting industries, the impact of various public authorities and so on. All these dimensions shape different market structures from one country or area to another. In order to sell small electrical motors to a car manufacturer, a foreign supplier had no choice other than to approach the usual supplier of this manufacturer. Trying to force an entry, typical practice in Europe or North America, is not a possibility in Japan: this is a general comment concerning the Japanese car industry. Let us note that each car manufacturer has built its own network that should be examined specifically.
These dimensions take on precise forms within a given environment. In their concrete form, they make for a basis for international segmentation.
The Forms of Diversity
The forms of diversity vary according to the industrial sector concerned and the nature of the customers' problems to be solved. An example to illustrate our point concerns the purchasing of office furniture. This decision is linked to several criteria:

The size and location of the office: enclosed offices for 1 or 2 staff or open-plan spaces for 3-50 staff
The size of the firm
The firm status: public or private.

In spite of its simplicity, this example does show how compromises have to be made in order to design 'European office furniture'. The same furniture does not fit an enclosed office for one person and an open space for 20. The habit of large open spaces, as in the UK or Spain, creates a demand for furniture adapted to this particular type of environment. A large group requiring refurbishment may present requirements for adaptations that a smaller firm would not. Because of the relatively large number of bigger firms, a pan-European supplier could expect more requirements for adaptation from the UK, Germany or France than from other countries, the presence in France of a large public sector is likely to drive prices down.

Basics of International Marketing

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Specificities of International Marketing
he marketing approach is based on understanding and reacting to demand diversity. Any company seeking to build a long-lasting competitive position uses marketing to organise and manage this diversity in order to understand it and to adapt accordingly. Thus, the firm is bound to make numerous choices: target segments, target customers, prioritised deals, offer design and so on. Our initial perspective and the numerous examples we have introduced naturally placed our views within an international scope. Doing so makes the point that acting in an international context places the firm in an environment of a higher degree of complexity. This is the result of the view of the marketplace: differences on technological levels and cultural habits between geographical areas and countries, diversity of customers and their organisational structures, the variety of networks and value chains or clusters. The marketing approach and methods that we have discussed are well adapted to deal with market diversity and heterogeneity. We could well stick to a technical point of view and not examine the international field at all. However, this increased complexity challenges any firm in organising its marketing activities, and it is necessary to identify and attempt to solve the questions that it raises. Understanding this complexity is not an easy task, as it does not present itself uniformly when dealing with different industrial sectors, customer portfolios, competitors' position or types of offer.
A first difficulty appears when trying to separate international marketing from the firm's international strategy. Consequently, we chose to limit our discussion to the design of an international customer and offer policy, and to the questions linked to the organisation of the marketing function in an international arena. We shall not treat such themes as how to take a foothold in foreign markets, the localisation of the manufacturing units, the specificities of local tax or legal systems, the international financial operations and other important issues.
Two realities actually affect international marketing. First, what is the kind of firm that we are looking at? Is it possible to analyse the international marketing strategy of large concerns such as BP or Dow Chemical and that of a small European company such as Elcometer. that nevertheless exports a significant amount of its output, in the same way? Secondly, the degree of concentration of the customer base has to be taken into account. It is not possible to use the same approaches and methods for 15 car manufacturers as for 5 million garages. We shall try to define clearly all the time the situation that we have in mind.

What are the Causes of Hyperhomocysteinemia?

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CAUSES OF HYPERHOMOCYSTEINEMIA
A number of enzymes, essential cofactors, and the availability of the important cosubstrate methyltetrahydrofolate regulate plasma homocysteine concentrations. Predictably, therefore, the causes of hyperhomocysteinemia are multifactorial.
Environmental Factors
Age and Gender
Plasma tHcy increases with age in both genders, for reasons that have not been elucidated.
Decreases in cofactor levels or coexisting renal impairment often seen in older patients may be responsible, and age-dependent reductions in cystathionine ~-synthase activity may also playa part. In general, men have higher plasma levels than women. After menopause, fasting tHcy seems to increase although this has not been confirmed, and hormone replacemen therapy can lower elevated tHcy levels in postmenopausal women. Although gender differences may be explained by the effect of sex hormones on homocysteine metabolism, they may be related to higher creatinine values or the greater muscle mass of men than women. Homocysteine is decreased by up to 50% during pregnancy, returning to normal 2 - 4 d postpartum. The authors suggest several reasons for this decrease, including the hemodilution known to occur in pregnancy, or an increased demand for methionine by the fetus, leading to increased remethylation of homocysteine.
Ethnic Group
Despite a high prevalence of CHD risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, and smoking, CHD incidence rate is much lower among westernized black Africans compared with the white population. A group of 27 black men, aged 18 - 25 yr, had tHcy 46% lower than similarly aged white men. By contrast, in a study examining tHcy and B-vitamin levels in American black pre-menopausal women, who have higher rates of CAD than white women, black women had higher tHcy and lower folate examined homocysteine and CAD in the Hong Kong Chinese population. Although the evalence of hyperhomocysteinemia was similar to that in white subjects, elevated tHcy was not an independent risk factor, being associated with smoking. Serum vitamin B12 did not Mer between patients and control subjects. The observation of higher serum folate in those with elevated tHcy does not seem compatible with what is known about tHcy metabolism.
Coexistent Disease
Elevated homocysteine levels are found in a number of disease states. Impaired renal :unction is associated with hyperhomocysteinemia. There is a positive correlation between :asting plasma tHcy and serum creatinine although the mechanism is unclear. Markedly elevated homocysteine levels have also been seen in acute lymphoblastic leukemia various
cinomas (including breast, ovary and, pancreas, severe psoriasis, and diabetes mellitus.

Hyperhomocysteinemia and Coronary Heart Disease

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HYPERHOMOCYSTEINEMIA AND CORONARY HEART DISEASE
Numerous studies have indicated that mild hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for CHD. In the Physicians' Health Study, a total of 14,91.6 US male physicians, aged 40 - 84 yr, were followed up for 6 yr. Men with homocysteine levels above the 95th percentile 'based on control distribution) had a threefold increased risk of myocardial infarction compared with those within the bottom 90%. The findings were also statistically compatible with a graded risk increase across the distribution, a suggestion made by Perry and coworkers in a prospective study of stroke in middle-aged British men. Similar findings have been reported for myocardial infarction, carotid artery thickening, and angiographically defined coronary artery stenosis.
In addition, Selhub and associates demonstrated a gradual increase in the prevalence of carotid artery stenosis with increasing levels of homocysteine. A meta-analysis by Boushey and colleagues showed an increase in risk of CAD of about 70% for each 5 !lmol/L rise in fasting homocysteine. They concluded that a total of 10% of CAD risk appeared to be attributable to homocysteine. Two recent studies have confirmed the relevance of homocysteine as a risk factor for vascular disease. The first was a multicenter, case-control study where the risk of atherosclerotic vascular disease (cardiac, cerebral, and peripheral) was examined, as well as the association of plasma tHcy with conventional risk factors.
The subjects comprised 750 cases and 800 controls, both male and female, below 60 yr of age. The relative risk (RR) for vascular disease in the top fifth of the fasting tHcy distribution, when compared with the bottom four-fifths, was 2.2 (95% confidence interval [CIl 1.6 - 2.9), and a dose-response effect was noted. This level of risk is similar to that observed for hypercholesterolemia and smoking. The second study examined the prognostic value of homocysteine in patients with established CAD. A total of 587 patients with angiographically confirmed CAD were followed-up for a median period of 4.6 yr. Homocysteine levels were strongly associated with levels of folate and vitamin B12, history of myocardial infarction, the left ventricular ejection fraction, and serum creatinine.
A strong, graded relationship was found between plasma tHcy and overall mortality. After 4 yr, 3.8% of patients with tHcy below 9 ),lmol/L had died compared with 24.7% of those with tHcy greater than 15 !lmol/L. The association was not altered significantly when adjusted for other, possibly con-founding, factors such as age, sex, serum creatinine, left ventricular ejection fraction, and history of myocardial infarction. However, not all studies examining the effect of homocysteine levels on the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) have shown a positive association, highlighting the need for further investigation. An updated analysis of the Physicians' Health Study data yielded a relative risk for elevated tHey of only 1.3 (95% CI 0.5 - 3.1).
An analysis of the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT) cohort showed no effect of tHey after adjustment for other variables (RR = 0.94; 95% CI 0.56 - 1.56). An analysis of tHey and CHD in the Caerphilly cohort showed tHey to be only weakly predictive of CHD events. Finally, the ARIC study showed no association between the incidence of CHD an tHey, although there was a possibility that vitamin B6 offered independent protection, a finding also suggested by others.

Possible Vascular Damaging Mechanisms of Homocysteine

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Endothelial cell injury
Impaired nitric oxide production Overproduction of reactive oxygen species
Increased von Willebrand factor and thrombomodulin Increased tissue factor production
Decreased antithrombin III production
Increased smooth muscle cell production
Increased monocyte adhesion to the vessel wall
Coagulation pathways
Impaired platelet survival time
Increased production of thromboxane A2 by platelets and decreased production of
prostacyclin
Increased activation of factors V, X, and XII
Inhibition of antithrombin III and factor C production Increased fibrinogen levels
Enhanced binding of lipoprotein (a) to fibrin
Oxidative stress
Overproduction of reactive oxygen species Decreased plasma antioxidant activities Increased lipid peroxidation

Mechanism By Which Homocysteine May Lead to Vascular Tissues

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Several mechanisms may be involved in the genesis of vascular disease by homocysteine, including effects on connective tissue, smooth-muscle cells, platelets, endothelial cells, blood lipids, coagulation factors, and nitric oxide-summarized here. The relative importance of each of these mechanisms is not fully understood.

Homocysteine is toxic to endothelial cells in vitro, and in vivo. Hyperhomo-cysteinemia is associated with impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation and impaired endogenous tissue-type plasminogen activator activity. Homocysteine promotes increased platelet aggregation as a consequence of increased synthesis ofthromboxane~ and decreased synthesis

of prostaglandin. Hyperhomocysteinemia is associated with abnormalities of the clotting cascade. Homocysteine promotes the binding of lipoprotein (a) to fibrin and the growth of smooth muscle cells, and tHcy levels correlate with levels of fibrinogen, an independent risk factor for CVD. It must be noted, however, that many of these effects are not specific to homocysteine; a variety of free thiol-group amino acids, particularly cysteine, show similar tendencies. Much of the research into mechanisms has been carried out at millimolar concentrations of homocysteine, which are 100 - 1000-fold higher than those observed in vivo. In addition, the complex redox reac-tions involving the various homocysteine forms and their relation to other thiols in vivo are difficult to represent accurately in vitro where a single homocysteine species is used.

The complexities of elucidating an atherogenic mechanism are illustrated by the fact that oxidative modification of LDL by tHcy has been demonstrated in vitro and in animal models, but has not been observed in hyperhomocysteinemic patients. Similarly, supplementation with B-group vitamins, postulated to reduce tHcy and thus inhibit lipid peroxidation, had no effect on the susceptibility of LDL to oxidation. Homocysteine's effect on endothelial dysfunction, however, has been confirmed in a clinical setting. The blocking of the effects of hyperhomocysteinemia on endothelial dysfunction by pretreatment with antioxidant vitamins still suggests the involvement of an oxidative mechanism.

Similarly, in a cross-sectional study, plasma tHcy was associated strongly (r = 0'.40, p < 0.001) with plasma F-2-isoprostane levels, a marker for in vivo lipid peroxidation. The observation by Glueck and associates of a higher risk of myocardial infarction in hyperlipidemic patients with hyperhomocysteinemia and low HDL also suggests the possibility of an interaction between these risk factors.

Effect of Vitamin Supplementation and Diet on Homocysteine

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EFFECT OF VITAMIN SUPPLEMENTATION
AND DIET ON HOMOCYSTEINE
Cross-sectional and experimental evidence suggests that mild hyperhomo-cysteinemia may be related to subclinical deficiencies of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12-all co factors or co substrates in homocysteine metabolism (84 - 93). In a study of vitamin and tHcy levels in an elderly population, Selhub and coauthors (21) found a strong inverse correlation between tHcy and plasma folate, and weaker inverse correlations between tHcy and both cobalamin and vitamin B6 (pyridoxal-5-phosphate). The authors concluded that elevated tHcy levels could, in great part, be due to poor vitamin status, and these results have been confirmed in many other studies. Many studies have assessed the effects of vitamin supplementation on plasma tHcy. Levels in folate-deficient patients can be reduced by oral folate supplementation.
In one study, the elevated tHcy in patients with renal failure decreased after only 2 wk of folate therapy. Maximal effects may be seen after 4 to 6 wk of therapy. The lowest effective dose for folate supplementation has not yet been determined. Doses of 5 mg or 10 mg alone or 1 mg in conjunction with vitamins B12 and B6 may be effective. Ubbink and colleagues confirmed by intervention that a daily supplement of folate (1 mg), B6 (10 mg) and B12 (0.4 mg) could normalize elevated tHcy (> 16.3 Ilmol/L, n = 44) within 6 wk. Ubbink and colleagues then looked at the effect of supplementation with the individual vitamins in 100 men, aged between 20 and 73 yr, with tHcy greater than 16.3 Jlffiol/L, over 6 wk. Folate supplementation (0.65 mg/d) reduced plasma tHcy by 42% whereas a daily vitamin B'2 supplement (0.4 mg/d) lowered it by 15%. The vitamin Bs supplement (10 mg/d) had no significant effect. The combination of the three vitamins reduced circulating tHcy by 50% that was not significantly different from the reduction achieved by folate supplementation alone.
Brattstrom and coworkers noted significantly lower tHey in middle-aged and elderly subjects taking multivitamins containing doses of folic acid ranging from only 200 - 400 Ilg. Homocysteine values increase if vitamin therapy is discontinued. Ward and colleagues carried out an uncontrolled study examining the effect oflow-dose folate supplementation in healthy male subjects. Folate supple-ments were administered daily at doses increasing from 100 Ilg for 6 wk to 200 Ilg for 6 wk and then up to 400 pig for 14 wk. A dose of 200 Ilg/d appeared to be the optimum tHey-lowering dose as there was no apparent benefit of increasing the dose to 400 Ilg/d. The subjects had reported a mean dietary folate intake of 281 ± 60 Ilg/d. Their total folate intake, with the additional 200 pig supplement, therefore corresponds well with the observation by Selhub and colleagues that total intakes over 400 Ilg/d are associated with desirable tHcy in a healthy elderly US population.
When the analysis in the former study was carried out by tertiles of baseline tHey, the lowest tertile group showed no increase in red-cell folate over the 6-mo supplementation period, suggesting that their baseline folate status was optimal to begin with. Ward and associates suggests that, although there does not appear to be a threshold in the relationship between elevated tHcy and CVD risk, there may be a threshold of plasma tHey in terms of ability to respond to folate. A further randomized placebo-controlled study in healthy women aged 18 40 yr confirmed that both 250 Ilg and 500 Ilg folate/d for 4 wk decreased tHcy. Eight weeks after the end of folate supplementation, tHey had not returned to baseline. A meta-analysis of 12 studies using B-group vitamins to lower tHcy has recently been carried out.
The magnitude of tHcy reduction was related to the pretreatment tHcy and folate levels.
Folate reduced tHcy by 25% (95% CI 23 - 28%), and the effects were similar at daily doses ranging from 0.5 - 5 mg. Vitamin BI2 yielded a further tHey reduction of 5 - 6%, but vitamin Bs had no significant effect. None of these trials, assessed the effect on tHcy after methionine loading, however, which is determined by the transsulfuration pathway where vitamin Bs is a cofactor. The effectiveness of vitamins BIZ and Bs in homocysteine-lowering therapies needs further study.
Alien and associates have shown that folate supplementation will not correct hyperhomocy steinemia that is primarily the result of vitamin BIZ defi~iency, whereas Robinson and colleagues found that vitamin B6 was inversely related to risk of CVD independently of homocysteine, although this may be due to its ability to modulate the homocysteine peak after the oral methionine load test. Administration of vitamin Bs alone does not lower fasting tHcy. Dose-optimizing studies for these vitamins are also required. Woodside and colleagues have tested the hypothesis that simultaneous administration of antioxidant vitamins may potentiate the effect ofB-group vitamins on elevated tHey. An interaction between antioxidants and folate is conceivable because the latter is susceptible to inactivation by freeradical mediated oxidation, which can be prevented both in vitro and in vivo by vitamin C.
Although B-group vitamins lowered tHey by roughly 30%, the addition of antioxidant vitamins to the supplement had no effect on this. It is clear from the foregoing evidence above that B-group vitamin supplementation effectively lowers plasma homocysteine. The question therefore arises whether a dietary change in B-vitamin intake or food fortification can achieve

Effects of Technology on Advertising

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Technology And Advertising
New technology is continuously being developed to deliver more creative and bettertargeted advertising. While it is impossible to predict what will succeed and what will fail, here are a few examples of new approaches to advertising that are being tested:
In Tokyo, Northwest Airlines is testing using billboards on the streets and in subway stations with ads containing bar codes that can be read by special readers on cell phones. These codes are unlocked by snapshots taken by the phone's camera which then direct the phone's web browser to coupons, games, or further information on the product.
Time-Warner Cable Inc. is testing a system using the digital cable box to target different ads to different households. In fact, if a father and daughter are watching the same TV show but on different TVs, they can see different commercials.
Some companies are developing new digital technologies for showing images. Pulse (pulse3d.com) has online tools for turning a photo of any person or animal into a lip-synched talking head for ad campaigns. Zebra Imaging (zebraimaging.com) produces large promotional holograms that make images of objects or people in 3-dimensions without special glasses.

Advertising for Setting Customer Expectations

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What to Expect From Us?
A key element of service quality evaluation is the assessment of the service relative to expectations. Advertising plays an important role in setting customer expectations. Therefore, marketing managers for services must be careful not to promise what cannot be delivered. All communications targeted to customers should be examined in terms of how well they reflect reality. If you do not do this, the customer certainly will. The unique aspects of services discussed in this chapter have the following implications for advertising.
First, service advertising should contain vivid information. Vivid information is more likely to hold the viewer's attention and excite the imagination. It also results in improved customer understanding of the service. Because service attributes are intangible, this improved understanding is critical to a customer's ability to evaluate the quality of the service and to compare it to other options. Vividness can be achieved through three different strategies: attempts to make the service tangible; concrete, specific language; and dramatization. A good example of the latter is the former series of American Express commercials featuring actor Karl Malden that demonstrated the value and security of American Express traveler's checks by showing the disasters that can befall travelers if they use a competitor's brand.
A problem faced by customers purchasing a service is developing alternatives from which to make the final choice. The reason that this can be difficult is inherent in the way services are distributed. When a service is delivered through a franchise operation, there is only one choice at a particular location, unlike the normal assortment available from retailers of physical goods. Although some (e.g., travel agents) do offer competing services, many do not. Thus, a major problem facing service companies is how to get your brand into the customer's choice set.
The relevant communications goal is to have the customer connect your brand with the product category. This can be done with repetition or through an approach called interactive imagery. Imagery involves having customers visualize a concept or relationship by integrating two items in some mutual or reciprocal action. This approach can be used to enhance vividness.
Therefore, prepurchase evaluation of services is difficult. One way to approach this problem is to highlight the behind-the-scenes rules, policies, and procedures that make the service provider the best option to choose. This helps to make the service tangible to customers and gives assurance that it will be of high quality. Alternatively, a marketing manager can use the ad to show the service actually in use. The advertising for Singapore Airlines' first-class service is an example of this approach. The picture of the very comfortable-looking passengers in the ads gives potential customers a sense of how great a trip on Singapore Airlines would be.

Reconcile Consistency Theories of Advertising

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Reconciliation
How does one reconcile consistency and complexity theories, two intuitively plausible but conflicting positions? One approach is to assume that tendencies toward consistency and variety both exist. The one that will dominate will depend on the personality and the situation involved. Assume that there is a level of activation at which an individual is comfortable and effective. When the activation level is lower than desired, the individual will pursue variety to increase it. When it is high, she or he will be motivated to reduce stimulation and seek harmony such as is predicted by consistency theories. Obviously, there will be differences across people in terms of the optimal activation level. The situation will also determine behavior. If a high level of activation is required for optimal task performance, variety seeking will emerge. Thus, if a person is embarking on a major purchase, he or she may require a variety of information; if it is a routine purchase, such a drive will not tend to emerge.

Ad Characteristics That Attract Attention

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Ad Characteristics
Many characteristics contribute to the ability of an advertisement to attract attention.
The size and intensity of an ad will often influence attention. Advertisement readership will increase with advertisement size, although not linearly. Research using Starch measures of advertising readership has found that readership scores of full-page ads using four colors are about 85 percent higher than are scores of half-page ads using four colors.
A "loud" ad stimulus will be more likely to be perceived than one of less intensity. Color presentations will usually attract more attention than will those in black and white: Starch concludes that the use of four colors generates about 50 percent more readership than black and white for one-page and two-page ads. Position can also influence attention. The left side of the page and the upper half get slightly more readership because of people's reading habits. Starch has concluded that ads on the back of a magazine will attract about 65 percent more readers than those toward the middle. Ads on the inside front and back covers will attract about 30 percent more readers.
Research has also highlighted the attention-getting properties of "vivid" information-information that is concrete rather than abstract, imagery provoking, emotionally interesting, containing a great deal of detail and specificity about objects, actions, outcomes, and situational context. It has been suggested that advertising phrased in concrete, detailed, and specific terms will attract more attention (and be more influential in shaping product quality judgments) than will copy phrased in abstract and general terms: It is important, however, for the message itself to be vivid, not simply the presentation of it, and for the consumer to process the information in terms of its imagery: vivid but irrelevant information may get initial attention but may not get processed and have no impact on subsequent attitudes.
Several studies have also investigated the impact of an ad's collative properties on the amount of attention given to them. Morris Holbrook and Donald Lehmann found that ads rated as surprising, incongruous, or funny were more likely to have been read, and Bruce Morrison and Marvin Dainoff found that the visual complexity of magazine ads was' positively related to the time that readers spent looking at these ads.

Active Search Methods for Consumer Attention

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Active Search
There are situations in which buyers will not obtain adequate information for decision making from sources to which they are normally exposed. In such cases, they may actively seek out information from advertising in special interest magazines, by soliciting opinions from others, or by reading technical reports.
Active search generates exposures that are extremely important because of the salience of the information to the receiver. Such exposures will be more likely to affect product knowledge and attitude structure than those not associated with effort. Furthermore, the receiver is apt to be close to a purchase and the chances of forgetting the message are therefore lower. Active search is more likely to occur when risk and uncertainty are high-with major purchases, products involving relatively high involvement, and products that are new. The need for information will be highest for new products and lowest for brands with which a buyer is very familiar. As buyers develop brand loyalty, for example, their need for product information will be reduced. Evans found that automobile buyers who repurchased the same make are less likely to shop than are those who switched from one make to another. The active search for information is likely to be highest among those consumers who already have some knowledge and expertise about the product category-prior knowledge facilitates comprehension of additional information.
Those with lesser knowledge may seek less "hard" information, process it less analytically, and rely more on friends and salespeople for advice.

Advertisements and Ad Attentions

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Researchers have attempted to measure the number of advertisements that each consumer is potentially exposed to every day, and these estimates range from at least several hundred to a couple of thousands.l Between 1967 and 1981, the average number of network TV commercials per day rose from 1,856 to 4,079, and by 1989 this number had risen further to 6,180. The rates of increase in non-network TV commercials was even greater. These increases occurred bo(h because more TV minutes per hour were devoted to commercials, and because more-and shorter-TV commercials ran in each commercial minute. While sixty-second TV commercials constituted 77 percent of all network commercials in 1965, they made up only 2 percent of the total in 1989, by which time thirty-second ads formed 57 percent of the total and fifteen-second spots formed 38 percent of the total.
With this increasing amount of clutter, and with more households zapping ads through their TV remote controls, it is becoming increasingly difficult for ads to gain the attention of consumers. And, because channel-switching and adavoidance means consumers are viewing fewer seconds of ever-smaller commercials with ever-reducing attention, even ads that do get watched communicate less of the intended information. Studies have found that ads are fully or partly miscomprehended between 20 to 30 percent of the time.
Clearly, regardless of whether an ad is aiming at boosting recall, changing brand attitudes, or inducing purchase action, there are two important prerequisites for any effect t6 occur. First, an individual must be exposed to.it and pay some attention to it. As the hierarchies of effect pointed out, gaining a consumer's attention is usually the first step in creating effective advertising. Getting such attention is rarely enough by itself, but an ad that fails to get attention is unlikely to achieve anything else. One might say that getting (and holding) a consumer's attention is a necessary but not sufficient condition in creating effective advertising. In the second step, a consumer who does pay attention to an ad must interpret and comprehend it in the way the advertiser intended it to be interpreted. The communication must not be misinterpreted or miscomprehended; if this does happen, the ad is unlikely to lead to the kind of attitude change that the advertiser seeks.
Each of these steps of attention and comprehension represents, in some sense, a perceptual barrier through which many advertisements fail to pass. Some advertisements are not successful at stimulating sense organs in the recipient to a minimal threshold level of interest or awareness. Other advertisements have their meaning distorted by the recipient in such a way that the effect of the advertisement is quite different from what the advertiser intended.
Perception has been defined as "the process by which an individual maintains contact with his environment,,4 and elsewhere as "the process whereby an individual receives stimuli through the various senses and interprets them."SStimuli here can refer to sets of advertisements (such as a campaign), to a single advertisement, or to a portion of an advertisement. The process includes two stages-attention and interpretation (or comprehension). Both playa role in helping an individual cope with the infinite quantity of accessible stimuli, a quantity that would otherwise be impossible to process. The first stage is the attention filter. The second stage in perception is the interpretation process. An individual organizes the stimulus content into his or her own models of reality, models that may be very different from those of other individuals or of the sender. In doing so, the person often simplifies, distorts, organizes, and even "creates" stimuli.
Given this background on the perceptual process, it is clearly helpful to develop some understanding of these psychological processes, so that ads can be designed to maximize their attention-getting ability and their ability to correctly communicate the targeted copy-points. In the balance of the chapter we will consider, in turn, attention and comprehension.

9 Ways to Aalyze Customers in Positioning Strategy

2012-01-28T12:59:00.004+05:00

Aalyzing the Customers
The ultimate positioning decision specifies where in the perceptual map the brand should be positioned. Making that decision obviously requires knowing which areas in the map will be attractive to the customers. In most cases, customers will differ markedly as to the area in the perceptual map they prefer even if their perceptions of brands are similar. Thus, the task is usually to identify segments or clusters of customers based on their preferred locations in the perceptual maps. The decision will then involve selecting the segment or segments as well as the targd position.
One approach to segmentation involves identifying which attributes or custOlmer benefits are most important and then identifying groups of customers who val'ue similar attributes or benefits. Another approach uses the concept of an "ideal object." An ideal object is an object the customer would prefer over all others, including objects that can be conceptualized but do not actually exist. It is a combination of all the customer's preferred attribute levels. Customers who have similar ideal objects will form relevant segment!,.
Preferences may be very sensitive to use context. In one s,tudy, focus groups (structured discussions involving eight to ten people) and judgment were used to identify nine relevant use contexts for coffee:34

To start the day
Between meals
Between meals with others
With lunch
With supper
Dinner with guests
In the evening
To keep awake in the evening
On weekends

In this study, there were differences across use occasion (Hill's Brothers had a 7 percent share of breakfast use but only a 1.5 percent share of the remainder of the day). The major differences were found between A.M. coffee drinkers and P.M. coffee drinkers.

Ways to Reach Market Targets

2012-01-28T12:59:00.002+05:00

Reaching Target Segments
There are two ways by which markets can be reached: controlled coverage and customer self-selection.2o
In the controlled-coverage approach, the objective is to reach desired-target segments and to avoid reaching those who are not in the target segments. Suppose that a segment is defined as "better golfers," and it is determined that they usually read Golf Digest. Suppose, further, that there are few readers of Golf Digest who are not in the target segment. Then an advertising campaign in Golf Digest would be an efficient way to communicate with the target segment. Another way might be to use direct marketing techniques to mail a message to people who are subscribers of Golf Digest, renting their names from the magazine or a list broker. Many companies are now creating immense computerized databases on their actual and potential customers, enabling them to execute extremely targeted direct marketing programs. This technique is often called database marketing.
Customer self-selection is an alternative approach. Here the advertising program is directed to a mass audience of which the target segment may be only a small part. Those in the target segment are attracted to the marketing effort since it is tailored to them. Those not in the target group will probably avoid exposure, not because the program is unavailable to them, but because they either consciously or unconsciously choose to avoid it. For example, although ski equipment has a rather narrow appeal, afirm may run an advertisement about it in a mass circulation magazine. The target segment, all skiers, will be attracted to the advertisement if it is well done, but nonskiers will probably not be tempted to read it.

Objectives and Target Selection Tips for Advertisers

2012-01-28T12:59:00.000+05:00

Objectives and Target Selection
The pivotal aspect of any management plan is the development of operational objectives. An operational objective is one that provides useful criteria for decision making, generates standards to measure performance, and serves as a meaningful communication device. Objectives in advertising can be couched in many ways and still fulfill the functions of an operational objective. It is sometimes possible to develop objectives in terms of sales goals. Such goals are desirable because they appear to provide a readily accessible and absolute indication of advertising performance. However, because other marketing variables and competitors' actions can have an important impact on sales, it is often necessary to establish objectives in terms of intervening variables such as brand awareness, image, and attitude. The link between such intervening variables and advertising is more direct. Thus a significant increase in brand awareness can usually be identified with advertising. There are simply few other possible causes. To justify the use of intervening variables, a link must be established between them and subsequent sales.
An important part of the objective is the development of a precise, disciplined description of the target audience. It is often tempting to direct advertising at a broad audience; the implicit argument is that everyone is a potential customer. The risk is that a campaign directed at too wide an audience will have to have such a broad appeal that it will be of little interest to anyone and thus be ineffective. It is best to consider directing the advertising to more selected groups for which it is easier to develop relevant, stimulating copy. An advertiser need not be restricted to one objective and one campaign. It is quite possible to develop several campaigns, each directed at different segments of the market, or to develop one campaign based on multiple objectives. Chapter 6 looks at different ways of segmenting markets and ways to "position" brands to attract specific segments.

Information That Interests Consumers

2012-01-28T12:58:00.001+05:00

Information That Interests
People tend to notice information that is interesting to them. In turn, they are interested in subjects with which they are involved. They are essentially interested in themselves and in various extensions of themselves. Elihu Katz summarizes and interprets some relevant empirical findings:
Apart from the quest for support and for utility, mere interest would seem to be an important factor in selectivity. The desire to see one's self-reflection is part of this. So is the desire to keep watch over things in which one has invested one:S ego. Thus moviegoers identify with screen stars of similar age and sex: one reads in the newspaper about an event in which one personally participated; one reads advertisements for the product one purchased; political partisans immerse themselves in political communications regardless of its source; smokers choose to read material supporting the smoking-lung cancer relationship no less than material disclaiming the relationship, and much more avidly than nonsmokers; after one has been introduced to a celebrity, one notices (or "follows") his name in print even more frequently.
The relationship of interest to attention can be seen by noting the difference in advertisement readership across product classes. A study in the early 1950s of nearly 8,000 one-page advertisements in Post and Life was conducted by Starch, a service that regularly reports advertising readership. It revealed that automobile advertisement'readership by men, according to one of their measures, was five times as high as that for women's clothes and about twice as high as for toilet goods, insurance, and building materials, For women, the highest categories were motion pictures and women's clothing, which had twice the readership of advertisements for travel and men's clothing and four times that for liquor and machinery.
Russell Haley offers several case studies to support his opinion that people are more apt to look at and remember things in which they are interested than things in which they are not.55 He further hypothesized that people are interested in information concerning benefits that they feel are important in a product. He thus applies benefit segmentation to the task of penetrating the attention barrier. In one on-air television test, the interest in the benefit offered in the commercial was measured for each of five segments, as was the attention level achieved 'by the commercial.

In another study reported by Haley, the target segment was preoccupied with their children's welfare. A child-oriented test advertisement received an attention level over five times that of each of the five other advertisements.
A most effective approach for gaining attention would be to run an advertisement about the person or persons to whom it is directed, mentioning him by name and discussing his activities. Max Hart (of Hart, Schaffner & Marx) reportedly scoffed at his advertising manager, George L. Dyer, when the latter offered to bet him $10 that he could compose a newspaper page of solid type that Hart would read word for word. Dyer said, "I don't have to write a line of it to prove my point. I'll only tell you the headline: THIS PAGE IS ALL ABOUT MAX HART. "
Such an approach is usually impossible (except in direct marketing mail pieces, where the letter and envelope can often be "personalized" by laser printing the recipient's name), but advertisements can be developed with which people can readily identify. For instance, an insurance company ran a series of advertisements in which agents were presented in a most personal way. Their hobbies and lifestyles were discussed in a manner that made it easy for readers to identify with them. Such advertisements, of course, were sure to have an enormous impact on the company's agents, who could easily pfcture themselves in them. A firm's own employees or its retailers are often an important audience, even if not the primary one.
Another approach is to present a communication involving topical issuesthose in which the audience is likely to be heavily involved. Thus, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many companies began tying their advertising appeals to various aspects of the highly topical issues of ecology and recycling. As long as the copy is handled properly, the resulting association will very likely be positive. "News value" can also be created by the advertiser, as was done by Taster's Choice Instant Coffee, which ran an ad campaign'much like a soap opera miniserial, with TV viewers following each episode of the amorous goings-on between two apartment neighbors who met when she ran out of Taster's Choice for a dinner party and wanted to borrow some from him. Yet another approach is to address the lack of interest head-on and challenge it. When CIGNA insurance ran ads announcing its change in logo in 1993, the ad said "Was, (showed oldlogo), Is, (new logo), Who Cares? (copy giving reason for the change)." Obviously, a creative agency could come up with hundreds of other ways to create interest.

How to Develop Basketball Screening and Cutting Skills?

2012-01-26T11:38:00.001+05:00

Basketball is a game that often features the individual athletic talents of its top players. However, when it comes to winning the game, it is often a team that uses the principles of team basketball that is the most successful. Players that know how to cut without the ball and set screens for teammates can create open shots when the game is on the line.
Pass And Screen
One of the most effective ways to set a screen is for the player with the ball to immediately set a screen immediately after passing the ball. In this drill, three offensive players are on the court against three defensive players. The guard on the right side of the court passes the ball into the forward. Immediately after passing the ball, he sets a screen by blocking the defensive player who is covering the other guard. Then the other guard runs toward his teammate setting the screen and will be wide open for a pass. This can lead to an open shot or a drive to the basket.
Cutting to Basket
To create scoring opportunities for your team, players have to move on the court. It is a game that requires excellent conditioning. Players who move on the court have the ability to get open. Players who move constantly have the ability to tire out the defender and get open at the key moments of the game. In the pick and roll drill, the player will set a screen for the ballhandler and then cut immediately to the basket. The ball handler will continue to dribble and once he gets past the screen, he immediately throws the ball over the top of the defense to the player who just set the pick. This can lead to easy baskets during the course of the game.
Baseline Cuts
In this drill, the forward will sprint back and forth along the baseline. In game competition, he will try to create his own screens by running the defender into his teammates. Once the defender is slowed down and the offensive player breaks open, he can receiver the pass, set his feet and fire a shot at the basket. To prepare for this in a game. Have the forward run back and forth at the baseline and when he gets to a spot 18 feet from the basket on either side, he will receive a pass, turn and shoot. Each player should take 10 practice shots while making baseline cuts.
Role Play
In the course of a basketball season, it would be ideal if all players had the same opportunity to shoot, rebound, handle the ball and set screens. But the truth of the matter is that all players on a team have varying ability levels and divergent talents. One of the keys to building a winning team is that players understand what they have to do on the court and that all jobs are important. Hall of Fame basketball players Scottie Pippen is a perfect example of this. He was No. 2 option for the Chicago Bulls behind Michael Jordan during the Bulls' championship run and Pippen had to do much of the dirty work that includes setting screens for his explosive teammate. He understood this and thrived in the role. "Sometimes a player's greatest challenge is coming to grips with his role on the team," Pippen said. The result of accepting his roll was helping the Bulls win six championships.

Things to Know About Basketball Camp Drills

2012-01-26T11:37:00.006+05:00

Basketball players who are serious about improving may want to go to basketball camp during their offseasons in the summer. In addition to getting instruction from college and pro basketball players and experienced coaches, basketball camps tend to attract the best players so you will get an opportunity to compete against top players from around the country.
Drive And Kick
In the drive and kick drill, the point guard will take the ball upcourt and when he crosses half court, he will pass the ball to a teammate who will immediately feed it back to him. The point guard will take the ball to the hoop but instead of shooting it, he must find an open teammate and pass him the ball. The key to this drill is to accelerate during the drive to the middle to draw the defense and then find the open man. Give each point guard three attempts at this drill.
Three-on-Two Defensive Drill
In the three-on-two defensive drill, two defensive players try to stop three offensive players. The point guard will be on the floor with another guard and a forward. The point guard brings the ball over midcourt and tries to set up and open shot. Because the offense has the numerical advantage, it is required to make four passes before a shot is taken. The defense has to register a steal, get the rebound, force a turnover or a missed shot. For this drill to be successful, the defensive should make five stops out of every 10 attempts.
Clap Drill
In the clap drill, the coach arranges the players in a circle around him. Each player is about 10 feet away from the coach. The coach throws passes to players without warning. However, instead of simply catching the pass, the player has to clap his hands together as the pass comes and still catch the pass. This works on a player's quickness and hand-eye coordination. Players who don't catch the ball cleanly are out of the circle and don't participate. The last player left standing wins the drill.
Scrimmage
In basketball camp, the coaches running the camp are likely to run mini-tournaments every day. The players will be divided into four teams. Team A will play Team B in a 30-minute game with a running clock and then team C will play Team D. The two winners will meet for that day's championship. The team that wins the most daily championships at the end of the week will win the overall championship.

Basketball Drills for First Grade Kids

2012-01-26T11:37:00.003+05:00

First grade basketball drills are designed to teach kids basic basketball fundamentals. First grade basketball drills range from basic dribbling drills to short-range scoring drills. In addition to dribbling and scoring drills, first grade basketball drills also focus on developing your child's passing, rebounding and overall teamwork.
Quick Conditioning Drill
This basic basketball drill is designed to improve your player's defensive footwork as well as his general stamina and endurance. Have a group of kids form a circle at center court with you in the middle. Show them how to get into a basic defensive stance by bending your knees, keeping your back straight and extending both arms to your sides. Start the drill by having the kids imitate each move you make. Start with jogging in place and move on to jumping and sliding to the left and right. If you say the word "quick," each kid in the circle must stop what he is doing and get into the defensive position. If a player fails to get in a defensive stance, he is eliminated from the drill. The winner of the drill is the last player standing.
Hot Hands Drill
This basic drill is designed to improve your child's passing skills. Have your team spread out, taking up one half of the basketball court. Pass a basketball to one player on your team. When a player has the ball in the drill, she must perform a successful chest pass to a teammate, taking no more than two steps before passing. If a player takes more than two steps or fails to pass the ball on the fly, she is eliminated from the drill. Blow your whistle to indicate the start and end of the drill.
Short Shot Drill
The short shot drill will help improve your child's shot from around the basket. Have your child stand two feet away from the hoop on the right side. On your whistle, have your child shoot a jump shot with both hands and retrieve his own rebound. After the first shot, have him dribble to the left side and perform the same shot. Have him shoot from both sides of the rim, continuously, until you blow your whistle to stop.
Rebounding Drill
This basic rebounding drill is designed to help improve your child's rebounding and jumping skills. Have a group of players stand in a straight line at the top of the key. Stand at the baseline with a basketball in your hand. On your whistle, have the first child run toward the basket. As she gets close to the hoop, bounce the basketball off the backboard and have her grab the rebound. Have her pass the ball back to you and jog off the court. Repeat the drill with the next player in line. Continue to repeat until everyone has had a turn.

Things to Know About Posture and Balancing Exercises

2012-01-24T11:38:00.001+05:00

Fitness industry workers once emphasized cardiovascular conditioning, flexibility and muscle tone, strength and endurance. The balance buzz began in the mid-1990s when stability balls and balance boards rolled and wobbled their way into health clubs and fitness studios. As fitness enthusiasts experimented with these new gym toys, they discovered what helps and what hinders the body's ability to maintain balance.
The Core
In 1996, University of Queensland physical therapist Paul Hodges revolutionized fitness and injury prevention theories with his research on the deeper core muscles, particularly the muscle called the transversus abdominus. This spinal stabilizer plays a key role in balance.
Hodges discovered that people free of back problems intuitively activated their deep core muscles before any type of movement. In contrast, people with chronic back pain had a delayed core muscle activation, meaning that they began each movement in a state of spinal instability.
Posture
The idiomatic expression "he doesn't have his head on straight" implies emotional imbalance. If your head, or any other part of your body is misaligned, it can trigger physical imbalance. The word balance describes your body's ability to keep your center of gravity over your base of support. Posture describes the alignment of each of your body's segments. Postural misalignment rearranges your body's segments, making it difficult to keep your center of gravity over your base of support. Habitual positions, muscular imbalances and unconscious mimicking of a parent's posture may cause the misalignment that impedes balance.
Proprioception
When you step on a sheet of ice or a child's toy, your ability to identify and react to the changing surface beneath your feet determines whether you will recover and remain upright or fall down. This awareness of your body's position and the space that surrounds it is called proprioception. Injuries such as ankle sprains reduce proprioception and trigger a pattern of repetitive injuries to the same ankle. Therapy for sprained ankles involve proprioceptive training.
Balance Exercise
Your sense of balance erodes with age, according to the "Harvard Health Letter," but balance and proprioceptive exercises help you maintain equilibrium and minimize the detrimental effects of a balance deficit. Balance, like any other aspect of fitness, works on a use it or lose it principle. Correcting muscular imbalances in the hamstrings and quadriceps, chest and back, and hip flexors and gluteal muscles, along with performing balance board and stability ball exercises can improve your current balance and delay age-related balance losses.

How Can You Stay Physically Active and Fit?

2012-01-24T11:31:00.001+05:00

Approximately 30 percent of American adults are obese and 16 percent of teenagers are considered overweight. These numbers show a stark lack of physical fitness in the American population. At a time when physical activity is declining due to technological advances, musculoskeletal injuries and chronic diseases are up. Obesity leads to many other chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and diabetes -- and physical fitness has been proven to reduce your risk of obesity.
Physical fitness is succinctly described as a condition that helps you look, feel and do your best, according to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. If this description seems ambiguous, it is rightfully so -- even if you look and feel good, your body is probably not performing as well as it could. Even the Council's lengthier definition -- the ability to perform daily activities vigorously and alertly and still have energy for leisure and emergency -- leaves room for interpretation. True physical fitness means meeting several prerequisites, none of which is simple.
CARDIORESPIRATORY ENDURANCE
Cardiorespiratory endurance refers to your body's ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients, and remove waste, over an extended period of time. Cardiorespiratory endurance benefits your health -- your weight goes down, stamina goes up, immune system is boosted, heart becomes stronger, your mood improves and you'll live longer, according to the Mayo Clinic. Swimming, cycling, brisk walking, dancing and any other activity that elevates your heart rate can contribute to building your cardiorespiratory endurance.
MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle, or group of muscles, to produce low levels of force and maintain them for extended periods of time. Muscular endurance is crucial for minimizing unnecessary joint stress and preventing injury, not only during exercise, but as you accomplish your daily tasks. Muscular endurance enhances posture throughout the day, as well as during exercise. Pushups, situps and pullups are common exercises you can use to develop your muscular endurance.
MUSCULAR STRENGTH
Muscular strength is the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce internal tension to overcome an external force, according to the National Academy of Sports Medicine. The "internal tension" is supplied by the muscles and connective tissue that pull on your bones. Building muscular strength doesn't just help you lift heavy grocery bags, it improves bone density and insulin sensitivity and boosts your metabolism due to increased lean muscle mass. Muscular strength is frequently developed through weight training.
FLEXIBILITY
Flexibility is the ability to use joints and muscles in their full range of motion -- and it's the most undervalued component of physical fitness, but one of the most important in preventing injuries. According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, several studies have demonstrated a correlation between decreased flexibility and increased injury. The results of inactivity are muscle imbalances, poor posture, improper movement and injury. Flexibility training can correct muscle imbalances and increase your range of motion, improving your body's overall functioning. Flexibility exercises include self-myofascial release -- foam rolling -- and stretching. Yoga is a popular form of exercise that incorporates strength, balance and flexibility training.
BODY COMPOSITION
Body composition compares the amount of fat in your body to the amount of lean mass. Body composition is an important objective measurement because obesity-related health problems are more prevalent in people with higher percentages of fat in their bodies. Body fat can be measured using skin-fold calipers, circumference measurements, bioelectrical impedance or underwater weighing.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
If you've attained optimum levels of all the fitness components above, you are considered physically fit. However, there are several other areas of fitness training that you can work on further developing to help your body function better. Balance training will improve your ability to stabilize joints during movement. Power, or plyometric, exercises improve your neuromuscular system's reactivity and rate of force production. Speed, agility and quickness drills are often used by athletes to improve their performance on the playing field, but they can also benefit your fitness level

4 Things to Know About Becomin a Personal Trainer

2012-01-24T11:26:00.002+05:00

Personal trainers work with clients, individually or in small groups, to help them reach fitness and wellness goals. They can go to the client's home or work at gyms. Personal trainers show their clients the correct and safe way to perform exercises, help them put together fitness routines, and instruct them on nutrition and wellness behaviors. Becoming a certified personal trainer takes work, but it is worth it to build a satisfying and flexible career.
Step 1
Find the study program that meets your needs. Many different fitness and exercise organizations offer personal training certifications, including the American College of Sports Medicine, or ACSM, the American Fitness Professionals and Associates, or AFPA, the International Sports Sciences Association, or ISSA, and the National Academy of Sports Medicine, or NASM. The programs can vary in difficulty and breadth of knowledge; choose the one that best fits with your goals.
Step 2
Study the materials you are given or that are required for the test and take all the necessary tests and quizzes involved in the program you choose. If you have gone to school for exercise science, physical education or a related field, this may not be necessary. Talk with your academic adviser to find out the necessary steps to take.
Step 3
Ask the owners or managers at your local gyms if they are hiring. If they are not, look online at employment search engines for personal training jobs in your area; you are not limited to gyms. Corporate settings may hire trainers to promote health and wellness among their employees, which can lead to multiple private clients. Hospitals also hire trainers and tend to pay more than other organizations, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Step 4
Talk to trainers you may know or ask the organization through which you were certified what steps to take to become insured and what the most appropriate insurance coverage is for you. Once insured, print up business cards and fliers advertising your services and post them on community bulletin boards at local coffee shops or community centers.