April 21, 2015
Professor Mya Poe
Advanced Writing Professor
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115

Dear Professor Poe, This semester has been a great learning opportunity for me and my writing skills. Before this class I was already comfortable with some of the learning goals presented on the syllabus, however, a few of them were strengthened with the projects we worked on. For example, before this class I would never peer review or revise my own papers. With the amount of revisions that were undertaken in all four projects, I feel that I have become more comfortable in the act of revision. Also, I was never good at incorporating forms of evidence to support my claims, ideas and arguments. This class was very helpful in showing how to take research and incorporate it into a project. Overall, this class has allowed me to strengthen my skills as a reviser, helped me “formulate and articulate a stance through my writing”, and helped me to use more forms of evidence to support my claims, ideas and arguments. Project 1 was the simplest of the four projects. I decided to analyze a research article on Marketing and how companies have started to move their businesses into developing nations. At first I didn’t think I would be able to write a rhetorical analysis on this article because of its length but after multiple revisions and help from peers I wrote my final draft. This was the one project where the revisions really helped me grow as a writer. Without these revisions I would have written a terrible analysis because I had no idea how to explain the ideas in the article because it was so short. My peers gave me guidance and used their papers to help formulate my own paper. Prior to this assignment I had written papers detailing articles read but I had never done so with such a short piece. It was hard to fit enough words into the paper without sounding redundant and boring. Project 2 was the hardest of all the projects. I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to be doing so I decided to analyze the marketing discourse community on social media. At first I didn’t know where to begin and what to write about. Through the help of peer reviews and other revisions I was able to create a draft that lacked a lot of factual evidence to support my claims. Evidence was crucial for the reliability of this analysis and I didn’t know how to include evidence because all of the data was from social media. After some careful revision, I learned how to include evidence by print screening social media posts and analyzing why I included them in the paper. Another problem I faced in this project was that I didn’t know what the main purpose of my ideas were. It took some time and after a few people read my draft they were able to lead me in the right direction. The last two projects were my favorites because they allowed me to cross over into other disciplines. Instead of sticking solely to marketing, I was given the freedom to jump over into psychology. Psychology and marketing work hand in hand in today’s society and I thought it would be a perfect subject to research. Working with Sara was very enjoyable because we were students from completely different disciplines. It was interesting to hear her ideas and mix them with mine or completely contradict them. I learned a lot about psychology and how marketing is mostly based on knowing the psychology of the consumers. Luckily, Sara and I both had very similar goals with our projects so the writing and processes went very smoothly. We barely had any arguments and built our papers from each other’s ideas. These two papers were a great way to tackle the seventh learning goal from the syllabus, “Students explore and represent their experiences, perspectives, and ideas in conversation with others.” This past semester was a great learning experience for me as a writer. It had been a few years since I had taken my last writing class and I could feel I was getting rusty. This class allowed me to practice what I had learned in previous classes and to also learn new methods of writing in my discipline. I had never thought that writing in business would be any different than other discourses but this class showed me that there are many different ways of writing that appeal to different audiences. It was a great help to practice writing different business documents to help me in the future with my business degree. The feedback I received throughout this semester was very beneficial to me as a writer and your feedback helped me grow tremendously. Thank you for a great semester and for being such a great mentor for my writing.

Best regards,

Pierre

Revisions in Project 1 and Project 2

In project 1, I took all of your suggestions into consideration and changed a good amount of the wording around to make the essay flow better and sound more professional. I reformatted the beginning list of business writing characterizations and I think it looks much better with bullets. I took out my silly slang/cliché expressions and found a better source to use rather than the blog writer’s article. I also took your suggestion to add a table in the action words section and definitely think it looks better than before. It’s also much easier to follow what I am saying instead of having a bunch of quotes squeezed into a paragraph.

In project 2, I fixed all of the issues that you had written on my essay. I made the intro flow better and added a sentence to help explain the table. I fixed a few sentences that were worded very strangely (I don’t know why I miss those when revising). I added some examples of tweets that are usually posted on their pages in the Social Media Content section to back up my statement in the second sentence. I took your advice to move the “So what?” section into the introduction and definitely feel that it fits better there. In the conclusion, I decided to add a little more to finish the paper stronger rather than leaving one avenue for future research.

Pierre Royce
Eng. 3315
4/23/15
Project 1 Revision
1372 words

Rhetorical Analysis of Style in “Innovation in Developing Economies”

Introduction to Business Writing “Business readers do not want to know what is going on inside a writer’s mind. Instead, they want writers to propose plans or recommend actions that will benefit the company, and to do so concisely as possible” (University of Oregon).

Contemporary business writing is action-oriented. Rather than working through a lengthy justification or analysis of a problem, business writers focus on what companies should do and how to implement those ideas. As a result, according to the Style in Business Writing, business style is characterized by:

* Short sentences * Simple sentence structures * Active voice * Writing from the point of view of companies * Writing more univocally * Avoiding nominalizing verbs * Recommending action rather than referring to individual mental states * Avoiding qualifiers that weaken recommendations or express doubt * Avoiding self-reference and references to individual state of mind

The article “Innovation in Developing Economies” is divided into 6 different sections: Research, Digital Technology, Financial Services, Local Solutions, Distribution and Multinational Commitments. The author includes a short introduction and conclusion to his article to show his view and to close his ideas. This rhetorical analysis will go over, section by section, how the authors use direct sentences and an active voice to speak directly to the readers about their ideas.

Summary of Article

“Innovation in Developing Economies” by Michael R. Czinkota and IIkka A. Ronkainen, published in 2015 in an issue of Marketing News, explains how the biggest business opportunities for multinationals in the next 25 years will expand to developing countries. The author explains how multinationals will need to start drastically changing their business models in order for them to expand to untapped areas of the world. By expanding to these parts, businesses can take advantage of the resources and manpower that these developing nations have to offer. The article explains that many developing countries have the desire to set up these businesses but do not have the required funding. Multinationals will need to become comfortable forming partnerships with local governments and businesses, and will need to implement a model where customers can rent or lease goods and services rather than purchasing them.

The authors use a very effective approach to this issue by introducing each aspect of business and explaining how multinationals can expand. They go on explaining how each different section of a business will be able to help developing nations thrive. The article gives examples of how different companies around the world have already begun to change in order to take advantage of the developing nations.

In the conclusion, the authors state that “low-income populations can join the ranks of world consumers. Rising consumption will create more demand for local products, sparking a cycle of increasing domestic growth, and lifting these developing countries and their consumers up to greater economic opportunity, and a better life”. With the help of multinationals, these developing countries can improve themselves and the world economy.

Analysis of Style Declarative Sentences

Business articles are written in order to convey a message or idea. As a result, effective business writers rely on declarative sentences. According to “Accreditation of Business Writing for English”, a section in the book College English, Vol. 23:

Business writing differs from other writing in that it demands a more obvious use of the “you” attitude or visualization of the reader. Although intended to solve problems in business and often addressed to companies, business writing is in reality communication from one human being to another. (Bernard, Shelley, 491)

These sentences are found throughout Czinkota and Ronkainen’s article, for example, “Without credit, it is impossible for most consumers in developing nations to make major purchases.” (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 2). This sentence expresses the fact that consumers in developing nations cannot afford most of what developed nations can afford. The authors do not spend too much time explaining the details and instead get right to the point to fit the most information into their article. Similarly the sentence, “Without multinationals as catalysts, many organizations would fail in their attempts to bring development to the poorest nations in the world.” (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 2). This sentence clearly states that organizations would fail if they do not change. Active Voice

According to the writing style guide on Gonzaga University’s website, “Business writers should strive to use mostly active voice in their writing because it is clearer, more vigorous, and less wordy. In active voice sentences, the subject is the doer of the action,…” (Gonzaga University). The use of active voice in business writing helps keep the reader interested in the author’s ideas and keeps those ideas simple and easy to comprehend. The first example in the table below shows the words need and redefine as action words that tell the readers that these recommendations are crucial to growth. Also, the authors clearly state who needs to implement these changes, the “executives”. The academic paper example uses a more passive voice which does not specify who needs to re-think and does not tell them to do the action. In the table’s second row, Pepsi is the subject and they are using innovations to adapt to changes in the international market. The academic paper example uses a sentence in a passive voice which does not specify the company name which does not give clear facts and leaves the reader confused as to what companies are actually changing. The final example of an active sentence is shown in the third row below. This sentence is long but clear. The subject, rising consumption, is followed with the facts on how this subject will help developing nations. A passive voice in this sentence would take away from the meaning. It would not give a sense of hope to readers who want to see developing nations thrive. By using an active voice, the authors have told the readers exactly how rising consumption will help.

Original Sentence | Academic Paper Revision (examples) | “To do so, executives need to re-think institutional levels of their business, and also redefine their roles and relationships across companies.” (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 1) | “To do so, institutional levels of their business should be rethought…” | “Pepsi has innovations in India that are being adapted for the firm’s other international markets.” (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 2) | “some companies have innovations in India…” | “Rising consumption will create more demand for local products, sparking a cycle of increasing domestic growth, and lifting these developing countries and their consumers up to greater economic opportunity, and a better life.” (Czinkota, Ronkainen, 3) | “Rising consumption could end up creating more demand for local products which may spark a cycle of increased domestic growth…” |

Conclusion This article is very straight forward and gets to the point which is exactly how business writing should be. The authors did a great job clearly explaining the future of business around the world and giving examples on how companies can start to change. Their use of style, direct/declarative sentences and active voice, was very efficient in showing the readers that the ideas they talked about are what will help companies expand in the next 25 years. For further analysis, the authors could potentially talk more about how companies can expand in these developing countries. This article vaguely explains what companies need to do and the authors could write more articles to expand on what they were saying. This extra detail would help smooth the transitions that companies would need to face in order to enter developing countries. Overall, this article was a great example of business style writing in that it kept the reader interested, used action words and gave examples of each of their ideas to back them up.

Works Cited

"Achieving a Professional Writing Style." Gonzaga University. Gonzaga University Academics.
Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://www.gonzaga.edu/academics/colleges and schools/School- of-Business-Administration/undergraduate/SBAWR/APWS.asp>. Bernard, A., and R. Shelley. "Accreditation of Business Writing in English." College
English 23.6 (1962): 489-92. Jstor. National Council of Teachers of English. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/373214>.

Czinkota, Michael R., and Ilkka A. Ronkainen. "Innovation in Developing Economies." Marketing News. Jan. 2015. Innovation in Developing Economies. Marketing News, Jan.
2015. Web. 05 Feb. 2015.

"STYLE IN BUSINESS WRITING." STYLE IN BUSINESS WRITING. University of Oregon.
Web. 15 Feb. 2015. <http://pages.uoregon.edu/ddusseau/101/199/style.html>.

Pierre Royce
ENGW 3315
Project 2 Revision
Word Count: 1534
Discourse Communities within Social Media
Introduction
Over the years marketing professionals have used many different resources (e.g., American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association) to get information on the latest trends and other news related to their field. Nowadays, marketing professionals are also looking towards social media to not only connect with one another but to also spread ideas. Social media has made our world smaller and has allowed marketers to successfully target customers. These web sites were first made to help people stay in contact and now they have evolved to help businesses all around the world. This analysis will show how three marketing professionals (Matt Wayne and Cynthia Johnson) use social media to help cultivate a professional identity.
Why do people care about these social media accounts? Why do these professionals have all of these followers? The answer is simple, by connecting with other people around the world and showing how this following has helped their careers these professionals are able to identify themselves as professionals that new marketing professionals should look up to. These three people are very popular in the social media marketing world because of these accounts that they have made. By using their social media pages as an outlet to talk to other people and to share their ideas, these professionals were able to build a big enough following to become a “celebrity” in their field. Some people might look for information in research articles, university websites, marketing association websites, and other articles but nowadays one of the most efficient ways of getting questions answered quickly and directly is through social media.
Table of Professionals This table shows the three marketing professionals I researched and all of their relevant information taken off of Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. Name | Education | Employment History (Past 2 years) | Awards/Recognition | Social Media Presence | Cynthia Johnson | Colorado State University | -Director of Marketing & Social Media at Ranklab-Editorial Director and Global Communications at Social Media Club | -#14 on Inc. Magazine’s “31 Expert Marketers You Should Follow on Linkedin and Twitter”-ClickZ “37 SEO Experts Those In The Know Follow” | 151,000 followers on Twitter and 550 likes on Facebook | Matt Wayne | University of Maryland | -CEO & Founder of No Social Limits, LLC | -#7 on Inc. Magazine’s Magazine’s “31 Expert Marketers You Should Follow on Linkedin and Twitter” | 39,000 Followers on Twitter and 4,400 likes on Facebook | Drew Hendricks | Centriq – IT Training School | -Board of Advisors at Founders Space-COO of AudienceBloom | -#1 on Inc. Magazine’s Magazine’s “31 Expert Marketers You Should Follow on Linkedin and Twitter” | 8,604 Followers on Twitter and 22,222 Followers on Facebook |
Figure 1
Social Media Followers These days, people on social media are trying to reach out to the most people as possible. The more followers you have on Twitter, the more popular you are in the online social world. In Cynthia Johnson’s case, she started her own weekly Twitter chat where she discusses social media marketing and PR. These weekly chats are the main reason why her followers are so much higher than the other two. Matt Wayne, on the other hand, has so many followers because he started his own company, works as a magician part time and worked as a producer on Broadway. Wayne grew his fan base in three different businesses which allowed his following to continuously increase. Hendricks, on the other hand, is a marketing professional that mainly deals with B2B (Business to Business) transactions. He doesn’t deal with consumers as much as the other two professionals do, which lowers the amount of followers he has on Twitter. In order to keep followers interested and to attract new followers, these professionals must be continuously updating their pages by finding interesting articles and writing blog posts. The more followers a marketing professional has, the more popular they will be among their peers. These followers give these professionals an unofficial superiority over other marketers that don’t have much of a presence online. People won’t believe claims made by someone with 20 followers on Twitter compared to someone with over 100,000 followers. These followers show the general public that this professional is liked by many and can be trusted.

Awards Another important aspect of social media to look at is the awards that these marketing professionals has received. On each of their pages, they have linked their awards or recognitions to show the general public that what they do is being seen (Figure 2). These recognitions help these speakers leverage themselves for new job opportunities or for speaking opportunities at marketing conventions around the world.

Figure 2
These three marketing professionals are able to promote themselves through social media. Someone might not follow a marketing professional on social media because they don’t believe that they are important or know anything more than they do. However, when professionals post there awards and achievements to their pages they show the public that they are important and they are being recognized for what they do. Landing a job at a top marketing firm can be a good way to become important, but in this day and age social media has become such a major part of our lives that any recognition online will build a community much quicker. People have direct communication with these professionals, unlike on discourse community websites (AMA, BMA) where people have to send emails or call. On social media, future marketing professionals can ask other professionals questions to help them excel and receive a response almost instantly. This new age of social media is creating a new discourse community, in itself, with marketing professionals being the center of attention.
Social Media Content
A marketing professional can have all the followers in the world and have great awards and recognitions on their pages, but if they don’t have the right content then they will not attract as many people. Johnson, Wayne and Hendricks all post to their social media pages on a daily basis. Some posts are about their daily lives, and most of the posts are links to articles that they find interesting or events that they are sponsoring to help increase communication in their field (Figure 3). As Swales writes on page 241 in The Concept of Discourse Community, “A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members”. These social media pages are a great mechanism for people to communicate their ideas to the marketing professionals as well as the other followers on the page (Figure 4).

Figure 3

Figure 4
When Johnson, Wayne or Hendricks puts up a post that asks a question, followers can immediately reply and start a conversation. Looking at the example above, Johnson posted a question on her weekly chat and two followers answered which led to further debates above. Johnson is the only professional out of the three that communicates directly with followers by having a weekly chat. This not only helps her build her identity, but also helps build the discourse community that she has made through her social media accounts.
Wayne and Hendricks do not have a weekly chat but they do continuously update their pages with articles they find interesting to keep their fans happy. Johnson is very engaging with her followers which increases her popularity among the public and thus increases the community around her. As her followers increase, the size of her community also increases which helps to build her identity as a professional.
Conclusion
Johnson, Wayne and Hendricks, have a very large following on social media and constantly update their pages to show ideas and successes. Social media is a huge factor in how the public views an expert in a business field. Through the use of articles and self-promotion, these experts are able to attract the public and give evidence as to why they are seen as experts. In future research, one could look at social media data to see how many people and what types of people follow these experts. Through the use of this data, researchers can see who these experts are attracting and at what rate they are attracting the public. With this data, researchers will be able to see how effective these practices of using social media are to help a business professional to communicate with the public. In this technology driven world it is important for consumer facing business professionals to have a strong presence online. Social media closes the distance consumers may feel from companies by allowing interaction between the two parties. Businesses and professionals should continue to use social media to their advantage to help grow and maintain the community they have built around their product.

Citations
Hendricks, Drew. [DrewAHendricks]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter page]. Retrieved February 24,
2015, from https://twitter.com/DrewAHendricks

Hendricks, Drew. [drewhendricks]. (n.d.). [LinkedIn]. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhendricks

Johnson, Cynthia. [cynjohnson]. (n.d.). [LinkedIn]. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynjohnson Johnson, Cynthia. [CynthiaLive]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter page]. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from https://twitter.com/cynthialive

Swales, John. “The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-32. Print.

Wayne, Matt. [RealMattWayne]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter page]. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from https://twitter.com/realmattwayne

Wayne, Matt. [mattwayne]. (n.d.). [LinkedIn]. Retrieved February 24, 2015, from https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwayne
Sara Carroll & Pierre Royce
ENGW-3315
April 18, 2015
Word Count: 1681

A Literature Review of the Uses of Color in U.S. Marketing and Psychology

Abstract
Most consumers do not recognize the impact color plays in their decision to purchase products or services. Over the years studies have repeatedly found a direct correlation between the color of a product and its influence on brand personality. The color of a product influences an individual’s emotion, connecting the consumer directly to the product. These findings give marketers an advantage when branding their products, helping them distinguish themselves over the multitudes of similar products in the United States. This literature review aims to identify the role of certain colors used in marketing and their effect on the consumer.

Introduction
Color is a ubiquitous perceptual stimulus that is often considered in terms of aesthetics (Eliot and Maier, 2013). Over the years, psychologists have researched color to see which shades/hues relate to different emotions in people. In Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s pre-21st century “Theory of Color”, Goethe found that color has influence on perception and emotional experience. In his study he categorized colors into “plus” and “minus” colors; plus colors namely being red, red-yellow, yellow red, and minus colors being blue, red-blue, and blue-red. The plus colors were found to influence positive feelings, whereas the minus colors were found to induce negative feelings (Eliot and Maier, 2013). More recent findings have found similar results connecting color to emotion; for example, red and yellow are related to warm emotions whereas blue and green are related to solemn emotions (Singh, 2006).
These findings are important to marketers whose jobs are to choose colors in their product marketing to appeal to a targeted audience and create a brand personality. Studies have shown that 60% of a consumer’s decision to buy a product is based on its color (Sullivan, 2008). With such a high amount percentage of the consumer’s purchase decision, marketers should be spending most of their time and resources on choosing the right colors to portray their product. Not enough research on color for products and advertisements can lead to a devastating loss in product investments. This literature review will examine how color plays a role in consumer’s decisions to purchase a product or service.

Methods
A search was conducted for articles in Jstor, EbscoHost and the Northeastern University Library database with publication dates from 1997-2015. The search included the following five terms: color and marketing, psychology and color, psychology and marketing, color and marketing and culture, color and restaurants. From over 1500 results, we chose eight articles that had titles and abtracts including the key terms listed above. We found common ground among the eight articles regarding the use of color in marketing, leading us to our literature review topic.

Results
Colors can help marketers create their brand’s personality, which will increase brand loyalty and sales. As stated in “Effects of Color as an Executional Cue in Advertising: They’re in the Shade”, marketers must “select colors that maximize attention, provide a more realistic and appealing portrayal of the product or service, and arouse appropriate feelings” (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi, Dahl, 1996). Below we will discuss how products and services use color to connote different moods and emotions in people and how marketers utilize these emotions to attract their consumers.

Colors and Appetite
From the articles “Impact on Color in Marketing” (Singh, 2006) and “Effects of Color as an Executional Cue in Advertising: They’re in the Shade” (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi, Dahl, 1996), the authors discuss the effects of colors in different restaurant settings. Both articles explained that the colors red and yellow were considered the best colors to use in a fast food restaurant setting. These restaurants use yellow to gain the attention of the customer and red to stimulate appetite (Singh, 2006). For formal restaurants both articles concluded that the use of blue in contrast to red, creates a more calm and relaxing environment. Putting consumers in such an environment increases the likelihood of comfort, resulting in longer stays and more sales (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi, Dahl, 1996).
From these studies, restaurant owners can determine what colors will attract the most target customers to obtain high profits. In a world where eateries are ever increasing, restaurateurs are now more interested in the intangibles of a restaurant setting (Kulman, 2001). There are so many restaurants that offer the same foods at the same quality that now people are choosing their favorites by the ambience offered. Restaurants need to find a balance of customer service, food quality and ambience to keep their customers coming back.

Colors and Emotion
The past decade has shown considerable development linking color to psychological functioning (Eliot and Maier, 2013). According to various studies, colors have proven to influence attitudes. Brighter colors are perceived as more arousing, whereas pastel colors are considered to be more calming and relaxing to the eye (Labrecque, Milne, 2011). In 1995 McDonald’s Corporation found that their signature bright red although stimulating, led to complaints of headaches from consumers. In response, McDonald’s changed the value level of the red to a more relaxing shade of red (Gorn, Chattopadhyay, Yi, Dahl, 1996).
Saturation and color value, also, play a significant role in the process of choosing a color for a brand. Studies have shown that there is a strong link between value and saturation regarding the overall personality of a brand. If brand managers are limited to one hue, they can use saturation and value to enhance or dull the color to still achieve their desired brand personality. For instance, if a brand manager wants a sophisticated look for their company, they would use a purple hue with a high value and low saturation to achieve there desired look (Labrecque, Milne, 2011). For example, Prilosec (a heartburn medication) uses a dark purple for their products to portray elegance and trust whereas many Barbie products use a bright purple in their products to attract younger children to the product.

Colors and Logos
Color in logos plays a significant role in the way in which the consumers perceive a brand’s personality (Ridgway, 2011). Logos are one of the first aspects of a product that consumers will connect with when they are looking to purchase a new product. Marketers need to select the right logo color to not only attract customers to their product but also to help support their brand personality.
Jessica Ridgway, a doctoral student at Missouri University, researched how colors used in logos have a significant impact on consumers. Out of a survey of 184 participants she asked to describe feelings towards her fake company’s logos. Her findings were similar to previous studies done on brand colors stated earlier in the review: blue logos were connected with feelings of confidence, success and reliability; green logos were connected with environmental friendliness, toughness, durability, masculinity and sustainability; purple logos were connected with femininity, glamour and charm; pink logos were connected with youth, imagination and fashion; yellow logos were connected with fun, modernity; red logos were connected with expertise and self-assurance.
In addition to brand colors, marketers need to think about colors to use for their logos in order to invoke emotions that correspond with their brand personality. As shown in Figure 1, many companies have already implemented these studies in their decisions on logo colors. Apple chose white and black hues to invoke innovation and modernity (Sullivan, 2008) while Dell chose a blue logo to invoke confidence, success and reliability (Ridgway, 2011). When a company wants to represent a group of emotions they use all of the colors for their logo. Google has decided to use all of the colors presented to show that they are a mix of all trades which attracts all sorts of different consumers.

Figure 1: Color Emotion Guide - Guide shows major brands around the world and how their logos produce different emotions in consumers. (Created by The Logo Company: http://thelogocompany.net/blog/infographics/psychology-color-logo-design/)

Color and Physical Impact

Labrecque and Milne further expanded their research and looked at how packaging colors can help support a desired brand personality. They used 119 participants and explained that they were to be buying condoms in a store where there were no familiar brands available. The researchers created two packages; one was purple with low saturation, high value and was meant to portray sophistication as a brand personality, the other package was red with high saturation, low value and was meant to portray ruggedness as a brand personality. The study found that consumers preferred a “rugged” type of condom rather than a “sophisticated” type. This study shows that color packaging is a major factor in how the consumer perceives a products personality. Condoms are made to provide protection; therefore consumers appreciated the rugged appearance to the sophisticated appearance because it suggests durability rather than attractiveness (Labrecque and Milne, 2010).

Conclusion
Over the years the psychology of color has been researched and many similar results have been identified. The research shows that there is a direct correlation with color and why consumers purchase certain products. Researchers have also found that different colors in the environment of a service (e.g., a restaurant) can affect how people act. The bright attractive colors are exciting consumers while the blues and solemn colors are relaxing their consumers. These differences in hues play a major role in what type of product a company is trying to market.
Marketers are able to further develop their brand personalities with colors, which leads to more brand loyalty and more sales. In future research, studies can be devoted to developing more information on how colors in hospitality environments affect consumer purchasing behavior and how these colors can keep these customers interested in their service. Researchers can also look at how different colors in different cultures differ in meaning compared to the colors researched here in the United States. In a restaurant in the United States, blue might be a good color to keep customers relaxed and hungry but in France purple might work better. It is important for multinational companies to understand different color trends around the world.

References
Elliot, A. J., & Maier, M. A. (2014). Color psychology: Effects of perceiving color on psychological functioning in humans. Annual review of psychology, 65, 95-120.
Gorn, G. J., Chattopadhyay, A., Yi, T., & Dahl, D. W. (1997). Effects of color as an executional cue in advertising: They're in the shade. Management Science, 43(10), 1387-1400.
Kulman, L. (2001). In today’s restaurants, color my sushi beautiful. US News & World Report, 130(2), 56.
Labrecque, L. I., & Milne, G. R. (2012). Exciting red and competent blue: the importance of color in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(5), 711-727.
Ridgway, J. L. (2011). Brand personality: consumer's perceptions of color used in brand logos (Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri--Columbia).
Singh, S. (2006). Impact of color on marketing. Management decision, 44(6), 783-789.
Sullivan, E. (2008). Color Me Profitable. Marketing News, 42(17), 8.
Wilson, G. D. (1966). Arousal properties of red versus green. Perceptual and motor skills, 23(3), 947-949.

Sara & Pierre
ENGW3315
April 21st, 2015
Project 4
Word Count: 1510
A Day of Clarity
Abstract
Many college students around the world suffer from mental illnesses and may find themselves lost without help. Unfortunately, this is a subject that society tends to shy away from discussing, and instead keeps the topic of mental illness swept under the rug. Northeastern University has a system in place to help with troubled students but they don’t have any programs to teach the general public about these illnesses. We wish to implement a new one-day event at Northeastern University that will educate students about the illnesses their fellow classmates may be dealing with. This event will also help students suffering from these illnesses to come out and talk with other students and faculty about how they can seek help.
Introduction
According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, “1 in 5 adults experiences a mental health condition every year [and] 50% of mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 75% of mental health conditions develop by age 24”. These facts highlight how widespread mental illness is among young adults, with 20% of these diagnoses being college students. The problem arises when students try to mask their illnesses. Students that are not suffering from these illnesses do not want to hear about them because it is an upsetting issue. This leaves the sufferers feeling alone and more alienated. They are able to find help with therapists and other treatments but have to hide the fact that they are dealing with this illness from most of their friends and other classmates. Mental Health advocate and comic, Kevin Breel, summarized this problem in his Ted Talk by saying, “...unfortunately, we live in a world where if you break your arm, everyone runs over to sign your cast, but if you tell people you’re depressed, everyone runs the other way”. When someone is physically hurt people run to aid them, but when the illness isn’t visible to everyone, no one comes to help. There is a very powerful social stigma that mental illness is a sign of weakness and that it is not worth discussing because it is not real. We want to show the Northeastern University community how real this problem is and how terrible it is for our society to ignore these issues.
Through the implementation of a new event on campus, Northeastern University will be able to assemble students from diverse backgrounds to discuss their problems and to learn about the many illnesses that exist. Special talks, workshops and briefings will educate students about these illnesses which will ease the discomfort that many feel when trying to talk about the subject. The end goal of this day is for sufferers to feel more comfortable talking about their illnesses and for the other students to become more accepting of those issues.
Background
Suicide is studied as the second leading cause of death among students at colleges and universities in the United States, and the third leading cause of death among persons of traditional college age (Schwartz 2015). There has been a developing stigma surrounding mental illnesses, specifically depression, throughout the decades making it difficult for young adults to ask for help when they are in need. Researchers of college student suicides reported that there are aspects of the college environment, and the interaction of student population, that are responsible for the high rate of suicide among college students (Schwartz 2015). This stigma surrounding depression and suicide has makes is difficult for college students to discuss the reality and severity of mental illness among their peers, and even more difficult for people to express their personal feelings surrounding the topic.
Solution (Implementation)
To erase the negative stigma surrounding mental illness among college students, we propose to implement ‘A Day of Clarity’ at Northeastern. A Day of Clarity is an outreach program designed to educate Northeastern students on mental health illnesses within their communities, and ways in which they can talk about these battles and support one another. Through implementation of our program we believe we can replace the silence of mental illness with a safe place where students and faculty have the freedom to communicate and express their thoughts on this issue with one another.
A Day of Clarity will be held during welcome week in the fall semester and spring semester for all Northeastern Students. There will be a schedule availible prior to the event to help students participate and encourage them to stay involved throughout the event. The event will begin with guest speaker Kevin Breel, an advocate for depression and mental health, and held in Matthews Arena on campus where he will talk to students about the severity of mental health illness among college students. This speech from Kevin Breel will help draw the attention of the students to the problem at hand, and how prevalent depression is among college students.
Next, we will have a health care advocate or a therapist at Northeastern, on stage to share their experience with students battling depression. Having Northeastern health advocates speak out will show students the outlets that are provided by Northeastern, and open for all students to use when they are experiencing any symptoms of depression. We hope that this assure students that they are not alone in this matter, and encourage them to reach out for help when they need it. College is a huge adjustment for all students; therefore it is important that students feel like their university and faculty members support them.
After the speeches, students will move from Matthews Arena to Centennial Commons where they will practice Mindfulness. The practice of mindfulness is used by therapists to promote consciousness and psychical awareness for their patients. This practice is useful for college students because the practice has them focus in on the here and now, relieving them of stressful thoughts and worries. During the mindfulness portion of the event, students will sit and meditate in a circle, and release negativity from their mind and physical bodies. After the practice, students will gather around and debrief this process with their peers and school health care advocates. This experience will help students realize the stress they are under, and provide them with methods of relieving their everyday anxieties.
We plan to market this event on all social media accounts, personal and through school, with an emphasis on helping each other. We will be attracting students with free merchandise and the chance to see a popular comic. The event will be free and we will be giving out food and merchandise throughout the day. The merchandise will consist of stickers, key chains and other small items that won’t cost much to produce. Other more expensive merchandise will be available for purchase at several booths, which will donate all proceeds to the NIMH and ADAA.
Limitations
The greatest limitation for A Day of Clarity is that students will not show up to each of the events on the schedule provided, or that they will be too afraid to participate and share during the events. In order for our outreach program to work, we need each student to be fully engaged and ready to take on the day with an open mind. A Day of Clarity is meant to be a day with no judgments, where students can feel free to fully express themselves openly and clearly. It will be difficult for students to feel fulfilled by our program if there is little or no attention being paid to the presenters during each of the scheduled events.
Budget/Appendix

Kevin Breel/Speakers | $0 | All psychiatrists and Breel will be free | Spaces | $0 | We will rent out facilities from university | Merchandise | $5,000 | This money will come from UHCS, NIMH and ADAA | Food | $4,000 | Budgeted based off number of students expected (about 4$ per 1,000 student) | TOTAL | $9,000 | |

Implications
Through our outreach program we hope to educate students on the reality of mental health battles among college students, and encourage students to talk about these issues with one another so they can work towards finding a solution together. . A Day of Clarity has the potential to build unity among the student population, and empower students to talk about issues of mental health illness together. By providing a day long nonjudgmental environment, Northeastern students can feel free to express their thoughts on these issues, helping them feel comfortable reaching out and discussing these topics with their peers. It is important that A Day of Clarity is offered once at the beginning of the semester, and again during finals week in order to keep the communication flowing. This will help prepare students to share more during finals week, and spread the word throughout the semester. In the future we hope to spread A Day of Clarity to other universities in the nation, and implement the programs values to create unity not only within the university, but also between universities throughout the nation. This program will be the first step in diminishing the negative stigma surrounding mental health among young adults. References
Schwartz, A. J. (2006). College student suicide in the United States: 1990-1991 through 2003- 2004. Journal of American College Health, 54(6), 341-352.
NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17, 2015, from https://www.nami.org/