Peer pressure Effect

Introduction 

          As the children enter the transition to the teen years, the peer pressure starts to develop and play a significant impact on their lives. They start figuring out their individuality, whom they want to be with and gain independence from their parent by observing what other peers do. Peer pressure is one of the important factors that shapes the lives of the teenagers either positively or negatively. In most instances, peer pressure is blamed as one of the most contributing factors towards bad behaviors among teens. However, the peer pleasure is significantly influencing the behaviors of the teenagers and the young adults in the business world. This paper elaborates on the peer pleasure effect and its impact on the business communication world. 

What is peer pleasure effect? 

         Teens' interests, family backgrounds, fashion quickly connect them to a subgroup of peers who influences meaning and continuity of life within the neighborhood or school context. This portrays that the peers they associate with significantly influence the teens' lives. According to Lochman, Wells, and Lisa, "peers try to encourage you to engage in behaviors in which you are not sure you want to engage" (229). In this case, people's behaviors can be manipulated through the peer pressure. In the contemporary world, many organization are using the peers to sell their products improve their performance and increase profitability among other commercial benefits of a firm. This phenomenon is recognized as the "peer pressure effect." 

          The role and relevance of the "peer pressure effect" into the business communication world are to influence the individuals' roles in the firm's success through peers. Most people tend to copy the behaviors of the people they live with especially the peers. Others try to fit in and engage in particular activities because other people are doing them. Therefore, this effect can be used to influence the peers' consumption behaviors and the workers motivation in the work environment to enhance the performance of the organization. 

Pros and cons of "peer pleasure effect."

Pros 

          The "peer pressure effect" play vital roles in the business communication world.  First, this effect helps to influence the purchasing pattern among teens and young adults positively. Many adolescents perceive buying or consuming products as a way to achieve status with peers. For instance, according to a study conducted by Sun and Guo, peer pressure influences individuals into passive and active involvement in fashion (134). The study found that the peer influence has a positive and significant predictor of fashion involvement. This indicates that peer pressure has a meaningful and positive influence on the purchasing patterns among teens.

          Another advantage of the "peer pressure effect" is that it improves the employees' productivity in an organization. Bellemare, Lepage and Shearer found out that peer pressure is the main predictor of the workers productively and especially men. The study shows that there is no significant impact of peer pressure on women but significant to the productivity of men (Bellemare, Lepage & Shearer 15). In the business communication world, peer pressure can use to enhance the productivity of employees and consequently improve the firm's performance. 

Cons 

           Although there are various advantages of the "peer pressure effects," one of the disadvantage is that peer pressure can negatively influence the teen and consequently affect the marking and branding of the organization. Teens usually identify with peers. Hence, products that are not accepted by the peers are vulnerable to rejection from teens and consequently low consumption. In addition, "high levels of peer pressure were found to have a significant negative effect on productivity" (Bellemare, Lepage & Shearer 15). This illustrates that too much peer pressure can negatively affect the productivity in the workplace. 

Conclusion 

          As explained above, the "peer pressure effect" has a significant impact on the business communication world. Although there are some negative effects of the peer influence, the benefits outweigh the costs. Organization can utilize the sustainable level of peer pressure to increase the motivation of the employees and hence improve their performance.

Works Cited

Bellemare, Charles, Patrick Lepage, and Bruce Shearer. "Peer pressure, incentives, and gender: An experimental analysis of motivation in the workplace." Labour Economics 17.1 (2010): 276-283.

Sun, Yan-Shu, and Steve Guo. "Media Use, Social Comparison, Cognitive Dissonance and Peer Pressure as Antecedents of Fashion Involvement." Intercultural Communication Studies 22.1 (2013).

Wells, Karen C, John E. Lochman, and Lisa A. Lenhart. Coping Power: Parent Group Program : Facilitator Guide. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.

The Effect of Celebrities in Advertisements

Introduction 

In the marketing world, celebrities are playing a significant role in the modern consumption and cultural patterns. The number of the producers endorsing the celebrities in their advertising is increasing. For instance, in the United States, the celebrity endorsements represented 14 to 19 percent of all advertisement aired in the country (Elberse and Verleun 149). Companies are increasingly endorsing celebrities in their advertisement because they have realized that this marketing strategy makes them more competent, trustworthy, and more attractive that the competitors who do not endorse celebrities. Such qualities are helping companies to acquire a competitive advantage by differentiating it product from the competitors.

   

Kanye Omari West aka Kanye West

 (American Rapper) on Adidas ad.  

   

                                                                                                            Usher Terry Raymond aka Usher (American                                                                                             celebrity) on MasterCard ad.  

“Celebrity effects”

In the contemporary world, most of the audiences tend to ignore all the advertisement and commercials while reading newspapers, magazine or viewing their TV.    However, when a known celebrity is featured in the advertisement, people get attracted to the advertisement and it hardly for that ad to go unnoticed. A celebrity is recognized as a person who has an established public recognition and utilizes that recognition to popularize certain consumer good through advertisement (Zafar and Rafique 53). Such celebrities have appealing qualities such as special skills, extraordinary lifestyle, and attractiveness. 

When a firm utilizes a celebrity in their advertisement, they Experience both cost and benefits. Such benefits and costs are known as the impact of using a celebrity to an advertisement or the "celebrity effects." The consumer advertisement has reasonable effects on the consumers regarding their purchase intention and attitude. 

The fundamental relevance and rationale for the "celebrity effects" is to capture the audience attention by appealing to them to the consumer a certain product. 

Most consumers usually are interested in the celebrities' activities and imitates them in their lifestyle. Therefore, consumers are more likely to notice a certain product when they see their favorite celebrity on the advertisement. In other words, celebrity advertisement enhances communication between the producer and the consumer of the particular commodity in the business communication world. 

Pros and cons of "celebrity effects." 

Pros 

Firms that uses celebrities in their advertisement derives various benefits. Advertisements featuring the celebrities generates awareness and create attention to the product being advertised. In this age of stiff competition, "celebrity endorsements give an extra edge to the companies for holding the viewers' attention" (Zafar and Rafique 54). In addition, "celebrity effects” enhances credibility and reputation of the firm. 

For instance, a celebrity who are sincere and have professional skills appeal the consumers to view the brand and product in a positive way. Zafar and Rafique reveal, "Chinese consumers prefer Celebrity commercial & respondents collectively like a celebrity who have more professional career skill" (55). Respected celebrities who have positive reputation also helps the firm to build it reputation, since the consumers associate the firm with such celebrities. 

Featuring celebrity on the advertisement helps the firm to increase sales. 

Elberse and Verleun illustrate that there are two main reasons why celebrity endorsement can increase sales. First, featuring high-profile celebrities encourages the consumers to purchase a product by assuring them of the true quality of the product. Second, the celebrity advertisement helps the firm to achieve particular attributes that help the firm to differentiate its products from those of competitors (Elberse and Verleun 151). 

Cons 

The most common disadvantages of the celebrity advertisement are associated with the celebrity's reputation and behaviors. For instance, negative reputation regarding celebrity results in a negative attitude towards the brand and product. Therefore, negative reputation of the celebrity might damage the reputation of the brand or the company as a whole. In addition, acquiring high-profile celebrity is expensive to the extent that small business cannot afford them.

The niche for my blog is the celebrity advertisement. Despite giving pros and cons of the "celebrity effects", I would also like to research on the effective strategy that fits with the celebrity advertisement. 

Conclusion  

It is evident that that the benefits of the "celebrity effects" outweighs the costs. Benefits include creating attention and generating awareness, building reputation and credibility, and increasing sales. However, costs include damaging reputation if the celebrity has a negative reputation and the high cost of hiring the celebrity. This explains the reason behind increase use of celebrities in the advertisements.

                                                                       Works Cited

Elberse, Anita, and Jeroen Verleun. "The Economic Value of Celebrity Endorsements." Journal of  Advertising Research 52.2 (2012): 149-165. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. <http://www.people.hbs.edu/aelberse/publications/Elberse_Verleun_2012.pdf>.

Zafar, Qurat-Ul-Ain, and Mahira Rafique. "Impact of Celebrity Advertisement on Customers’ Brand Perception and Purchase Intention." Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences 1.11 (n.d.): 53-67. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. <http://www.ajbms.org/articlepdf/ajbms201211i11104.pdf>.

Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese

Introduction
In 21st Century, since China's economic growth keeps going.  The language of Chinese has started drawing the society's attention. When I tell people that I can speak both Cantonese and Mandarin, I'm often being asked, "What's the difference between that and Mandarin?" Mandarin Chinese, a standard form based on the Beijing dialect, with elements from other Mandarin dialects, was adopted as the national language in China. Cantonese Chinese, an official language in Hong Kong and Macau. Actually, the history of Cantonese language has started since the time of the Christ which was being in existence 2000 years ago. As it is older than Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese is closer in pronunciation to ancient Chinese. It might be a surprise that it was older than Mandarin Chinese. But in fact, more surprising is the fact that Mandarin is merely 700-800 year old. However, because of migration of Cantonese speaking people from Hong Kong to major cities of the world, Cantonese is alive and kicking and has become a competitor of Mandarin internationally.

What is Mandarin Chinese?
Mandarin Chinese, also known as “Putonghua”, which is a big part of the Chinese Language family, the top language after English that speaks in the world. There are about nine-hundred and fifty five million people of speakers, 14.4% of our world population. Mandarin Chinese are usually spoken in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.

What is Cantonese Chinese?
Cantonese Chinese also belongs to a part of the Chinese Language family, rank number twenty-four in the “Top 100 languages speak in the world”. There are about fifty-nine million speakers, 0.89% of our world population. Cantonese Chinese are usually speaks in Guangdong China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Are Mandarin and Cantonese the same?
Because of Mandarin and Cantonese are two much related languages, so that there are many people specially in the European countries think that Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese are the same, as Cantonese is often described as a dialect of mandarin, but the fact these two languages are totally different from their way of pronunciation, written language and meaning. Cantonese is actually being a separate, distinct language.

Differences between Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese ?

The differences between the two languages, while Mandarin has a full fledge script, but Cantonese is mostly an oral language and when Cantonese speaking people have to read and write, they make use of mandarin, which means that they will speak in Cantonese, but write in mandarin. But the difference is when Cantonese people, specially people living in Hong Kong, they will write in “traditional Chinese” But Mandarin speakers who live in other cities in China will write in “simplified Chinese”. It is because that the characters and wordings in Mandarin have been simplified in 1950, while characters in Cantonese are still traditional. That’s why the written language of Cantonese speakers and Mandarin speakers are totally different. Also referred to as a language of the youth, Cantonese has a huge number of slangs that are continuously getting added but Mandarin is more old style with only a little of slangs added.


Similar Characteristics between Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese? 

One unique thing about Mandarin and Cantonese is that both are tonal languages and a single word may have many meanings depending upon their context intonation and pronunciation.

Which one is easier to learn? 
Cantonese is tougher in this respect, having nine tones while Mandarin has seven tones and they also have different vowels and consonants. For beginners, Cantonese can be more difficult because there are totally nine tones in Cantonese while there are only four in Mandarin. Despite
similar characters being in use in these languages, pronunciation of words is so dissimilar and also sometimes it is so hard to understand for Mandarin speaking people because Cantonese use lots of different expressions in their daily oral so some of the humorously Cantonese speakers describe it as “Chicken talking to ducks” when a mandarin speaker trying to understand what Cantonese speaker said. It might be harder to learn Cantonese than Chinese, but Cantonese speakers are always find their dialect more lively, fun to speak and colorful, with an abundance of slung, a unique humor to it, and distinctive culture, which makes it more appealing to new learners. It is more expressive than any other Chinese dialect.

Both languages are worth to learn, specially, now China is becoming stronger, many business related work are relate to China, learning Mandarin is very helpful for doing business. Nowadays, all of the Hong Kong student will take a total of three languages in school. Cantonese as their first language, Mandarin and English as their second language, so that they can be easier to communicate with people who are from other countries with different languages, specially Mandarin and English these two international language. So if you have a choice, learn Mandarin. Because it is easier and faster to learn. If you know Mandarin, you can even be understood even in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangzhou. But if you need to talk to a Cantonese who doesn’t know Mandarin at all, good luck with that!

References

1) Minglang Zhou, Hongkai Sun (2004). Language Policy in the People's Republic of China: Theory and Practice Since 1949. Springer.ISBN 978-1402080388.

2) Cantonese as written language: the growth of a written Chinese vernacular, p.48, Donald B. Snow, Hong Kong University Press