Song of Myself (A poem by Walt Whitman) I found this poem in The Research Paper

Song of Myself (A poem by Walt Whitman) I found this poem in The Norton Anthology American Literature vol C - Research Paper Example ibilities for poetry in America and he did this largely through his most famous poem â€Å"Song of Myself.† This extraordinary poem has had a lingering influence on American letters. It is a fascinating and extraordinary work. In the late nineteenth century, when Whitman came into the full flower of his poetic powers, America was a changing country. Its economy was growing at a massive rate, its population was expanding. The country had once and for all thrown off many of the vestiges of its colonial past. For example, there was very little class system. America was a land of opportunity, of rugged individualism. The motto of the country was that if you worked hard, you would be able to do anything you wanted to. The cities were growing, industry was booming, and in New York City, Walt Whitman was finally becoming the poet to tell the story. But America was not developing in a vacuum. European ideas had great influence in America. In particular, the early 19th century had left a legacy of romanticism which was still waiting to be transformed into something more, to be transitioned to the next stage. As one critic has written: Politically the time was ripe. The 18th century left a heritage of optimism about mans possibilities and perfectability. The lofty ideals of democracy asserted the value of individuals, regardless of class, and education. Of course, these values primarily applied to white males. In fact, tensions were building which cried out for creative release. Inequality, not equality was the rule for many, especially women and slaves. The clash of these realities with the idealistic rhetoric led writers to take extremes, championing individualism yet also seeing the darker sides of a fragmenting society (Woodlief). Whitman was ready to take these discrete elements and make something new of them. He was a nobody, a dreamer, a watcher, but he also had a powerful gift for speech and poetry which would make him famous all over the world. He self-published

BRAND PERSONALITY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

BRAND PERSONALITY - Essay Example 392). The concept of brand personality eludes clear definition. Anandan (2009) provides what is probably the most practicable description: ‘Simply put, brand personality answers the question â€Å"What happens when the brand turns into a human being?† or â€Å"What happens when the brand comes alive?† (p. 139). Brand personality is also defined as â€Å"the set of human characteristics associated with a brand† (Asperin, 2007, p. 49). The concern of marketing practitioners as far as brand marketing is concerned is therefore how to personify a brand. Kumar (2009) links brand personality to self-concept, and it is self-expression, rather than emotion, that more significantly develops brand personality (p. 177-178). Brand personality is achieved by associating human characteristics that consumers commonly attribute to a brand. The characteristic may be in terms of demographic attributes (age, gender, status), lifestyle (activities, social class), culture (value s, beliefs), and other personality traits. The brand may be associated with celebrities or historical figures, and several devices may be used such as animism, anthropomorphism, personification, and user imagery (Purkayastha, 2009). A well established brand personality must possess the following attributes: (1) elements of the brand’s marketing mix are deliberately coordinated; (2) personality sought is competitively distinctive and desirable; and (3) the personality sought is robust and kept consistent over time and over media (Aaker & Biel, 1993, p. 49). Brand personality influences the choice of consumers by enabling them to express who they are by the brands they use (Asperin, 2007, p. 49). Brand personality can help marketers in: (1) the conception and creation of a brand; (2) evaluating its perception in the minds of the customer and compare it with what was expected; and (3) incorporating necessary changes to make the brand more attractive in order to meet the goals of creating lasting consumer satisfaction and loyalty (Purkayastha, 2009). In recent years, brand personality has become a topic of interest not only among academic researchers but more especially among marketing managers and strategists. This is evident in a scan of professional and academic journals on marketing research and applications. The principal theoretical framework employed in academic literature is the multidimensional framework, first devised by Aaker, and later developed by other researchers to account for market-specific factors and universal, cross-cultural studies. Aaker’s Brand Personality Framework In applying brand personality constructs, the theoretical paradigm most commonly used is the multi-dimensional framework devised by Aaker, which is considered the prevailing standard. The Aaker framework is accepted as a comprehensive framework that may be generalised over a broad number of product categories (Malik & Naeem, 2012). The Aaker framework underlies the Brand Personality Scale, or BPS, developed by the same author. Based on an extensive study of American consumers, Aaker derived a framework comprised of five core dimensions and their facets, as follows (Guse, 2011): (1) Sincerity (Domestic, honest, genuine, cheerful); (2) Excitement (Daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date); (3) Competence (Reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient); (4) Sophistication (Glamorous, pretentious, charming, romantic); and (5) Ruggedness (Tough, strong, outdoorsy, rugged). The study of Malik and Naeem (2012), however, called attention to the perception that Aaker’s framework provides only a crude estimation of brand personality because it transposes human personality traits instead of using the brands themselves. The study also expresses concern that the original