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- All Subjects: Sustainability
- All Subjects: Marketing
- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
GEICO Insurance offers a wide range of insurance options to consumers nationwide. The company has experienced exponential growth over the past 15 years largely due to their low rates, ease of purchase, online business model, and their industry-revolutionizing approach to advertising these competitive advantages. Operating primarily within the enormous Property and Casualty sector of the insurance industry, GEICO faces extremely high levels of competition from many well-resourced companies. The most dangerous of which have begun to respond to GEICO's humorous, charming, and often detached advertising strategy through the employment of one of two general strategies; either imitating and attempting to improve upon GEICO's brand image and advertising practices, or else attacking it, insinuating that a company with this appeal does not truly care about its customers or its services. As GEICO has already solidified their low price point and ease of purchase in the minds of consumers, a tactical shift in response to competitive actions is now optimal. To avoid being labeled as a "cut-rate" insurance provider who cares little about the safety or well-being of their clients, and provides them with low quality insurance products and services; the following integrated marketing campaign is proposed. Spearheaded by the slogan "As long as you have GEICO, Things are looking up.", this campaign will focus on raising awareness of the plethora of customer service programs and initiatives already offered by GEICO that are unknown to the general public. The humorous, lighthearted appeal will remain, but the focus on highlighting customer service benefits and the high quality associated with GEICO's product will serve to shift the public perception of GEICO. As a result of this campaign, GEICO will appeal to a broader segment of the market, retain customers for longer period of time, raise awareness of their helpful customer service products and services, and differentiate themselves from the competition.
ContributorsGood, David Gregory (Author) / Gray, Nancy (Thesis director) / Samper, Adriana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Although sustainability as a concept and a science has been around for quite some time, it has only recently come into the common vernacular of citizens around the world. While there are a number of arguments that have been and can be made about the role of sustainability in developing countries, it can be said with certainty that sustainability education, especially at the pre-university level, is commonly neglected even in countries that have sustainability initiatives elsewhere in their systems. Education is an important part of development in any country, and sustainability education is critical to raising generations who are more aware of the connections in the world around them. Informal education, or education that takes place outside of a formal classroom, can provide an especially important platform for sustainability ideas. These factors take on unique characteristics within the environment of a small island with noble sustainability goals but limited resources and an economy that includes a significant domestic goat population. After providing basic background on sustainability and the nature of the educational process within the environment of the small island-nation of Grenada, I discuss the importance of informal education and follow my path with a local non-profit in Grenada leading to the development of a locally-relevant sustainability curriculum for implementation in a K-6 school.
ContributorsMelkonoff, Natalie Anne (Author) / Eder, James (Thesis director) / BurnSilver, Shauna (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
In this paper, I analyze representations of nature in popular film, using the feminist / deconstructionist concept of a dualism to structure my critique. Using Val Plumwood’s analysis of the logical structure of dualism and the 5 ‘features of a dualism’ that she identifies, I critique 5 popular movies – Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Brave, Grizzly Man, and Planet Earth – by locating within each of them one of the 5 features and explaining how the movie functions to reinforce the Nature/Culture dualism . By showing how the Nature/Culture dualism shapes and is shaped by popular cinema, I show how “Nature” is a social construct, created as part of this very dualism, and reified through popular culture. I conclude with the introduction of a number of ‘subversive’ pieces of visual art that undermine and actively deconstruct the Nature/Culture dualism and show to the viewer a more honest presentation of the non-human world.
ContributorsBarton, Christopher Joseph (Author) / Broglio, Ron (Thesis director) / Minteer, Ben (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
As millennials are growing and becoming the "the next big consumer market," understanding them is crucial (Paul, 2001; Kumar & Lim, 2008). This study will attempt to understand their processing of ads by observing the relationship between construal level theory and product type (i.e. hedonic vs. utilitarian). Construal Level theory suggests that individuals construe information at different abstract levels. High levels are characterized by abstract and general representation (e.g. thinking of moving as starting a new chapter of life) while low levels are characterized as including more concrete and contextual details (e.g. thinking of moving as packing boxes). Neither interaction nor main effect of product type was observed either as main effect or as interaction with construal level. However, a significant main effect of construal level was found showing that concrete and contextual (low construal level) information on advertisements makes them more effective and useful to millennials; influences purchase intentions more than ads construed in high construal levels; and, makes brands seem more credible, stable and truthful.
ContributorsSandoval, Daisy (Author) / Olsen, Douglas (Thesis director) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Mirshak, Paul (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
South Mountain is the largest municipal park in the nation. It is a bundled amenity, providing a series of linked services to the surrounding communities. A dataset of 19,209 homes in 155 neighborhoods within three miles of the park was utilized in order to complete a hedonic estimation for two nearby urban villages, Ahwatukee Foothills and South Mountain Village. Measures of access include proximity to the park, trailhead access, and adjacency to the park. Two regressions were estimated, the first including lot characteristics and subdivision fixed effects and the second using the coefficients for each subdivision as the dependent variable. These estimates describe how the location of a house in a subdivision contributes to its conditional mean price. As a result they offer a direct basis for capturing amenities measured at the neighborhood scale on home values. Park proximity, trailhead access and adjacency were found to significantly influence the price of homes at the 5% confidence level in Ahwatukee, but not in South Mountain Village. The results of this study can be applied to issues of environmental justice and park access in determining which areas and attributes of the park are associated with a high premium. Though South Mountain was preserved some time ago, development and future preservation in the City of Phoenix can be informed by such studies.
ContributorsRamakrishna, Saritha Kambhampati (Author) / Abbott, Joshua (Thesis director) / Smith, V. Kerry (Committee member) / Schoon, Michael (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 was created as an overhaul of the US Healthcare system with a goal of getting all American citizens and legal residents healthcare that was both affordable and of good quality. Now almost a year removed from it going into effect, this study looks to determine how the ACA has worked in getting individuals who were previously uninsured and required charitable-based healthcare into health insurance programs within a small population in Arizona. This study evaluates the type of insurance program, the quality and ease of access of the care, and the general affordability of the healthcare. This study found that 75% of individuals surveyed had gained health insurance in the last year, with 95% expecting to be insured for 2015. The large majority rated the quality of their care and the accessibility of it as good, with corresponding increased use of primary care providers as a health resource. The affordability of the care was still a major issue for those who were found to be uninsured and for those who were insured. Despite affordability issues, self-reported measures of general health and access to care were reported by the majority of respondents to have improved over the last 12 months.
ContributorsHonan, Timothy Francis (Author) / Ketcham, Jonathan (Thesis director) / Jehn, Megan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Former two-time Costa Rican president Dr. Oscar Arias advocates for arms control between nations and, in some cases, complete disarmament as the first step in solving grave issues of international sustainability. The three spheres of sustainability—society, economy, and environment—are explained and the ultimate goal of the compromise between all three aspects is defined as the means to achieving sustainability. A brief history of the politics and culture of Costa Rica provides a glimpse into the values and society of this Central American country, including a consistent commitment to the appreciation and protection of its natural environment. Dr. Arias is credited as one of the founding fathers of the sustainable development movement, as evidenced by his political career and policies both with Costa Rica and with other international communities. A selection of Dr. Arias’ speeches and conversations of the past four decades illuminates the need for disarmament and peaceful political interactions as the catalyst for human progress and sustainable development.
ContributorsZywicki, Alexandra (Author) / Alarcon, Justo (Thesis director) / Printezis, Antonios (Committee member) / Sullivan, Claire (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The thesis "How Professional Artists Can Better Promote Themselves Online" aims to create a solution to improve artists' online sales and exposure. With the Internet being such a congested platform, I began to wonder how it was possible for artists to stand out from the crowd. I conducted six in-depth interviews in order to form a better understanding of what problems and frustrations artists currently faced everyday online. The data I collected from these interviews transformed my thesis into an entrepreneurial venture, and the iPhone app Artello was born. I created an entire working prototype of my app using Keynotopia. Artello's mission is to build an interactive art community that will create and foster relationships between artists and buyers like never before. This platform illustrates to buyers an artist's personality, style, and individual story. With Artello's guidance, artists will form stronger relationships with art buyers, connect with similar artists, and create a compelling online presence.
ContributorsPoole, Parker Anne (Author) / Gray, Nancy (Thesis director) / Pomilio, Mark (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The goal of this thesis research was to figure out if there were tangible differences between the way men and women speak on Twitter, a micro blogging social media site, and to see if there ways to apply it to strategizing marketing campaigns. AntConc, a free concordance software by Lawrence Anthony, was used to help organize and analyze a corpus created from the Tweets that were collected form the public accounts of twelve different popular public figures. These individuals were chosen based on their profession or the industry that they are associated with, as well as their general popularity. The research focused on three main industries or professions that can be viewed as ‘gendered;’ which were ‘Modeling,’ ‘Fashion Publications,’ and ‘Sports.’ The data was then analyzed across five different main categories which included, ‘Additional Media,’ ‘Adjective Usage,’ ‘How are they talking?,’ ‘Who are they talking about?, and ‘What are they talking about?’ The primary data, along with secondary research was used to see if they words and language use of men and women aligned with stereotypical patterns or if there were patterns that were unique and overlooked.
What was found was that although gender did play a large part in the way men and women spoke, there were more similarities when comparing individuals of the same industry or profession, than there were if they were simply analyzed just based on gender. Additionally, there were many factors that made it difficult to say whether these were qualified patterns or simply tendencies. More research into this would be able to help marketing companies and individuals, better target the audience they want for social media campaigns, by taking into account the importance in contemporary differences in language use by men and women. However, this research would have to be done on data from sites like Twitter to provide an accurate depiction of the way men and women, on these very unique mediums, speak.
What was found was that although gender did play a large part in the way men and women spoke, there were more similarities when comparing individuals of the same industry or profession, than there were if they were simply analyzed just based on gender. Additionally, there were many factors that made it difficult to say whether these were qualified patterns or simply tendencies. More research into this would be able to help marketing companies and individuals, better target the audience they want for social media campaigns, by taking into account the importance in contemporary differences in language use by men and women. However, this research would have to be done on data from sites like Twitter to provide an accurate depiction of the way men and women, on these very unique mediums, speak.
ContributorsChan, Kayla Rose (Author) / Adams, Karen (Thesis director) / Shinabarger, Amy D. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
With the development of technology, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of machine learning programs. These complex programs make conclusions and can predict or perform actions based off of models from previous runs or input information. However, such programs require the storing of a very large amount of data. Queries allow users to extract only the information that helps for their investigation. The purpose of this thesis was to create a system with two important components, querying and visualization. Metadata was stored in Sedna as XML and time series data was stored in OpenTSDB as JSON. In order to connect the two databases, the time series ID was stored as a metric in the XML metadata. Queries should be simple, flexible, and return all data that fits the query parameters. The query language used was an extension of XQuery FLWOR that added time series parameters. Visualization should be easily understood and be organized in a way to easily find important information and details. Because of the possibility of a large amount of data being returned from a query, a multivariate heat map was used to visualize the time series results. The two programs that the system performed queries on was Energy Plus and Epidemic Simulation Data Management System. By creating such a system, it would be easier for people of the project's fields to find the relationship between metadata that leads to the desired results over time. Over the time of the thesis project, the overall software was completed, however the software must be optimized in order to take the enormous amount of data expected from the system.
ContributorsTse, Adam Yusof (Author) / Candan, Selcuk (Thesis director) / Chen, Xilun (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2015-05