In 2020, the nation was hit with a pandemic both physically and socially. Due to COVID-19, media interaction, social media engagement, and online consumerism became necessary. In relation to widespread disease, social outbreaks concerning the black lives matter movement, police brutality, the presidential election and diversity & inclusion, set a call to action for Americans. Top fashion and shoe-manufacturing companies that engage with the public socially, financially, personally and for entertainment were evaluated on their contributions to Diversity and Inclusion initiatives. Through external marketing and communication strategies, shoe-wear companies display their approaches to social justice, equity and/or social responsibility. Inclusion & Diversity has different facets including, socioeconomics, gender roles, and race that contribute to how<br/>consumers interact with companies. This paper consists of a literary review, three company audits and analysis, and recommendations. The literary review in the introduction of my paper, explores the approaches to Diversity and Inclusion of shoe-wear companies as a response to social inequity. I conducted three audits to assess the history of Diversity and Inclusion at Nike, Adidas and PUMA to their approaches and commitment to Inclusion and Diversity through their marketing and communication strategies. I then conducted a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis based on the marketing and communications of the<br/>respective companies to gain depth in my findings of sentiment, message strategy, corporate hierarchy, and suggestions for future communications. My analysis provided a conclusion that Diversity and Inclusion in marketing and communication strategies is an essential factor in the growth and success of the company. I identified that each company has areas of opportunity to create more visibility for the LGBTQIA+ ( Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and nonbiary people) community, should continue to produce reports that analyze exactly how they plan to support Diversity and Inclusion and continue displaying their<br/>commitment on social media.

Music has consistently been documented as a manner to bring people together across cultures throughout the world. In this research, we propose that people use similar musical taste as a strong sign of potential social connection. To investigate this notion, we draw on literature examining how music merges the public/private self, the link to personality, and group identity, as well as how it is linked to romantic relationships. Thus, music can be a tool when wanting to get to know someone else and/or forge a platonic relationship. To test this hypothesis, we designed an experiment comparing music relative to another commonality (sharing a sports team in common) to see which factor is stronger in triggering an online social connection. We argue that people believe they have more in common with someone who shares similar music taste compared to other commonalities. We discuss implications for marketers on music streaming platforms.

Building on research on family communication and forgiveness, this study seeks to understand how families communicate the value and practice of forgiveness. Through semi-structured interviews, the study asks participants to recall their formative conversations and experiences about forgiveness with their family members and to discuss how those conversations influenced their current perspectives on forgiveness. Interviews from five female undergraduate students yielded seven main themes from where individuals learn how to forgive: 1) Sibling conflicts, 2) Family conversations about friendship conflicts, 3) Conversations with Mom, 4) Living by example, 5) Take the high road, 6) “Life’s too short”, and 7) Messages rooted in faith and morality.

Relationship marketing is a framework in which marketers aim to build two-way bonds with their customers, with the result of long-term benefits to both parties. The rise of social media and the prominence of digital marketing in general, including targeted ads, commercial websites, and email campaigns, has increased the potential for brands and organizations to build such relationships with current and potential customers over time. In the realm of politics, digital marketing has been brought to the mainstream throughout the last decade and its prominence in presidential campaigns has increased ever since, closing the gap in communication between voters, organizations, and candidates. This thesis is an exploration of the effect digital marketing had on Arizona State University students’ perceptions of the presidential candidates and political organizations targeting them during the 2020 election season. The ASU Young Democrats, ASU College Republicans, ASU Undergraduate Student Government, and the 2020 Trump and Biden campaigns were studied through three methods: an analysis of each organization’s marketing tactics through the lens of relationship marketing, interviews with each ASU subject, and a survey of 328 students. The conclusion offers recommendations to each subject based on hypotheses formulated from the analyses and discusses the interrelationship that subjects’ relationship marketing strengths and weaknesses had with students’ views of each organization relative to their desired perceptions.

This creative project is a trade blog dedicated to Gen Z. Its purpose is to inform communication professionals about best practices when reaching out to this evolving demographic. The articles for this blog were informed by executive interviews with communications professionals who are members of Gen Z themselves or have already had success with this demographic.

SUMMARY: A failed attempt to conduct a systematic review of disparities in racial inclusivity in stroke rehabilitation research: A call to action Group Members: Adeline Beeler & Mikayla McNally Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Sydney Schaefer & Dr. Keith Lohse Topic Overview: Stroke is responsible for the death of an individual every four minutes in the United States. While all Americans are gravely affected by this statistic, Black Americans are at a significantly increased risk of first stroke incidence when compared to their white counterparts, majorly due to heightened prevalence of stroke risk factors. Not only does race contribute as a factor in stroke incidence, but it also has a considerable impact in the physical impairment of Black Americans following stroke occurrence. While it still remains unclear as to whether or not stroke plays a significant role in stroke rehabilitation efforts, there is a clearly demonstrated need for increased reporting or participation of Black Americans in stroke rehabilitation clinical trials to have the ability to conduct a systematic review of these racial disparities in the near future. In the analysis of 36 stroke rehabilitation-related clinical research studies, 80% of selected trials failed to report any participant racial demographics, with 77.3% of the NIH-funded trials not reporting, as well. Out of the 7 trials that did provide some sort of participant racial information, only 5 successfully provided statistically significant racial data compared to the remainder that simply categorized participants’ race as “white” or “other.” In order to fully investigate the effects of race on stroke rehabilitation, it is imperative that researchers collect and report equally distributed and diverse participant racial data when publishing clinical research. Potential methods of improvement for researchers to include more racially diverse subject populations include more comprehensive and in-depth advertising and recruitment strategies for their studies. Research Methods: In order to produce accurate analyses of the current state of the relationship between race and stroke rehabilitation efforts, 36 stroke rehabilitation clinical research trials from various locations across the United States were identified using the Centralized Open-Access Rehabilitation Database for Stroke (SCOAR). These trials were evaluated in order to extract relevant data, such as number of trial participants, average age of participants, if the research trial was funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) or not, and any reported participant racial demographic details. Trends across these categories were compared between all trials to determine if any disparities existed in providing data sufficient to support the relationship between varying racial populations and stroke rehabilitation efforts. Future Project Efforts: Future efforts will include the completion of submitting a Point of View/Directions for Research article for publication to offer an opportunity for clinical and basic researchers to examine the discrepancies surrounding racial inclusivity in stroke rehabilitation clinical research. The aim is to improve the ability of clinicians to interpret the literature, translate research studies into practices, and better direct future experiments. Further identification of stroke rehabilitation clinical research trials will be necessary, as well as modifications to current written work content.

This project includes a marketing plan for a local small business, Island Mochi. It examines the business and best practices in the industry to inform the marketing plan. The purpose of the marketing plan is to grow Island Mochi's sales by using digital marketing and public relations strategies. The components of the marketing plan include an executive summary, environmental analysis, SWOT analysis, customer personas, PR and marketing objectives, strategies and tactics, and an outline of the implementation and evaluation procedures.