Inheritance hierarchy design in object-oriented databases

Object-oriented database schema design is still mostly an art. One of the difficulties encountered during design is typing conflicts induced by multiple inheritance. In this paper, we propose a method for treating such a kind of conflicts. Our approach to inheritance conflict solving consists of several ingredients. First, we rely on branding, to introduce ‘type equivalence by name', thus allowing a designer to distinguish between structurally similar but semantically different types. However, we offer a heuristic that does not require a designer to explicitly state branding declarations. Second, we describe various kinds of conflicts, and we offer a set of procedures that analyze a schema to discover such conflicts, classify them, offering potential solutions, if possible. The procedures have been conceived for a design system that allows a designer maximum flexibility, while guiding him/her to a correct design.     

家具品牌传播与产品营销的网络媒体——企业品牌网页主站

随着网络应用的迅速普及和发展,品牌和营销也开始依靠网络平台。在如今竞争激烈的家具市场环境下,家具企业可以借助信息技术并结合传统品牌推广的诸多策略,通过网络媒体开展品牌建设。本文讨论了网络化媒体的最新功能特点和对家具品牌传播与产品营销的影响。     

Emotional responses to branded and unbranded foods

Investigating the emotions elicited by a product considering only its sensory characteristics or both its sensory characteristics and packaging/branding can give a deeper insight into product perception and can help companies in the design and optimisation of products that meet consumer expectations. The aim of this study was to (i) measure how liking changes across blind, package (expected) and informed conditions, and (ii) measure how emotions change across blind and informed conditions, in products representing the widest range of sensory variability and brand identity in the market category of hazelnut and cocoa spreads. In the first session participants (n = 120) tasted each product in a blind condition, expressed their liking and rated emotions using the EmoSemio questionnaire specifically developed for this product category (Spinelli, Masi, Dinnella, Zoboli, & Monteleone, 2014). Then consumers were asked to rate their expected liking for the products, presented in the original packaging by means of photos (pack/expected condition). After one week, consumers tasted each product presented with its own packaging (informed condition), expressed their liking and rated emotions.Emotions were very discriminating in both conditions: in the informed condition all the emotions significantly varied across samples, while in the blind condition 21 out of 23 (91.3%) varied.Results showed a correlation between liking (blind, expected and informed) and emotions. Complete assimilation of liking toward expectations was associated to an overall improvement of the emotional performance of the product: positive emotions increased in the case of complete assimilation towards the expectations, while negative emotions decreased. When there was a mismatch between expected liking evoked by packaging and blind liking (disconfirmation) but an assimilation effect was not found, some positive emotions significantly decreased in the informed condition compared to the blind one.This study suggests the importance of collecting emotion responses in both blind and informed conditions to detect changes in the emotional profile of products due to the brand/packaging providing information useful for product optimisation.     

互联网时代农产品包装设计与品牌推广策略

目的 互联网时代背景下,农业迎来了快速发展的新时期,但也面临重大挑战。如何利用互联网技术与资源,加强农产品包装设计,树立我国农产品品牌,提升品牌影响力,是新时期背景下推动农业农产品发展的紧迫任务。方法 本文首先分析了当前时期我国农产品包装中存在的一些问题;然后分析加强农产品包装设计与品牌推广的重要性;最后指出互联网时代背景下,农产品包装设计与品牌推广实施的有效策略。结论 近些年来,我国提升了对农产品包装设计和品牌塑造的重视,不少学者也在该领域展开了广泛而深入的研究。农产品销售当中产品包装的好坏,不但会影响运输过程中对农产品保护,同时还影响农产品的形象,进而影响农产品的市场占有率。可见,网络时代背景下,农产品的包装设计和品牌推广极其重要,不仅直接影响到农民的经济收入,对促进区域经济和农业一体化发展也起到了非常积极的作用。     

信息化时代背景下的IP形象设计

分析信息化时代IP形象的多场景品牌文化传播能力,归纳在IP形象设计中需要考虑的决定性设计因素,总结在IP形象创意视觉化表达中的原则与方法,丰富IP形象的视觉传达设计理论基础。通过整理筛选信息化背景下品牌文化传播的IP形象案例,运用视觉传达设计原理对其进行解构,从实例中归纳出其核心价值、艺术表征、传播手段,并试图发现从设计方法到用户情感链接的逻辑关系。信息化背景下,高价值的IP形象具有视觉表征层面的美学基础,同时以其直接的形象特征被大众接受与认知。多平台跨媒介的信息化特质使其具备强大的品牌文化传播能力以及情感链接建立能力,优秀的视觉美学形式以及情感性设计表达是信息化时代IP形象产生高度价值的核心。     

Performance analysis of keyword advertising campaign using gender-brand effect of search queries

In this research, we analyze the relationship among (1) the performance metrics of a sponsored search campaign, (2) the gender orientation of queries, and (3) the occurrence of branded terms in queries. The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of increased personalization of search engine advertising in order to improve the consumer’s online experience. We segregate keyphrases from a dataset covering thirty-three consecutive months from a major US retailer consisting of 7 million daily records of a real time keyword advertising campaign into three gender categories (male, female and neutral) each with two groups (branded and unbranded) term usage. Using ANOVA, we analyze the effect of gender and brand keyphrases on critical sponsored search performance metrics of impressions, clicks, cost-per-clicks, sales revenue, orders, items purchased and return on advertising. Research findings show that the combination of brand focus with the gender-orientation of keyphrases is a significant factor in predicting sponsored search performance and behavior. There are statistically significant variations in consumer behavior as measured by sponsored search metrics among the gender categories. Specifically, females are more attracted to the use of branded terms than males, perhaps due to the trust and customer loyalty generated by brand image. Our results establishes that positive brand reputation creates dramatic influence on consumer’s loyalty over the brand and hence strongly affects their interests, activities and purchasing behavior in e-commerce environment.     

东方智慧的“创”与“意” “无印良品”的世界

文章通过对日本"无印良品"的解读,了解东方智慧的内在价值,推动未来的创新。由国际企业的趋势、市场的发展历程、产品的文化价值,发现创新之道的内在关联性。     

Improving the Management of Large Programs

ABSTRACT

The United States remains the world leader in managing large, complex programs such as the space shuttle program and major weapons systems. The challenges confronting the management of these programs and initiatives intended to meet these challenges are reviewed. This article asserts that these initiatives could be far more effective if they were structured around a unifying concept that could be easily convoyed to and retained by program personnel. A comprehensive quality concept can be used as this unifying framework. Observations about quality-oriented cultures in large programs are included.     

Assessing the shapes and speech sounds that people associate with chocolate samples varying in cocoa content

We report a series of three experiments designed to highlight the reliable crossmodal correspondences that exist between the cocoa content of various commercially-available chocolate products and both visually-presented shapes and nonsense words. The chocolates tested in this study included three kinds of Lindt chocolate and a milk chocolate truffle (‘Koko’ brand from Cadbury). Participants were given paper-based line scales, anchored at either end with either a nonsense word or simple outline shape. They tasted the chocolates and indicated whether their perception of the flavor better matched one or other of the items anchoring the scales by marking the appropriate point along the scale. The results demonstrate that certain chocolates were more strongly associated with angular shapes and ‘sharp’ inflected, high-pitched meaningless words, such as ‘tuki’ and ‘takete’. Specifically, Lindt extra creamy milk chocolate (30% cocoa) and Cadbury’s Koko milk chocolate truffles were both more strongly associated with rounded shapes and softer sounding, lower-pitched pseudo-words, such as ‘maluma’. By contrast, Lindt 70% and 90% cocoa chocolates were more strongly associated with sharper (angular) shapes and sounds, such as ‘takete’. These results demonstrate that the phenomenon of sound symbolism extends beyond the visual modality into the domain of flavor perception where, in particular, speech sounds carry meaning in terms of the taste/flavor of chocolates. These results have implications for the development of novel brand names for new products (such as, in this case, chocolate) that best connote the product’s likely sensory attributes.     

Assessing the associations between brand packaging and brand attributes using an indirect performance measure

Understanding the semantic associations driven by a given product is a key factor for developing effective marketing strategies, but a challenge for marketing research. Here we propose an instrument, based on an indirect behavioral measure, that is sensitive to both implicit and explicit semantic associations. We validate the effectiveness of this test in a series of experiments designed to investigate the association between packaging and specific brand attributes. Participants made speeded discrimination responses to a series of attributes and bottles of mouthwash (Experiment 1). The bottle and attribute assigned to each response key were hypothesized to be congruent in certain blocks of trials and incongruent in others. The results, showing a significant congruency effect, highlight the existence of an association between the bottle of Listerine mouthwash and the attribute “powerful” and between the bottle of Scope mouthwash and the attribute “gentle”. A similar congruency effect was observed in Experiment 2 when another group of participants were presented with the silhouette of the bottles or the brand names and the same attributes as in Experiment 1. These results are discussed in terms the utility of this compatibility task in helping sensory marketers/packaging designers to discriminate between a small range of different packaging solutions.