The seroprevalence and salivary shedding of herpesviruses in Behcet's syndrome and recurrent aphthous stomatitis

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The Role of Brand Identity in the Implementation of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) by Advertising Agencies

This thesis seeks answers to a fundamental question relating to the field of marketing communications: How does one implement Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)? It is almost 30 years since Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) first aroused the interest of researchers. In that time a significant body of research has emerged seeking to define what the concept means (Kliatchko, 2009; Moriarty & Schultz, 2012) and to understand what factors are involved in managing the implementation of IMC (Kerr & Patti, 2013; Porcu, del Barrio-Garcia, & Kitchen, 2012). The perceived benefits of IMC provide a compelling explanation as to why the practice is widespread today (Eagle et al. 2007; Kitchen & Schultz, 1999; Schultz & Schultz, 2004). The basic concept and principal benefit of IMC is synergy (Duncan & Everett, 1993). IMC is perceived as improving media and message delivery and thereby reducing media costs (Nowak, Cameron & Delorme, 1996). IMC is therefore considered an efficient and effective strategy for building brand equity (Madhavaram, Badrinarayana & McDonald, 2005). Since the inception of IMC a number of scholars have emphasised the strategic role of the brand in the implementation of IMC (Duncan & Moriarty, 1998; Duncan & Mulhern, 2004; Schultz, 1998; Schultz & Kitchen, 2000a). Building brand equity is considered to be a key strategic objective of IMC (Aaker, 2014; Fill, 2009; Kapferer, 2008) and the brand identity construct has been proposed as a key element in that process (Aaker, 1996; Kapferer, 2008). However brand identity has rarely been explicitly linked to the implementation of IMC in a conceptual framework (Madhavaram et al. 2005). Madhavaram et al. (2005) propose a ?Brand Equity Strategy? schematic in which they use Aaker?s 1996 conceptualisation of brand identity. They propose that consistent utilisation of brand identity by brand strategists will ensure a more synergistic and effective IMC and that this in turn will lead to stronger customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993). This thesis considers these proposals by Madhavaram et al. (2005) and examines the extent to which the brand identity construct plays a foundational and formative role in the IMC implementation process. To date there has been no research in which the propositions offered in Madhavaram et al?s 2005 paper have been subjected to any empirical investigation. This thesis seeks to amend that situation. Consequently, the research problem investigated in the research is: 'What is the role of the brand identity construct in the implementation of IMC by New Zealand advertising agencies?' Within this focus additional attention is given to the strategic role played by agency account planners in this process. The Account Planner?s primary function is to produce the creative brief (Baskin, 2001; Fortini-Campbell, 2001) and the creative brief is the platform upon which creative agencies create integrated marketing communication campaigns. The purpose of account planning is purportedly to create effective marketing communications (Fortini-Campbell, 2001; Kelley & Jugenheimer, 2011). Yet, there is a limited body of empirical research relating to the role of account planners in advertising agencies. This research investigates their role in the IMC implementation process and the part that brand identity statements play within that role. This research involves a multiple case study design. It studies how five New Zealand advertising agencies each work through the process of creating IMC campaigns for their clients? brands. Data is sourced from semi-structured interviews with senior agency and client executives and from proprietary agency documents and templates relating to the creative process. The five advertising agencies studied exemplify a cross-section of leading New Zealand agencies. Each agency embodies a single case. A series of research questions guide the inquiry: 1) What is the role of the Account Planner in the agency? 2) What is the role of the creative brief in the creative process? 3) What is the role of brand identity statements in the creative process? 4) What are the drivers that integrate marketing communications? 5) To what extent is IMC, as practised by New Zealand advertising agencies, anything more than just ?tactical integration?? The research involves a two-stage data analysis process: Stage One involves ?within-case? analysis and Stage Two involves ?cross-case? analysis. Decision Systems Analysis (DSA) is also utilised to study how advertising agency personnel and their clients make integrated marketing communication decisions within an advertising agency context. The research finds that brand identity statements positively influence the implementation of IMC programs. Each advertising agency in the study considered an in-depth understanding of their client?s brand to be an essential prerequisite to the commencement of any marketing communication work for that brand. It appears to be the norm for New Zealand agency account planners to have access to brand identity statements relating to their clients? brands when implementing IMC strategy. The form of brand identity statement favoured by the New Zealand account planners studied, when implementing IMC strategy, is the brand manifesto. The research also finds that account planners positively influence the implementation of IMC programmes. Account planners, or brand strategists, are the authors of arguably the most important document in the creative agency, the creative brief (Butterfield, 1985). In preparing this document planners seek to infuse the brief with strategic imperatives and insights relating to the client?s brand and to link these to creative insights pertaining to the target audiences? needs, wants, beliefs, attitudes and behaviour. The Account Planner is an advocate, on the one hand, for the consumer - all the way through the creative process - and on the other hand for the strategic integration of the client?s brand into all planned marketing messages. The research suggests that there are three key drivers in the implementation of IMC. First, a brand identity statement in some form; second, a big idea; and third, an understanding of the target audience?s media consumption behaviour. These findings are consistent with the extant literature (Aaker, 1996, 2014; Assael, 2011; Duncan, 2005; Ogilvy, 1983; Rossiter & Percy, 1987; Schultz & Kitchen, 2000a). Three original IMC process models are proffered in the thesis; each seeking to illuminate how IMC is implemented in practice. The first model illustrates how the three drivers of IMC act together in unison and interdependently to create IMC at a tactical level. The second model is an eight stage generic DSA model of the IMC creative process, and the third model seeks to illustrate the IMC implementation process - as suggested by research participants. Overall, results support the view of Madhavaram et al. (2005) that, for the agencies studied, brand identity strategically influences IMC in the creation of strong customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1993)

The assurance of quality and standards in English higher education from 1992 to the present : an economic interpretation

Abstract\ud The thesis is a study of policy comprising an economic interpretation of the assurance\ud of quality and standards in English higher education between 1992 and 2004. The\ud core of the thesis is an analysis of the consequences of the regulatory agencies'\ud attempt to tum the higher education product into a search good thus facilitating ex\ud ante quality assurance. An economic interpretation is congruent with the\ud 'marketisation' of higher education and of quality assurance, both of which are\ud linked with market based practice. The semantic issues relating to the many possible\ud interpretations of quality and standards led to a rationalization of terms via\ud juxtaposition with the efficiency discourse of economics.\ud The study is based on a three part theoretical framework. The trust good theory of\ud professional knowledge is characterized by ex-post information asymmetry which\ud renders the assurance of academic yardstick standards hazardous. The dyadic theory\ud of the organizational architecture of universities implies tension between the\ud transactional modes of academic peer group and managerial hierarchy with attendant\ud danger of perfunctory rather than consummate co-operation in the implementation of\ud quality assurance processes. The theory of the complex, vertically integrated\ud university firm embodies a number of potentially separable products with different\ud informational characteristics. Search, experience, and trust goods coexist with\ud implications for the way that quality and standards might be conceptualized and\ud assured when different parts of the process are the focus of attention by the regulatory\ud agencies.\ud The application of the theoretical framework to the various phases of the policy\ud process analyses the way that quality and standards were articulated by the agencies ..\ud The success of the attempt to convert higher education into a search good varies with\ud the signal credibility of the 'specifications' which are derived. Excessive\ud documentation production is a natural consequence of 'rational' economic behaviour\ud under the Prisoners' Dilemma pathology

Age-related decreases in global metacognition are independent of local metacognition and task performance

Metacognition refers to a capacity to reflect on and control other cognitive processes, commonly quantified as the extent to which confidence tracks objective performance. There is conflicting evidence about how “local” metacognition (monitoring of individual judgments) and “global” metacognition (estimates of self-performance) change across the lifespan. Additionally, the degree to which metacognition generalises across cognitive domains may itself change with age due to increased experience with one's own abilities. Using a gamified suite of performance-controlled memory and visual perception tasks, we measured local and global metacognition in an age-stratified sample of 304 healthy volunteers (18–83 years; N = 50 in each of 6 age groups). We calculated both local and global metrics of metacognition and quantified how and whether domain-generality changes with age. First-order task performance was stable across the age range. People's global self-performance estimates and local metacognitive bias decreased with age, indicating overall lower confidence in performance. In contrast, local metacognitive efficiency was spared in older age and remained correlated across the two cognitive domains. A stability of local metacognition indicates distinct mechanisms contributing to local and global metacognition. Our study reveals how local and global metacognition change across the lifespan and provide a benchmark against which disease-related changes in metacognition can be compared

Lauchheim 1986–2016. The Interdisciplinary analysis and GIS-Mapping of a prominent early medieval necropolis in Eastern Swabia

One of the most well-known and largest early medieval necropoles in Western Europe lies near the small town of Lauchheim in Baden-Württemberg, South West Germany. Totaling round 1400 inhumations dating from 5th – 7th Century AD, it was completely excavated between 1986 – 1996. Due to the high frequency of finds and the fragility of some of the bone material, much use was made of block lifting. Some blocks remain unopened till today. The good state of preservation and the juxtaposition of the necropolis with a contemporary settlement, which was also extensively excavated, set the stage for an extensive social-historical analysis of a local early medieval com-munity over two centuries. Analysis of the grave good and anthropological appraisal have been combined and structured in a specially designed Database containing over 30,000 individual en-tries. A GIS Map of the site, arduously piped from the original hand drawings via vectorization software and CAD into Open Source GIS, allows for perspicuous visualization of any combination of anthropological data and/or finds and contributes greatly to the understanding of the development of the necropolis. Since 2008 the Lauchheim Project has been supported by the German Research Council, allowing innovative conservation and documentation methods including complete anthropological examination, 3D computer tomography of the  unopened blocks (with sometimes surprising results) and the extensive examination of organic material and textiles