An investigation of brand image and its role in brand development

The main objective of this research is to investigate the most vital issue in the realm of branding - what makes a brand powerful, from the perspective of brand image. This concept has yet to gain due recognition as relatively little recent original research has been published on brand image. The research was undertaken in the fragrances industry in the UK. This research explores the brand image concept as a determinant of brand success; therefore, first and foremost, this concept has to be defined in terms of the nature of image - conveyed approach versus received approach, the notion of components structure and in terms of the concept elements. The original definition proposed is described as the "Three Dimensions' Brand Image" model (functional needs, nonfunctional needs and brand personality) and has been built from the assumption of creating a practical facet, where the marketer will be able to identify the meaning of each dimension and reinforce every one of them in his attempt to create brand image strategy. Therefore, a number of hypotheses have been tested with regard to the model structure as follows: the importance of brand personality dimension and non-functional dimension in high and low brand image situations in comparison to other dimensions was explored in revealing the notion's component structure, and the importance of price and special feeling elements in comparison to other brand image elements was researched in revealing the concept's elements. Finally, the link between brand image concept and brand success phenomenon was explored to define this concept in terms of a managerial marketing concept. This research focuses on men's and women's fragrances product groups because apart from the tangible facet of brand in these product groups, there is a significant meaning to brand personality facet, which makes this very appropriate for this research into "image". The research method for data collection was firstly based on focus groups interviews, and then on a survey (personal interviews) which took place during the months of March and April 1997 in four department stores of Debenhams in which 320 respondents participated. The findings of the research show evidence of the proposed "Three Dimensions' Brand Image" model existence, where the concept brand image is described as an amalgamation of two schools of thought, one which emphasizes the dependence of brand image creation upon the individual psyche, and the other which sees the marketers as the image creators. In addition, the findings show that in high and low brand image situations the functional dimension is perceived as the most important one, the next one is the non-functional dimension and the least important is the brand personality dimension. The research's findings show evidence of existence between brand image and brand success where high brand image leads to high brand success and low brand image leads to low brand success. The most important contribution of the proposed model as a new definition of brand image is its ability to act as an applied marketing concept for creating and managing the image of a brand, and by doing so it ceases to be purely a theoretical concept

Need for Aeromedical Evacuation High-Level Containment Transport Guidelines

Circumstances exist that call for the aeromedical evacuation high-level containment transport (AE-HLCT) of patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases. A small number of organizations maintain AE-HLCT capabilities, and little is publicly available regarding the practices. The time is ripe for the development of standards and consensus guidelines involving AE-HLCT

Exploring religious tourist experiences in Jerusalem: The intersection of Abrahamic religions

By considering the importance of religious tourism for travel and the tourism industry, this study aims to identify religious tourists' experiences in Jerusalem, as one of the most important holy cities. By a survey, 848 data were collected from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious tourists. Results showed that religious tourism experience was a multi-faceted construct, which consists of engaging mentally, discovering new things, interacting & belonging, connecting spiritually & emotionally, and relaxing & finding peace dimensions. By using these dimensions, perceived experience differences of tourists were examined depending on religion. Moreover, religious tourism experience was identified to significantly affect overall tourist satisfaction with Jerusalem. The study concluded with discussion of the findings and their implications

The patient-physician relationship: an account of the physician's perspective

BACKGROUND: The issue of patient-physician relationships in general, and particularly the trust of patients in their primary care physician has gained much interest in academia and with practitioners in recent years. Most research on this important topic, however, focused on how patients view the relationship and not how the physicians see it. This research strives to bridge this gap, with the resolution of leading to an improved appreciation of this multifaceted relationship. METHODS: A survey of 328 actively practicing physicians from all four health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in Israel resulted in a hierarchical formation of components, indicating both the relative as well as absolute importance of each component in the formation of the patient-physician relationship. The sample conducted was a convenience one. Methodologically, we used two different complementary methods of analysis, with the primary emphasis on the Analytic Hierarchical Processing (AHP), a unique and advanced statistical method. RESULTS: The results provide a detailed picture of physicians' attitudes toward the patient-physician relationship. Research indicates that physicians tend to consider the relationship with the patient in a rather pragmatic manner. To date, this attitude was mostly referred to intuitively, without the required rigorous investigation provided by this paper. Specifically, the results indicate that physicians tend to consider the relationship with the patient in a rather pragmatic manner. Namely, while fairness, reliability, devotion, and serviceability received high scores from physicians, social interaction, friendship, familial, as well as appreciation received the lowest scores, indicating low priority for warmth and sociability in the trust relationship from the physician's perspective. The results showed good consistency between the AHP results and the ANOVA comparable analyses. CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to patients who traditionally stress the importance of interpersonal skills, physicians stress the significance of the technical expertise and knowledge of health providers, emphasizing the role of competence and performance. Physicians evaluate the relationship on the basis of their ability to solve problems through devotion, serviceability, reliability, and trustworthiness and disregard the "softer" interpersonal aspects such as caring, appreciation, and empathy that have been found to be important to their patients. This illustrates a mismatch in the important components of relationship building that can lead to a loss of trust, satisfaction, and repeat purchase. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: We study the impact physicians' incentives have on the tangible relationship and discuss the significance of physician-patient relationship on satisfaction with the health service given. As a result policies leading to a more dynamic role must be given to the patient, who being well informed by the physician, can help in the decision making process. Policy schemes need to be implemented as a way of changing physicians' behavior, forcing them to better construct and utilize this dyadic relationship

Keck Interferometer nuller update

The Keck Interferometer combines the two 10 m Keck telescopes as a long baseline interferometer, funded by NASA, as a joint development among the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the W. M. Keck Observatory, and the Michelson Science Center. Since 2004, it has offered an H- and K-band fringe visibility mode through the Keck TAC process. Recently this mode has been upgraded with the addition of a grism for higher spectral resolution. The 10 um nulling mode, for which first nulling data were collected in 2005, completed the bulk of its engineering development in 2007. At the end of 2007, three teams were chosen in response to a nuller key science call to perform a survey of nearby stars for exozodiacal dust. This key science observation program began in Feb. 2008. Under NSF funding, Keck Observatory is leading development of ASTRA, a project to add dual-star capability for high sensitivity observations and dual-star astrometry. We review recent activity at the Keck Interferometer, with an emphasis on the nuller development

First Keck Interferometer measurements in self-phase referencing mode: spatially resolving circum-stellar line emission of 48 Lib

Recently, the Keck interferometer was upgraded to do self-phase-referencing (SPR) assisted K-band spectroscopy at R ~ 2000. This means, combining a spectral resolution of 150 km/s with an angular resolution of 2.7 mas, while maintaining high sensitiviy. This SPR mode operates two fringe trackers in parallel, and explores several infrastructural requirements for off-axis phase-referencing, as currently being implemented as the KI-ASTRA project. The technology of self-phasereferencing opens the way to reach very high spectral resolution in near-infrared interferometry. We present the scientific capabilities of the KI-SPR mode in detail, at the example of observations of the Be-star 48 Lib. Several spectral lines of the cirumstellar disk are resolved. We describe the first detection of Pfund-lines in an interferometric spectrum of a Be star, in addition to Br γ. The differential phase signal can be used to (i) distinguish circum-stellar line emission from the star, (ii) to directly measure line asymmetries tracing an asymetric gas density distribution, (iii) to reach a differential, astrometric precision beyond single-telescope limits sufficient for studying the radial disk structure. Our data support the existence of a radius-dependent disk density perturbation, typically used to explain slow variations of Be-disk hydrogen line profiles

Need for Aeromedical Evacuation High-Level Containment Transport Guidelines

Circumstances exist that call for the aeromedical evacuation high-level containment transport (AE-HLCT) of patients with highly hazardous communicable diseases. A small number of organizations maintain AE-HLCT capabilities, and little is publicly available regarding the practices. The time is ripe for the development of standards and consensus guidelines involving AE-HLCT

Recent progress at the Keck Interferometer: operations and V^2 science

The Keck Interferometer combines the two 10m diameter Keck telescopes for near-infrared fringe visibility, and mid-infrared nulling observations. We report on recent progress with an emphasis on new visibility observing capabilities, operations improvements for visibility and nulling, and on recent visibility science. New visibility observing capabilities include a grism spectrometer for higher spectral resolution. Recent improvements include a new AO output dichroic for increased infrared light throughput, and the installation of new wave-front controllers on both Keck telescopes. We also report on recent visibility results in several areas including (1) young stars and their circumstellar disks, (2) pre-main sequence star masses, and (3) Circumstellar environment of evolved stars. Details on nuller instrument and nuller science results, and the ASTRA phase referencing and astrometry upgrade, are presented in more detail elsewhere in this conference

ASTRA: astrometry and phase-referencing astronomy on the Keck interferometer

ASTRA (ASTrometric and phase-Referencing Astronomy) is an upgrade to the existing Keck Interferometer which aims at providing new self-phase referencing (high spectral resolution observation of YSOs), dual-field phase referencing (sensitive AGN observations), and astrometric (known exoplanetary systems characterization and galactic center general relativity in strong field regime) capabilities. With the first high spectral resolution mode now offered to the community, this contribution focuses on the progress of the dual field and astrometric modes

ASTRA: ASTrometry and phase-Referencing Astronomy on the Keck interferometer

ASTRA (ASTrometric and phase-Referencing Astronomy) is an upgrade to the existing Keck Interferometer which aims at providing new self-phase referencing (high spectral resolution observation of YSOs), dual-field phase referencing (sensitive AGN observations), and astrometric (known exoplanetary systems characterization and galactic center general relativity in strong field regime) capabilities. With the first high spectral resolution mode now offered to the community, this contribution focuses on the progress of the dual field and astrometric modes.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables, SPIE 201