plus 3, Planning key to a good race - Brazoria Facts |
- Planning key to a good race - Brazoria Facts
- Cardiac procedure helps Cumru man keep active lifestyle - Reading Eagle
- 'Twenteens' and new age marketing - Rediff
- 2010 The Tough One Results - Motorcycle USA
| Planning key to a good race - Brazoria Facts Posted: 22 Feb 2010 09:49 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
I frequently receive inquiries about planning a race, and some of the inquiries come a few months before the race director wants to stage the event. My first response is, you don't have enough time. The successful races in southern Brazoria County are the work of long hours of planning by a committee. If none of the committee members is a runner, or has little or no experience with road racing, the committee should seek the assistance of Brazosport Area Road Runners Association (www.barrahome.net) or the Lake Jackson/Freeport Area Triathletes (www.ljfat.com). Our club missions include assisting and encouraging physical fitness by supporting local efforts in planning events and advising race committees. The tasks are multitudinous and the committee work time-consuming. I suggest to begin planning six to eight months in advance and to consider the following general points. First, you must have a sufficient volunteer pool. I suggest a minimum of 25 to 50 for an inaugural race of 75 to 150 participants. If you don't have enough volunteers, your race will fail. Second, determine a date that does not conflict with other area races or the most popular races in the Gulf Coast area. Check the BARRA or LJFAT Web sites. So far, 10 races from March 6-Oct. 30 are posted on the BARRA Web site. As soon as the registration information is available, I post the information, along with downloadable registration forms. To make sure a race date doesn't conflict with the more popular, well-established runs, check Runner Triathlete News (www.RunnerTriathlete News.com) and Inside Texas Running (www.InsideTexas Running.com) for a comprehensive list of upcoming races, a five-state area in RTN (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas) and Texas only in ITR. Also, the race course is a crucial factor. Runners want a certified USA Track & Field route. All of the established race courses in southern Brazoria County are USAT&F certified. Volunteers should be at the mile markers and water tables should be placed at least every mile to a mile and a half on the course. Volunteers should also be placed at crucial points on the course so lead runners do not run astray. A pacer leading the pack in a police car, a bicycle or a motorcycle ensures the leaders don't get lost. No race should be without the support of EMS and local police. Proper officials should be contacted early. Runners need to make a potty stops frequently before and after the race. Make sure on-site restroom facilities are adequate and clean or porta-potties are available. The most critical factors in the race are timing and determination of overall, masters (40 and over) and age-group winners. Race directors who fail at the finish line and in the tabulation of the race results will fail in drawing participants to future races. Here you really need the help of BARRA of LJFAT. Off-track preparation is important. Runners return to races that have good T-shirts. The committee should work on a logo and contract for T-shirts at least two months in advance of the race. The committee should determine early what will serve as awards: trophies, medals, coffee cups, paper weights, or appropriate memorabilia. Publicity and promoting the race are important. About 50-60 percent of the local race registration takes place on race day, the community needs to know about the event as soon as possible. I have just scratched the surface in these comments on race planning; however, potential race directors and planners should be able to get started with these general guidelines. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Cardiac procedure helps Cumru man keep active lifestyle - Reading Eagle Posted: 22 Feb 2010 09:28 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. William R. Norton lived with the symptoms of cardiac arrhythmia for 25 years, working harder and harder to keep up with his busy and satisfying life. Norton, 60, of Cumru Township, suffers from atrial fibrillation, a common form of arrhythmia that causes rapid, irregular heartbeat and can put patients at risk of blood clots and stroke. A longtime runner and race walker who also restores antique motorcycles, sings in his church's choir, dotes on his family, holds a full-time job, cares for a sizeable property and embarks on adventures when they present themselves, the symptoms became less and less tolerable as the condition worsened. "It was just horrible," Norton said. "My training was awful, and I couldn't get anything done. I'd come home after work and have to take a long nap. That just isn't me. I don't like to sit around." Norton lived with irregular heartbeat for a long time, receiving drug therapy and undergoing electric-shock treatment to restore normal heart rhythm. While those therapies didn't prevent the arrhythmia, they allowed him to continue with his life, which included his job as a commissioned boiler inspector, spending time with his family and training for a 1,000-mile walk he had decided to take to raise money for a 9-year-old British boy who suffers from cerebral palsy. This past August, however, Norton found himself becoming increasingly unable to keep up with normal activities, much less his intensive training program. He started to doubt that he'd be able to accomplish the charity walk, which is planned for April in the United Kingdom. "It was August, and I knew I had to do something," Norton recalled. "I knew I wouldn't be able to do the walk in the condition I was in, and this walk really means a lot to me. " Norton was referred to Dr. Antony F. Chu, a physician with Cardiology Associates of West Reading and director of atrial fibrillation at Reading Hospital. While Norton was discouraged and wondering about his future, Chu was optimistic and confident that he could help. Chu, a good natured, personable doctor who is known as "the electrician" because of his work with the heart's electrical systems and impulses, and whose background includes a year-long stint as a driver of an Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, took time to educate Norton about his condition, and outlined possibilities for treatment. Together they decided a feasible option for Norton was to undergo atrial fibrillation ablation, a procedure that stops electrical impulses from getting to the part of the heart where the fibrillation occurs, therefore preventing the arrhythmia from occurring. "I felt really comfortable with Dr. Chu because he explained everything and told me about the risks involved and what I might expect," Norton said. "We worked together on this." After reviewing the risks and possible benefits, Norton decided to have the ablation, which was performed in October in Reading Hospital. He stayed overnight for two nights, and was readmitted for another night due to a complication from the procedure, but was back at work within five days and has never looked back. "I'm thrilled with what they did," Norton said. "I'm finally getting back to where I was, and it's made all the difference. I would tell anybody who's living with this (atrial fibrillation) to look into having it (ablation) done." And so, Norton is back to working on his motorcycles; building a car he hopes to race in a future Duryea Hill Climb event; enjoying time with his wife, Charlene; and training for his 30-day, 1,000-mile trek through Scotland and England. Norton plans to walk for Sam Williams, the 9-year-old grandson of a British friend Norton met at a Vincent Motorcycle owners' rally in England, who suffers from cerebral palsy. The trek from John O. Groats in the northeast corner of Scotland, to Land's End, Cornwall, in the southwest of England, is a challenging course for runners, walkers, cyclists and other adventure seekers. The route passes directly through Loch Ness, where Norton is hoping to encounter a certain resident of high repute. "I'm not at all suspicious or anything, but I really believe in that Loch Ness monster, and I really want to see it," he said. Whether or not "Nessie" appears, Norton is confident in his ability to complete the trip, during which he'll need to walk about 30 miles a day for 30 days. While six months ago he was discouraged and thinking about giving up on his dream, he now has the heart for the challenge - in more ways than one. Contact Susan Shelly: life@readingeagle.com.
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| 'Twenteens' and new age marketing - Rediff Posted: 22 Feb 2010 09:35 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
The two meet informally in office, outside office and even at Srinivas' home over beer. Srinivas tries to learn at these meetings what young people want, how they live, what is important for them - the zeitgeist. Amongst other things, Sharma taught Srinivas how to download videos on the net, and how perceptions can be gauged on blogosphere. This made Srinivas mine blogs for what people thought of Airtel broadband. What he saw made his set up. While traditional research showed all was well, blog after blog said that the speed was slow. Instantly, he doubled the speeds at all price points. The quality of reviews on blogs began to pick up. Srinivas targets consumers between 12 and 25 for his broadband service, and says Sharma has helped him hone his skills. "I have learnt that these people are more individualistic and impatient. They want everything here and now," says he. Mentors like Sharma were appointed to six senior Bharti Airtel managers last year, after a youngster took them through the finer aspects of Formula One racing. Today, there are at least 40 senior managers in the company across all services with such a mentor. "From a pilot a year ago, it has become a way of live for senior and mid-level managers in the company," says Srinivas. Marketers across sectors like two-wheelers, telecom, lifestyle and fast-moving consumer goods now have on their crosshairs young men and women between 20 and 30 years of age. Dentsu India Chairman Sandeep Goyal calls them the "Twenteens". "They have the attitude and mindset of a teenager, and money in their pockets," says he. Products and services are specially crafted with them in mind. Walk into any lifestyle store, and you can find the new wisdom in the selection of the staff (anybody above 30 is out), the music that plays, the way the merchandise is displayed, the motifs on the wall et al. Campaigns are tailored to their tastes and habits. Celebrities that connect better with the youth are in hot demand: Mahendra Singh Dhoni [ Images ], Ranbir Kapoor [ Images ] and Genelia [ Images ] D'Souza, to name a few. Advertising and market research agencies are busy researching this set of consumers. Watch out: If the profile of your brand reads 30 plus, you are dead. How big is this market? According to the National Council of Applied Economic Research, 37.9 per cent of the 1.2 billion Indians in December 2009 fell in this category. (The National Youth Policy puts down everybody from 13 to 35 as youth.) More important, 72.8 per cent of these people are literate. This makes them impressionable consumers. Conventional wisdom tells us that people below 30 are ready to experiment with new products, formats and ideas, and their willingness to take risks is higher than people above that age. So, their psychographic profile is different. Unlike teenagers, companies and brands need not talk to them through their parents. They like to take their own decisions. All this needs to be mapped. Getting a fix The company then does satisfaction studies on its customers. All advertisements are first run on target groups before they are launched on the mass media. "The insights have helped us sharply position our products in the market, based not on price but on the need," says Hero Honda Senior Vice-president (marketing & sales) Anil Dua. Ogilvy & Mather has worked overtime to understand the youth. "Every team is sensitised. To follow the youth, we follow media content from TV shows such as MTV Roadies and Indian Idol [ Images ], and teenage magazines," says O&M Country Head (discovery & planning) Madhukar Sabnavis. In fact, the agency wants to catch the Twenteens in their formative years. "Throughout last year, our teams spent time at their homes and hangouts such as college canteens. We have spoken to disc jockeys and talent managers for insights," says Sabnavis. "We befriended users and observed their online interaction to understand them better. This helped us understand the impressions the teenagers carry forward as young adults." Dentsu too has put together a suite of services. Last year, it came out with a Youth Tracker on the use of digital media by the youth. It has listed 36 contact points which can be used while marketing to the youth. "We tell companies how they can raise the experience at these interaction points," says Goyal. For all its customers, it has done a primer on the digital social media. The networked world As much as 80 per cent of Virgin Mobile's customers are below 30. The fetish to network shows in usage patterns. The youth, according to estimates of the telecom industry, spend about Rs 500 a month on mobile phones, which is higher than the national average. They SMS three times more than the average person, and their long-distance calls last 20 to 30 per cent longer than others. They use it as an alarm first thing in the morning! There's more. Analysis of broadband usage, says Srinivas of Bharti Airtel, shows that average data download has shot up from 2 gigabytes a month two years ago to 8 gigabytes now, and average speed has shot up from under 256 kilobytes per second eight months ago to 400 kilobytes now. Peer-to-peer data sharing (mail, movies, pictures et al) takes 35 per cent of the bandwidth. "There is an explosion in data download; YouTube (the video-sharing site) is the most accessed site on Airtel broadband," says Srinivas. Most companies are still trying to understand how to incorporate the digital social media in their marketing plans. How to get a brand message inside? Is it intrusive? Do youngsters expect advertisements on these sites? While most companies grapple with these issues, the smarter ones have already done that. Samsung, for instance, late last year launched the Corby range of mobile phones targeted at the youth, which comes preloaded with the popular social networking sites. Most marketers put their films on YouTube as soon as they break on television. Bharti Airtel even launched its broadband campaign, Impatience is the New Life, first on the net. The company reasoned that the target for the service, the youth, is likely to notice it first on the net. The same logic made it advertise its twitter on mobile service exclusively on the net. This shows how the media consumption of the youth is different from others. The print media seems to be losing out to the electronic media. Goyal calls them the ScreenAgers. "There are four screens that are important for the youth: The mobile phone, computer, television and film," says he. Much of this insight was used by Dentsu when Aircel launched nationwide last year. The market place was crowded and it was in desperate need of a differentiator. So, it bundled internet into its service. "The pocket internet service has helped Aircel enlist better customers. Two million of its 30 million customers use the internet service, which is better than others," Goyal adds. The novelty factor Perfetti uses market research agencies like Nielsen, TNS and Grey Cell to map youth behaviour. To ensure newness and freshness all the time, it realised that it has to make its brand communication cutting edge. And for that, Suneja says it is important to have a corporate culture that is not stiff. To keep his youthful marketing team (the average age is below 30) buzzing with ideas, Suneja encourages it to experiment; failures are not held against it. "It's all about how do you work fast and forget fast. We don't shoot the agency or the director if a film does not work." Like Perfetti, all Virgin Mobile communication, according to Narsimhan, is put through four filters: It should be bold, it has to be a catalyst, it has to be fun and cheeky, and it must talk to people rather than talk down to them. "We are willing to go to areas that are a taboo for the society but not for the youth. So while we don't show the middle finger, we are a brand that's willing to be different." And, like Perfetti, Virgin Mobile is a young team - the average age is between 25 and 30. The marketing team of Levi's is between 28 and 30, and its designers between 22 and 30. "We keep our culture young," says Levi's Director (marketing) Shyam Sukhramani, "by keeping everything casual. All executives wear jeans and T-shirts; this keeps the workplace innovative. We want it to be the opposite of formal." Last year, the company tied up with banks so that people could buy its denims on installments. When the Apple iPod was launched, it added a slot in the denims to keep the machine. Youth appeal It showed that they find it engaging but feel it is presented in a traditional and unimaginative way. The big question in their mind was does it work? This is when Dabur revamped its packs, gave its logo a contemporary feel and begin to talk about the benefits of its products in advertisements. This was supported by huge on-ground activation. Dabur Amla hair oil began to hold rural beauty pageants for young women, and Dabur Gulabari (rose water) started a Miss Fresh Face contest for girls between 17 and 18. The age of the brands across the board, claims Sitaram, has dropped sharply since then. "From 50 to 55, the average is now 30 to 35 years,' says he. The rush to connect with the youth has caused a churn in the world of brand ambassadors as well. Companies nowadays track, first and foremost, the youth appeal of any celebrity. Dabur, thus, has begun to transition from Amitabh Bachchan [ Images ] to Dhoni for its chyawanprash as well as honey, though research shows that nobody communicates a message better than Bachchan, especially to the housewife. LG, the largest consumer electronics company in the market, found that its brand was talking only to people above 30 - most buyers of consumer electronics fall in that age bracket. If it wants to make a splash in mobile handsets also, it has to change that perception. The company thus has taken on board three youthful brand ambassadors from filmdom - John Abraham [ Images ], Genelia D'Souza and Abhay Deol [ Images ]. Horses for courses "They, even in small towns, actually look up to role models from their families or acquaintances, such as an uncle, who they can relate to better. These come up in in-depth discussions." This is the reason why, Sabnavis adds, youth brands such as Bingo, Bajaj [ Images ] Pulsar and Fastrack have struck a chord with customers despite not using celebrities. "There is also an opportunity to be a brand that can be a mentor. There is a lot of insecurity among the youth because of an insecure environment. They might talk confidently but live in fear of being left behind, of slipping behind if they take a wrong turn." Similarly, Hero Honda, when it launched the CD Deluxe, realised that there was a surge of pride in India among the youth who were increasingly regarding opportunities abroad as redundant. To capture this buoyancy, it decided to talk about the 'New Indian' in the campaign for the new motorcycle. Celebrities had to take the back seat. Wide exposure has also made the Twenteens value-conscious individuals. "They know rates across the spectrum and they work out the math. They know what they are getting, what they seek and they will not tolerate anything less. They feel they have the right to free stuff, which is why they are tough but rewarding customers," says Narsimhan of Is the youth one large market, or are there differences across regions? Dua of Hero Honda says there is a distinct difference in how young men buy motorcycles in urban and rural markets. "Those in villages will check with the local mechanic and acquaintances, though the mass media is important for him. In contrast, an urban youth would refer to specialist magazines on bikes to reach a decision," says he. So, the company holds seminars for mechanics in semi-urban and rural areas to build a relationship with them. "We also make sure that we focus on vernacular dailies when we launch. Our interactions with opinion leaders such as village headmen also help," adds Dua. Even the urban youth is not one large monolithic segment. "Two of our mid-premium bikes, the CBZ Extreme and Hunk, are similarly priced but targeted at different groups. While the former is for 'sharp shooters' who revel in a great riding experience and the pleasure of motion, the latter is for 'hulks' who want to show off its looks even when stationary," says Dua. At the dealerships, the salespeople are trained to understand the different personalities of the customers who walk in. Queries such as 'what interests you more, long treks or hanging around the college?' help the staff with clues to the buyer's nature. While a trekker would be directed towards a CBZ Extreme in the mid-segment, the Hunk would be ideal for those who hang out with friends. Sitaram of Dabur says that the emergence of regional electronic media has begun to spawn sub-cultures, which marketers need to address now. Dabur, for instance, is toying with the idea of different advertisements for each region, rather than shoot one and dub it in different languages. "The regional markets have become large enough to afford that," says he. That could be the next big trend. 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| 2010 The Tough One Results - Motorcycle USA Posted: 22 Feb 2010 08:16 PM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it.
Great Britain's nastiest race took place last weekend with plenty of slime at the Nantmawr Quarry in Shropshire to keep competitors on their best behavior. Defending champion, Taddy Blazusiak, sat out the event due to a recent flu virus, and that allowed David Knight to manhandle his way to the top. As an Isle of Man native, this is about as close to home as it gets for Knighter who recently rejoined KTM via the Farioli Racing team. The Manxman took advantage of being on home turf and proved his switch back to KTM was a smart one. Knight finished 14 laps with a time of just over two hours (2:04:04) which was 10 minutes ahead of second place. Tom Sagar managed to stay on the leading loop, which is as close as anyone came to keeping the KTM leader in sight. Racing for Fast Eddy Suzuki, Sagar opted for the new fuel-injected RM-Z250 rather than his customary RMX450Z which he's contesting the British Enduro Championship with. "I was pretty comfortable throughout the event and chased David right up until the final lap when I realized my position was safe and backed off. I chose to ride the all-new RM-Z250 for this event, which was ideal for the tricky conditions and general nature of the Tough One. I'm really looking forward to getting back on the RMX450Z for the first round of the British Enduro Championship this weekend." World Trials ace, Dougie Lampkin, was unable to match the 14-lap pace and only completed 13 circuits with a time of 2:04:28. His performance was good enough for a trip to the podium. Several big names finished down in the standings. BMW's extreme enduro superstar, Andreas Lettenbichler, was unable to reproduce his victorious results from the 2009 Romaniacs Rally event, finishing 12th with 12 laps completed. KTM ace Chris Birch only managed 10 laps and Sherco's Graham Jarvis succumbed after only nine, finishing 22nd and 24th, respectively. On a side note, Juan Knight, David's older brother, came out to give it a shot and scored seventh on his Gas Gas – not bad for a guy who doesn't race and is considered primarily a trail rider. David admits that Juan was always more naturally talented and his older sibling is responsible for helping push David to such meteoric heights.
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Companies across sectors want to sell to the youth. Do they know what young men and women want? | You are subscribed to email updates from Add Images to any RSS Feed To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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