Significance of the Black Death - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 973 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2018/12/26 Category History Essay Type Research paper Level High school Tags: Death Essay Did you like this example? One of the well known massive disasters that happened in the history of European is the Black Death. This fatal plague led to huge loss of between 17 million and 28 million lives in whole Europe. It took place from 1345 to 1353 and the death arrived by sea during the time when twelve Genoese trading ships had actually docked at the Sicilian port after travelling through the Black Sea. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Significance of the Black Death" essay for you Create order A horrifying surprise befell the individuals who were gathering on the docks when they realized that a great number of sailors had died, and the lucky sailors were extremely ill. In addition, they were covered by mysterious black boils which oozed pus and blood (Cohn, pg 514). This is why they named this kind of illness as theBlack Death. Then what followed were other various symptoms such as vomiting, fever, diarrhea, chills, severe aches and extraordinary pains- and then death. What is the significance of Black Death to the Italy, Russia and the entire Europe? This gravely illness had great impacts. In fact, the gruesome signs and deadliness, have over time fixed the Black Death in very extraordinary imagination among many people. Over decades scholars has discovered various impacts of the disease on the economy, social and cultural lives of the natives of the affected areas. It is clear that the Black Death is important to the Europeans because it changed their economy to better. This essay analyzes the Black Death and also illustrated the significance of the plague. The Black Death is very significant to the Europeans in that its timing led a superficial labeling because it was the turning point for many natives of Europe. The plague portrayed an economic history of Europeans changing to almost inevitable because the urban life had reemerged, manufacturing and textile companies as well as better businesses innovated, increased population, long distance trade revived and agricultural farming grew. This is from the fact that the disease had arrived nearly at high middle Ages (c. 1000 to c. 1300). The impact of the Black Death on trade can be said to be full due though it strengthens the variety of the effect of the plague from industry to industry, merchant to merchant as well as from city to another. It portrays that failure or success was likely to happen after the illness and the game favored, opportunity, adaptability, foresight, nimbleness and creativity. This is proved by the fact that when magna pestilence had already passed, the entire city continued with supply of labor more decimated than in countryside, simply because of the great number of rate of urban death (Gottfried et. al, pg 817). However, the city could attract new labor from country side so as to make sure that they reverse the initial condition. Now in the new era portrayed by Black Death, the business techniques and new valuable judgments are perfected by many in Italy. They found great opportunities within the diversity and actually made use of the chance and became successful. They learn that a success ful businessman need to manage and control risks, and make use of the any opportunity that comes on their way. The Plague of the Black Death has led to great contribution to popular revolution. In fact, it is clear that it led to expansion of the perspectives of the many peasants in Europe. In addition, it also fueled some sense of criticism hence leading to great changes in the society. However, probably in one way or the other, this plague may have undercut the level of devotion. This is because there was a certain myth that preserving manorial economic-social arrangements was very vital to living of everyone in the entire society. That is why we see social revolutionary of preachers such as John Ball of England. However, after the disease, change seemed to become inevitable as well as apparent to everybody (Benedictow, pg 923). The reconstructuring influenced by Black Death portrays that the chances and possibility of better economies in many parts of Europe such as Italy. The fatal disease had returned to Europe and destroyed individuals but not property. Moreover, there was just a small population left alive which could not actually exploit all the resources in the Europe. The statistics record that the available resources were by then far more substantial by an approximately 1354 than they were in the last one and half decades. From this kind of surrounding, many of those who were lucky enough to survive also benefited greatly from the improved technologies and also new advanced commercial skills which had developed during high Middle Ages. This improved their living standards. In one way or the other, we can conclude that Black Death was just a mere cataclysmic occurrence and also lowering of expenditure was inevitable indeed. But it greatly reduced economic impediments and gave room for new opportuniti es for many people in Europe- especially the businesspeople (Nohl et. al, pg 1342). In conclusion, the plague of the Black Death is very important to the history of the Europeans. Despite the very many new ways of understanding its significance and its wonders, the plague shows some effects or impact on the social, economic and political lives of the people in the society. Now that many people did not understand this kind of disease, many though it was a punishment from God for their sins such as heresy, greed, fornication and worldliness, they believed that the only way to overcome Gods Wrath was through repentance. Hence the Europeans society learnt the importance of doing the right things. Work cited Benedictow, Ole Jrgen.? The Black Death: the complete history. Boydell Brewer, 2004. Cohn, Sam.? The Black Death transformed: disease and culture in early Renaissance Europe. Arnold, 2002. Gottfried, Robert S.? Black death. Simon and Schuster, 2010. Nohl, Johannes, and Charles Humphrey Clarke. The Black Death. A Chronicle of the Plague.? The Black Death. A Chronicle of the Plague.? (2000).

The University Of Arkansas Maps With The Locations Of The...

Figure 1. The University of Arkansas maps with the locations of the ten team of massages therapists. These locations can vary by the request of the administration of the University of Arkansas. The project is administered on a basis schedule format: Monday to Friday from 1:00 A.M. to 10 P.M in each location on regular semesters. However, the numbers of 10 head massages team will be reduced to five in summer classes session on the selected schedule: Monday to Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M in five of the selected buildings. The locations are the classes area where summer classes are given in summer. Our special offer is to provide the service on the special basis schedule: 11:00 A.M. to 10 P.M. during the previous week and the week†¦show more content†¦UREC massage is provided to Students, but it also provided to faculty, staff, Arkansas Alumni Association members, and associated spouse/partners. Both of the existing massages locations provide their service between 9:30 to 9:30, which vary depends on the availability of the therapists or appointments. One of the aspects o f the head massages program that differ from the UREC massages is appointments, which is not required in this project. Any student can approach our therapists and ask for the 15 minutes of massage by providing his/her student identification card. The other aspect is the availability to obtain a quick relaxing massage. The UREC program offers the massage service for an hour per client and the head massages program offers the massage service for a limited time: 15 minutes per student. UREC massage and the Wellness center- massage prices (weekly) Head massage project the massage prices (weekly) Hours per week 45 Average price (one hour) x 50.00 Weekly massage cost 2,250.00 Hours per week 45 Average price (one hour) x 40.00 Weekly massage cost 1,800.00 The main goal of the head massages project is to provide relaxing massages to students. However, this project has implemented to provide a service without requiring the administration of the university of Arkansas to provide or

Mars (2177 words) Essay Example For Students

Mars (2177 words) Essay MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the sun and orbits the sun at a distance of about 141 million mi. Mars is named for the Roman god of war because it appears fiery red in the earths night sky. Mars is a small planet that has about half the diameter of Earth and about one-tenth Earths mass. The force of gravity on the surface of Mars is about one-third of that on Earth. Mars has twice the diameter and twice the surface gravity of Earths moon. The surface area of Mars is almost exactly the same as the surface area of the dry land on Earth. The Martian day, or the time it takes Mars to rotate once on its axis, is about a half an hour longer than an Earth day. Its year, or the time it takes to revolve once around the sun, is about two Earth years long. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. THE INTERIOR OF MARS Scientists believe that Marss interior consists of a crust, mantle, and core like Earths interior, but they do not know the relative sizes of these components. Because no spacecraft has ever brought instruments that can study Marss interior to the planet, the only real data that scientists have about the planets structure are its mass, size, and the structure of the gravity field. Compared to Earth, Mars probably has a relatively thick crust. Beneath the surface is an area of volcanic activity in the northern hemisphere, it may be as thick as 80 mi. Beneath the landing site of the United States spacecraft Viking 2, it may be as thin as 9 mi. The core is probably consists of mostly iron, with a small amount of nickel. Other light elements, mainly sulfur, could exist in the core also. If so, the core may be quite large. Mars does not have a significant magnetic field, so scientists believe that Marss core is probably solid. Mars does not, and probably did not ever, have active plate tectonics. Because Mars is so much smaller than Earth, it must cooled quickly after formation and the crust thickened, forming one solid piece and eliminating any possibility of plate tectonics as it was on and still is on Earth. Though the Martian crust is not broken into separate plates, Marss liquid mantle has sculpted the planets surface. The molten rock has broken through the crust to form volcanoes and its motion has cracked the crust to form large rifts. THE SURFACE OF MARS The surface of Mars would be a harsh place for humans, but it is more like the surface of Earth than any other planet. The temperature on Mars does not get much cooler than the temperature at Antarctica. At the surface it ranges from about -140? C to 15? C (about -225? F to 60? F). During most of the year wind speeds are normally low around 4.5 mph, but during dust storms they can approach 40 to 50 mph. These winds often originate in large basins i n the southern hemisphere and carry large volumes of dust from the basins to other regions, sometimes covering the entire planet in the storm. The dust is not sandy, as in a sandstorm on the earth, but has the consistency of flour. The northern and southern hemispheres of Mars have different characteristics. The southern hemisphere has many impact craters and has a generally much higher elevation than the northern hemisphere. The southern highlands are probably the oldest ground on Mars. The northern hemisphere of Mars contains a much wider variety of geologic features, including large volcanoes, a great rift valley, and a variety of channels. The northern hemisphere also contains large expanses of relatively featureless plains. Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons. It is 16 mi high (almost twice as high as the earths Mount Everest) and covers an area comparable to the state of Arizona. Near it, three other volcanoes almost as large-Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, and Ascraeus Mons-form a line running from southwest to northeast. These four volcanoes are the most noticeable features of a large bulge in the surface of Mars, called Tharsis. Another volcano, Alba Patera, is also part of the Tharsis bulge, but is quite different in appearance. It is probably less than 4 mi high, but has a diameter of 1000 mi. None of Marss volcanoes appear to be active. Los Angeles Politics EssayPast Space StationsOne past space station is Mir. Mir was a Russian space station designed to provide long-term accomodations for crewmembers while they orbit the earth. Mir was launched on Febraury 19, 1986. Crewmwmbers reached Mir aboard Soyuz spacecraft and, more more recently thtrough an American space program aboard a spaceshuttle. Mir was the first space station designed for expansion and was originally only a single module. Now Mir consists of seven modules. Mir replaced the Salyut series of space stations as the most important part of the Russian manned space program. The Salyut series of space stations were smaller and simpler stations that helped develop most of the technology needed to build Mir. The Mir space station is composed of seven modules that together weigh about 109,000 kg and are about 19 m long without any visiting spacecraft. The Mir core module is the control center and living quarters for the Mir station. The 20-ton module measures about 4.18 m in width and about 13 m in length. At each end of the main part is a hatch fitted to connect with other spacecraft called a docking port. The rear port leads through a tunnel into the living compartment, which contains a kitchen, exercise equipment, two sleeping compartments that are smaller than phone booths, and a toilet stall. Mirs first crew was Salyut 7 veterans Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov. They flew to the Mir core module in the Soyuz-T 15 spacecraft in March 1986 to activate and check Mirs systems. They undocked and flew to the abandoned Salyut 7 station to salvage scientific equipment and dropped off the recovered equipment at Mir. They returned to earth in July 1986. Mir flew unmanned until February 1987. Except for two short periods from July 1986 to February 1987 and from March 1989 to September 1989, Mir has been staffed without interruption. Normally, teams of two or three cosmonauts work on board in six-month shifts. There are, however, occasional exceptions. For example, medical doctor Valeri Polyakov set a new world space-endurance record by living on Mir for 438 days-long enough for a spacecraft to travel to Mars. During that time, Polyakov studied his bodys reactions to prolonged weightlessness. He returned to earth aboard Soyuz-TM 20 in March 1995. With him was Yelena Kondakova, the first woman to complete a long-duration stay in space. She lived aboard Mir for 168 days. Also in March 1995, U.S. astronaut Norman Thagard began a 114-day Mir flight, breaking the U.S. 84-day space-endurance record set on Skylab in 1974. Thagard reached Mir on Soyuz-TM 21 with cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Gennadi Strekalov. He returned to earth with his Russian crewmates on the space shuttle Atlantis, which docked with Mir for the first time on June 29, 1995. Since Thagards visit, six other U.S. astronauts have lived on Mir. German astronaut Thomas Reiter arrived at Mir aboard Soyuz-TM 22 in September 1995. He returned to earth in February 1996, after 179 days in space, having completed two space walks to install European instruments outside of the station. Mir was over a decade old when its career was nearing an end. In 1997 the station experienced a small fire, failure of the oxygen generation system, a temperature-control failure that made the living quarters uncomfortably warm, failures of Mirs main computer and navigation system, and a collision with a supply ship. None of the onboard cosmonauts and astronauts were hurt, but the incidents caused crew members and engineers to monitor the stations condition more closely. Just as scientific equipment from Salyut 7 was transferred to Mir, equipment from Mir will be transferred to Mirs planned follower ship, the International Space Station (ISS), at the end of Mirs career. Space shuttle missions to Mir ended in mid-1998 and the first component of ISS was scheduled for launch in late 1998. ISS was assembled in orbit from U.S., Russian, European, Japanese, and Canadian parts. BibliographyScience

Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath Essays - Literature, Sylvia Plath

Lady Lazarus By Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath uses a diverse array of stylistic devices in Lady Lazarus, among them allusion, apostrophe, extended metaphor, and irony, in order to develop the speaker as a character. Those three poetic devices are particularly evident in lines 65-79 ofLady Lazarus. In the New Testament of the Bible, Lazarus is a man who rises from the dead at the command of Jesus Christ (John 11:38). The title of this poem, Lady Lazarus(the Lady without a doubt referring to Plath herself, as this is an example of confessional poetry; the Lazarus being an allusion to the biblical figure) is an accurate indicator of the content of the poem. Lady Lazarus is about Plaths third attempt at suicide, and her subsequent resurrection. In lines 65-79, Plath develops the speakers contempt for the doctors who brought her back to life. Through this, Plath develops the characters paranoia. In lines 65-66 Plath uses apostrophe to address those doctors: So, so, Herr Doktor / So, so Herr Enemy. To her, the doctors are enemies- in the stanza previous to this line, she establishes the doctors as nearly vulture-like. Lines 61-64 state, And there is a charge, a very large charge / For a word or a touch / Or a bit of blood / Or a piece of hair on my clothes.Assonance (charge, large charge) is used in this example in a mocking fashion towards the doctors. Lines 67-68 establish the speakers fear that her fate is being used by the doctors for gain in the field of science: I am your opus / I am your valuable. Later, the speaker-characters contempt of the doctors that Plath has established is tied in to a Nazi allusion, which augments this concept. In lines 73-78, Plath writes, Ash, ash--- / You poke and stir / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there--- / A cake of soap / A wedding ring / A gold filling. This allusion to Nazis (wedding rings and gold fillings were harvested from the im prisoned Jews during the Holocaust, and their remains were used for soap) is also an example of an extended metaphor. The Nazi metaphor is, in fact, extended over other Plath poems as well- notably Daddy. This portion of Lady Lazarus serves to elucidate the confusion of the speakers character as well. This is accomplished through Plaths use of irony. It is ironic that the speaker refers to doctors who resurrected her life as Nazis, Enemies, and even Lucifer (the devil) in line 79. In lines 65-79 of Lady Lazarus, Plath employs poetic devices such as allusion, apostrophe, extended metaphor and irony in order to develop the confusion, paranoia, and contempt in the character of the speaker- who is, of course, Plath herself. Poetry Essays

Raccoons essays

Raccoons essays Raccoons breed between January and March, the peak is around Feburary. The male raccoon pairy only to mate, and they don't form long term pair bonds with the female. The females pregnancy only lasts nine weeks, and the young begin to follow their mothers on excursions by early June. Younger female raccoon's breed at a lower rate and have smaller litters than do older adult females.Less than 70% of younger females are bred, with an average litter size of 3.3 young. 95% of adult females are bred, and have an average of 4 young per litter. Breeding by adult females is normally constant from year to year, while breeding by the younger ones can be different. The youngers ones' breeding rates are suppose to reflect the severity of the previous winter and the overall health of the population. The major causes of mortality for raccoons in the Midwest are fur harvest, getting run over by a vehical, and diseases. Starvation is pretty rare. As fur harvest decreases, mortality from other causes will likely increase. The most common disease in raccoons is canine distemper. Although the symptoms for distemper are similar to those of rabies, raccoons are hardly ever diagnosed as having rabies. In the wild, raccoons are found along streams and lakes near wooded areas. You may also find them on inhabit urban, residential, and recreational areas. Raccoons are not particular about den sites and some of them use tree hollows, hollow logs, caves,rock crevices, holes in the ground, and sometimes storm sewers. They don'ot dig their own burrows. Raccoons use rock dens most often during winter, probably because rock dens offer warm, stable temperatures, are secure, and are large enough for communal denning. Believe it or not, I absolutely loved this article. When I was a younger I had a raccoon as a pet. To learn all of this new information is relatively interresting and allows me to understand why Sassy, my raccoon, was the way she was. ...

Audi Research Paper Essays

Audi Research Paper Essays Audi Research Paper Essay Audi Research Paper Essay Investor Relations Corporate strategy Vision: â€Å"Audi – the premium brand† In adopting its Strategy 2020, the Audi Group has focused its core brand Audi on the challenges of the future. The strategy took on firmer contours during 2011 as the full potential of the mission â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† was explored in greater depth. It now gives more weight to new issues that have emerged as a result of heightened environmental awareness, growing uncertainty about the future availability of fossil fuels and increasing urbanization. The Audi brand’s strategy 2020 Mission: â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† The Audi brand’s products are compelling examples of the brand values sportiness, progressiveness and sophistication. In addition to building technologically advanced vehicles, the brand with the four rings aims to evoke customer delight in many other ways. The mission statement â€Å"We delight customers worldwide† therefore plays a key role on the path to becoming the leading premium brand. The Audi brand has defined its understanding of customer delight in greater detail in the following four areas of action: * We define innovation We create experiences * We live responsibility * We shape Audi We define innovation The declared ambition of the Audi brand to offer its customers high-quality, innovative vehicles is expressed in the brand essence â€Å"Vorsprung durch Technik. † This is accompanied by a clear design idiom that gives the brand’s progressive character a visual grounding. The models of the Audi brand feature a wide range of technological innovations. The Company has defined various key technologies that will occupy a special role in the development of new vehicles. For example, all activities involving electric mobility will be grouped together under the umbrella brand Audi e-tron. Audi ultra embodies the lightweight-construction technology that the Audi brand has been pioneering ever since launching the  Audi Space Frame  (ASF) in 1994. The brand has since intensified its activities in this field with a view to making vehicles ever lighter. Today, the Company focuses on the use of intelligent combinations of materials, which include aluminum, carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP), modern steel alloys and magnesium. Then there is Audi connect, the umbrella brand launched by the Company to bracket together trendsetting navigation and infotainment functions, as well as technologies that connect drivers with the Internet, the car and their surroundings. In addition to product-based innovations, the Audi brand is working on new mobility concepts. Since 2011, for example, customers’ mobility behavior in electrically powered cars has been the subject of a study that is part of the A1 e-tron fleet trial in Munich. We create experiences To delight its customers time and time again, the Company aims to create special, positive experiences that customers will associate with the Audi brand. These include modern sales concepts such as the showroom configurator, which makes it quick and easy for visitors to an Audi dealership to create the Audi vehicle of their choice on large screens, with life-like, three-dimensional images. In 2011, the Audi brand came up with a very special way of presenting its new Q3 premium SUV: the â€Å"Audi Q3 Cube. In selected downtown districts of major cities, including Barcelona, Paris and Munich, customers and interested parties were given the opportunity to discover the Q3’s qualities in a mirror-filled cube up to 14 meters high. Another way of experiencing the Audi brand emotionally is to collect a new car in person from the Audi Forums in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm. Audi’s premium vehicle handover facilities demonstrate to the customer just how much care and precision go i nto building Audi vehicles. The program is rounded out by a look at the history of the Company and culinary delights. To make the experience even more special, customers can tailor the handover to their own individual preferences. Accompanied by a customer relationship manager throughout the entire day, they are given a personal tour of the factory, making the occasion a truly memorable one. We live responsibility The Audi brand also expresses customer delight through a form of corporate responsibility that seeks to strike an appropriate balance between social or ecological requirements and economic success. In order to maintain the high regard in which the brand and the Company are held and increase their lead over the competition, Audi has created a department specifically to address this task. Hand in hand with all the divisions, the Corporate Responsibility department pursues the strategic goal of value orientation. It advocates responsible action and behavior as the basis for sustainable success. The core management tasks of Corporate Responsibility also include defining strategic guidelines and decision-making criteria. These guidelines are derived from the Strategy 2020 goals and are intended to highlight the link between social responsibility, preserving resources and long-term economic activity. As a global company with nearly 64,000 employees, the Audi Group is very much in the public eye. Its capacity to supply information and reports on corporate responsibility matters is therefore being further expanded. We shape Audi The Audi brand will continue steadily with its model initiative and expand its development, manufacturing and corporate structures accordingly. In order to maintain its profitable growth, the Audi Group will focus even more closely on flexible, efficient processes, as well as strengthening its global presence and expertise. Product and investment decisions will continue to be made on the basis of how far they produce customer benefit. Successfully accomplishing qualitative growth hinges on the employees, who demonstrate immense expertise and passion for the products of the Audi brand. Superior financial strength In keeping with a value-oriented corporate management approach, growth only meets the premium standards of the Audi Group if it is simultaneously profitable. Qualitative growth is therefore a priority strategic corporate goal. This is achieved through effective and efficient structures and processes, systematic investment management and the ongoing optimization of costs. A high level of self-financing helps to preserve the Company’s ability to invest and act. It therefore fundamentally aims to finance investment from self-generated cash flow. Continuous growth The Audi brand achieved a new deliveries record in 2011 in selling a total of more than 1. 3 million vehicles. This positive development is primarily attributable to the attractive, diverse product range, which was again continuously revitalized and broadened in the period under review. In addition to the successor generation to the popular A6 full-size car line, product events included the arrival of the new Q3 premium SUV and the market introduction of the Q5 hybrid quattro. The Audi brand’s product range will continue to be progressively expanded. The Audi Group has set itself the goal of increasing deliveries of the Audi brand to 1. 5 million vehicles by 2015. The international sales structures will be expanded to handle the scheduled growth. The dealer network in China, for instance, is to be increased from currently around 230 dealerships to over 400 by the year 2013. And there are plans to expand the exclusive sales network in the United States, too, over the coming years. The Audi Group is also increasing its production capacity worldwide. Global image leader For a premium manufacturer, a strong brand is the basis for enduring success. The Audi Group therefore plans to establish an emotional bond between its customers and the brand and to keep steadily improving its image position through the attractive product range. The numerous national and international awards received in the 2011 fiscal year again reflect the public’s huge enthusiasm for the Audi brand. Attractive employer worldwide As part of its strategy to become the leading premium brand, the Audi Group regards well-qualified, committed employees as a priceless asset. Particularly as it becomes internationally more diverse, the Audi Group considers it vitally important to be viewed as an attractive employer worldwide. Against this backdrop, the Audi Group offers its workforce a stimulating working environment with attractive opportunities for development, commensurate pay and high job security. Regular internal surveys reveal a high level of employee satisfaction. In addition, external surveys have attested to the Audi Group’s high attractiveness as an employer both in Germany and internationally. * Print page * Bookmark page

Blue Ocean Strategy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Blue Ocean Strategy - Research Paper Example 2.0. Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid Table 1. Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid (ERRC) for Nintendo Wii  Eliminate Raise Game expansion packs Purchaser influence Simplicity / easy to play Reduce Create Gaming technology Health & lifestyle benefits Family experience 2.1. Eliminate Here BOS advances that Nintendo Wii has to look for those factors in the gaming industry that the industry has been competing on that can be done away with. Traditionally, in the Red Ocean, game expansion packs are utilised as a customer lock-in strategy. They are used to extend the gamers interest beyond the original version of the game. Nintendo Wii, unlike its competitors, does not offer expansion sets and this has enabled it to develop new value in two ways. Firstly, expansion sets lead to an extra cost to both manufacturer and users. By eliminating these expansion packs Nintendo Wii is able to save costs on production, distribution, promotion and sales. Secondly, these expansion sets needs serious gamers who are focused on extending their gaming experience beyond leisure. Expansion packs are also seen in some quarters as being as an unethical way of increasing customer loyalty through promotion of addiction (â€Å"Why are Video Games Addictive - Reasons & Theories,† 2011). The Wii targets the casual gamer who does not have that urge for an extended gaming experience. In fact, the Wii could use this to promote itself as the non-addictive gaming choice. 2.2. Reduce According to the Four Actions Framework at this juncture the Wii needs to determine whether products or services have been overdesigned in the race to match and beat the competition. Wii’s big competitors, Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360, have concentrated on differentiating their products through over-serving customers with provision of cutting-edge technologies such as increased graphics and HD. The benefits that these companies obtain through this strategy are marginal in comparison to the costs they incur. Kim and Mauborgne (2005) referred to this as increasing cost structure for no gain. PS3 and Xbox 360 are forced to provide cutting-edge game play because they are fighting over the same market of demanding, die-hard gamers. On the other hand, the Wii opted to focus on the three groups of noncustomers: those people at the market edge who are undecided, those that flat out refuse to purchase a Wii because they are committed to another system like the XBox 360, and the unexplored, who may not know about the Wii or possibly cannot afford it. Nintendo reduced their costs by going low tech and increased the value of the Wii by instead focusing on making it easy to understand, fun to play and highly interactive. According to Scott (2008) Nintendo expanded the market by making video games simpler and more accessible. 2.3. Raise As stated above the Wii utilised a strategy that was different from its rivals, focusing on raising the simplicity, fun an d interactivity of its games as its customer value proposition rather than using superior gaming technology as its value proposition. This is in line with the third action of the BOS Four Actions Framework which seeks to identify factors that need to be raised well-above the industry standards (Kim & Mauborgne,