The Jiggle Effect on Faster Weight Loss

Exercise Physiologists who study the effects of

exercise on weight loss, have determined that

the "jiggling" or shaking of excess body fat

when someone walks fast or jogs, in combination

with the muscle contractions invlovled in that

activity, causes weight loss. I call it the

"jiggle effect". :)

This effect is caused by chemical messengers in

the body - in response to the "jiggle" and

muscle contractions - they say, "hey body, this

person needs to be able to move more efficiently,

let's get rid of some of this fat". So, above

and beyond the normal caloric expenditure of that

activity, these chemical messengers cause fat

loss to happen more easily.

So, how can you take advantage of the "jiggle"

effect? The more you "jiggle", and the more

intense the muscle contractions, the more

pronounced the effect. Thus, faster walking

is better than slower walking, and a slow

jog is better than a fast walk. A good way

to incorporate this into your aerobic exercise

is to use "intervals".

As you may know, I believe in making "intervals"

a major part of your aerobic exercise sessions.

I've received lots of encouraging feedback from

my subscribers who have been very successful

with interval training. Here are a few of the

messages..

"Greg, Thanks for all your help. I took your

advice and started using intervals in my walking

sessions. Woooooo! The results have been

dramatic. First of all in the way I feel. I have

never really felt good after exercise, but now

I think I'm getting that "high" thing. I feel

fantastic. I am so much more energetic all

day long now.

I had been struggling at a weight loss plateau

but this got me over it and I'm consistently

losing two to three pounds a week. Thanks

for turning me on to this."

"Hello Greg, I read on your site about intervals

and decided to give it a try. I really can't

believe how different my exercise is now.

I have much more muscle tone, and I know

this sounds crazy, but some weeks my

weight loss just seems to take off. I love

this!"

"Greg, About three months ago I started doing

intervals as you suggested and I actually

look forward to exercise now. It makes the

time pass quickly and I really feel pumped

when I finish. Thanks for the recommendation."

I receive a few messages similar to these

every week. Are you ready to give "intervals"

a try? Here's how to get started..

Intervals are brief periods (about one minute)

of more intense exercise mixed into your

regular aerobic exercise sessions. For

example, if you're walking, you would do a

one minute interval of faster walking about

every five minutes throughout your exercise

session.

Here's how it will look.. you'll start with

your normal three to five minute warm-up and

then five minutes into your workout you do

your first interval, one minute of faster

walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of

that minute you should be "winded" and ready

to slow down. You'll slow down to your normal

exercising speed for the next four minutes

and then your fifth minute is another one

minute interval. This pattern continues

throughout your exercise session.

You'll derive several benefits from intervals..

1. Intervals can help you to get past a

weight loss plateau.

2. Intervals increase your aerobic fitness

level by "pushing the envelope". While doing

your interval you cross the anaerobic

threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing

your body to become conditioned to more

intense exercise.

3. Your increased level of fitness means that

a given level of exercise will feel easier

and that you will be able to exercise at a

higher intensity which "burns" more calories.

4. Your increased level of fitness also means

that you will be less fatigued from daily

activities and you'll have more "energy"

throughout the day.

5. Intervals increase your basal metabolic

rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories

24 hours-a-day.

6. Intervals cause you to "burn" more calories

during your exercise session and for several

hours afterwards.

7. Intervals will tone the involved muscles

to a greater degree than your regular aerobic

exercise would.

8. Intervals can make your exercise less

monotonous and help the time pass more

quickly.

9. Intervals will energize you!

10. Intervals will activate the "jiggle affect"

If you'd like to put a little excitement into

your exercise, and you're looking for better

results, give intervals, and "jiggling" a try!

copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S.

Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry,

offers free weight loss and fitness success stories

and targeted, highly affective weight loss programs

for women, men, type 2 diabetics, and people with

slow metabolisms and hypothyroidism..

http://www.Landry.com

Stress Management: 7 Universal Laws for Managing Change

1. The Law of Stagnation

This is also known as first order change. First order change is a type of change where there really is no change.

How's that again? Pretty foggy, huh?

Allow me to clear it up for you. Authors Waltzlawick, Weakland and Fisch, in their book "Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution" explain it this way:

"...A person having a nightmare can do many things in their dream - run, hide, fight, scream, jump off a cliff, etc. - but no change from any one of these behaviors to another would ever terminate the nightmare."

In other words, you can have lots of action and moving around, without any real change taking place.

A good example from the relationship world is the belief that ending one relationship for another will change everything and make you happy. Not necessarily. Remember these profound words of wisdom, "Wherever you go, you take yourself with you."

2. The Law of Transformation

This is also known as second order change. Again, according to the authors,

"The one way out of a dream involves a change from dreaming to waking. Waking, obviously, is no longer a part of the dream, but a change to a different state altogether."

In other words, transformation, or put more simply, real change, involves movement from one state to another.

3. The Law of The Clutch

This is also known as the law of conscious attention. Several years ago, the clutch went out on my two year old car. I asked the mechanic why this would happen so soon and he asked me a few questions about how I drive. It turns out I was a champion clutch rider. If it was possible for me to have the clutch in, it was in.

What's the point? Well, I found myself having to pay conscious attention to something I had been doing, kind of unconsciously, for years - driving.

There are times in our life where we have to pay conscious and careful attention to what we are doing and thinking in order to get the changes we want.

4. The Law of Others

Whenever you set out to change someone else, you are doomed to frustration and failure. The only person we can change is ourselves, and that's difficult enough sometimes.

5. The Law of Wet Diapers

The only person who always likes change is a wet baby. Sometimes change can be the last thing we want. At the same time, change is an inevitable part of our lives.

6. The Law of Waves

Like change, there are three ways to handle a wave: you can let it knock you down, you can survive it, or you can ride it and thrive. Only the wisest and most creative of people do the latter.

7. The Law of Kaleidoscopes

Remember the kaleidoscopes we played with as kids? You would look through the hole in the tube, turn the end of the tube and watch the colors change. Many times there would be a series of small shifts followed by a big shift in the picture.

That's often how we change as well. We make a series of small shifts leading to big changes.

So if you find yourself frustrated by only being able to make small changes, remember, big changes can be just one more small shift away.

Visit SecretsofGreatRelationships.com for tips and tools for creating and growing a great relationship. You can also subscribe to our f*r*e*e 10 day e-program on how to enrich your relationship today, from relationship coach and expert Jeff Herring.

HTML and Search Engine Optimization - What You Dont Know Can Kill You

When it comes to search engine optimization there is a lot of information available, some accurate, some not. If you really want to know what is going on regarding your website and how to best optimize it for good results with the search engines, you need to do some SEO research. Review the following suggestions and above all get your information verified from a variety of sites, don't just take one site's information as the truth and run with it because you could be running in the wrong direction.

-Frames Equal Death

If you are using frames on your website then your website is dead in the water when it comes to search engines. Frames cannot be indexed by the majority of search engines. Obviously this is bad because you want to be indexed by the search engines so eliminating frames from your website or building a new website without frames should be one of your major goals.

-No HTML Links

If you do not have HTML links on your site, but rather are using an image map from your homepage to your other pages then you might simply be asking the search engines to ignore these other web pages and these more than likely have some of your website's most important information. If you are not using HTML links, start doing so, and bring your web page rankings in the search engines back to life.

-URL

Your URL is important and it is what will direct people to your website. However, if you include a "?" in your URL you are causing problems for many search engines. By using "?" in your URL formatting, you may be ignored and not indexed by the search engines. Do your best to keep the "?" symbol out of your URL and use keywords instead.

-No Links

If you do not have links to your website throughout the Internet, you are not maximizing your website's true potential. To solve this problem, all you have to do is simply get other websites to link to your site. This can easily be done through reciprocal linking and the search engines will pick up your webpages and index them.

-No Keywords

If you do not optimize your website with keywords you will have some major problems when it comes to getting targeted search engine traffic. Search engines use keywords as a method to weigh your website against others so be sure to know your important keywords and include them in the content of your website.

Now that you have some information on search engine optimization and what you need to do to increase your targeted search engine traffic, get started optimizing you website so you can enjoy being ranked higher in the search results and ultimately boost your income.

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

An Overview of Easements

Title insurance is generally associated with insuring a purchaser's or lender's interest in a particular piece of real estate. The right to use an easement is often considered less important than unencumbered title of the insured parcel. An easement, however, can significantly affect the value of the insured parcel. Questions regarding the validity or use of an easement may result in a dispute among neighbors that may require protracted litigation to resolve.

In light of the potential for such unpleasantness, the practitioner is well advised to be aware of any easements related to the property to be insured. The following discussion is intended as a brief and general overview of some of the issues a practitioner will encounter when a title company is asked to insure an easement or a piece of real estate affected by an easement. Of course, each title order will have its own set of circumstances requiring individual attention by the title examiner.

THE BASICS

An easement is a non-possessory right of the owner of one parcel of land to use the land of another. This right to use the other's land is limited to a particular purpose and may be further limited as to the form of usage. 1 An analysis of this definition raises some important points. An easement is an interest in land and not merely a contract right. The non-possessory feature of an easement differentiates it from fee title to land. An easement holder may not occupy and possess the land burdened by the easement; he or she may only use it for the purposes and in the manner established by the terms and conditions of the easement. The meaningful distinction between an easement and a fee simple estate is that the easement describes the right to the use of the land which is specific or restrictive in nature, while the title to the fee is the grant of title to the land itself. 3 This difference is significant because a fee owner receives substantive and procedural rights unavailable to easement holders.

Easements are also distinguishable from leases. A lease is a right to exclusive possession of another's property for a specified period. The key difference here is between possession and use. In Baseball Publishing Co. v. Bruton, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts concluded that the "lease" of a wall for the purpose of maintaining a bill board was in fact an easement in gross because the wall was left in the possession of the owner, who still maintained the right to use the wall for any purpose not specifically granted or forbidden by the " lease."

Easements are also distinguishable from licenses. Much of the litigation in this area, including Baseball Publishing, begins with one party arguing that the right in question is a lease-an irrevocable interest in land- and the other party asserting that the arrangement is a license-a revocable personal right-when in fact the interest might actually be an easement. As a result, essentially the same arrangement has been found to constitute a lease in some cases, a license in others, and in still other cases, an easement.

CLASSIFICATION OF EASEMENTS

While the distinction between easements, leases, licenses, and fee estates may be somewhat murky, the differentiation among types of easements is little clearer. Easements are usually separated into easements appurtenant and easements in gross. An easement appurtenant is created to benefit the owner of another parcel, known as the dominant tenement. This easement will run over another tract called the servient tenement. The easement appurtenant therefore requires both a dominant and servient tenement. One owner's land must be burdened in favor of the estate of another. An easement appurtenant runs with the land. If the dominant tenement is sold, the easement will pass to the grantee, even though it is not specifically mentioned in the document of conveyance. 6 Similarly, if the servient tenement is sold, the grantee takes subject to the easement. An easement in gross does not require its holder to own or possess other land. There is a servient estate, but no dominant one. For this reason, an easement in gross has been described as an irrevocable interest in the land of another. Whether an easement is appurtenant or in gross is determined by examining the grant of easement to detect the intention of the parties and the circumstances at the time of the conveyance. While the deed of conveyance need not include the word "appurtenant," the courts have often presumed that an easement is appurtenant rather than in gross. There is a constructional preference for easements appurtenant over easements in gross.

This preference for easements appurtenant can be overcome by an examination of the land involved. If the easement does not benefit the owner of a particular piece of land, there is no dominant tract and the easement is in gross.8 Utility easements are usually held in gross. An easement appurtenant can not be converted into an easement in gross. The easement's classification will remain in effect throughout its usage.

CREATION OF AN EASEMENT

Most easements are created by express grant contained in an easement agreement or deed or by reservation in a deed. An express grant, however, is not always necessary to create an easement.

An easement may be acquired by prescription and by implication as well as by express grant. Whether an easement by prescription is appurtenant or in gross is determined by the use of the servient estate. If the prescriptive use was for the benefit of the possessor of a particular piece of land, the easement is appurtenant. If it is not for such benefit, it is in gross. Implied easements may be deemed necessary for the use of the dominant estate. Clearly then, they are easements appurtenant to the dominant parcel.

TITLE INSURANCE ISSUES

A title insurer will be faced with two major concerns regarding easements: whether the easement can be insured for a dominant tract and whether an easement can be waived as an exception to the coverage provided by the title policy for a servient tract.

If the title company is requested to insure an easement for the first time, the following questions will be raised:

A. Is the easement appurtenant?

B. What land is benefited by the easement?

C. Were the dominant and servient tenements owned by different parties at the time of the creation of the easements?

D. Was the easement executed by or consented to by all of the lienholders of the servient tenement?

E. How was the easement created, and was the document creating it properly drafted, executed and acknowledged?

F. Does the document creating the easement state its purpose?

G. Does the document state consideration?

H. Is the easement described specifically as an easement appurtenant, binding on successors and assigns?

I. Does the easement document provide that it runs with the land?

J. Does the easement indicate a duration, or is it described as perpetual?

K. Is the easement an exclusive right or may other property owners use it as well?

L. Has an event occurred which may have terminated the easement?

If the examiner is satisfied that a valid easement has been established, the next step is to verify the continuing physical existence of the easement. The examiner will review an inspection report or survey of the easement parcel to confirm that the easement is open and in use. In some areas, a title company may actually send out an employee to physically inspect the property. Upon receipt of the survey or inspection report, the examiner will want to verify that there are no barriers or obstructions which interfere with the purpose of the easements. A survey include the show the easement in its written legal description and in the depiction on the plat. If the easement has been recorded, the chain of title should cover the easement parcel.

The examiner will also decide whether any events have occurred since the creation of the easement which may have resulted in its termination. If the dominant tenement has been resubdivided, split into multiple parcels or undergone a change in use, the underwriter will review the situation to determine the easement's viability.

Tax Sales

If an existing easement has its own tax number separate from the servient tenement, a tax search should be ordered to verify that there are no delinquencies affecting the easement. If an existing easement lies within a tax parcel affecting the entire servient tenement, however, tax delinquencies will not affect the easement. For any easements to be created at a closing, however, all tax delinquencies on the servient tenement must be paid or redeemed prior to the closing. A tax deed shall not extinguish or affect any easement which was created on or over that real property before the time of the tax sale, unless the entire sold tax parcel consisted of only the easement parcel itself. 35 ILCS 200/22-70 (1992).

Merger

The most subtle way of destroying an easement is the application of the doctrine of merger. The risk that the title to the dominant and servient tenements has merged is a dangerous possibility that must be addressed by the examiner. The doctrine of merger states that if ownership of the dominant and servient tenements becomes vested in the same party, the easement over the servient tenement will merge into the fee title of the dominant tenement and thus be destroyed. As an example, A owns Lot 1 and has an easement over adjoining Lot 2 for ingress and egress. If A buys Lot 2, the easement over Lot 2 will merger into A's fee title and will be destroyed. A's fee ownership of Lot 2 gives A far greater right in the land than the ownership of the easement, therefore the smaller right merges into the larger one. If A later conveys Lot 2 to C, the easement must be recreated by a new grant.

The examiner will search the title of both the dominant and servient tenements to look for an incidence of common ownership of both tenements in one party. If such commonality of ownership is located, a new easement must be created, even if the common ownership had been separated later in the chain of title.

In a recent Illinois case, the appellate court stated that a merger occurs when a dominant estate and the servient estates are owned by the same person, thereby extinguishing an easement by virtue of unity of title and possession, given that one has no need of an easement over one's own property. Ownership of both the dominant and servient estates must be identical in duration, quality, and all other circumstances of right. In Ellis V. McClung, the Illinois appellate court held that where the evidence failed to show that the benefited property and the property subject to the easements was all owned by the same parties under identical circumstances, the easements were not extinguished by the doctrine of merger. These circumstances included the duration and the quality of the title. 10

Abandonment

An easement created by a grant, deed or reservation can be destroyed or lost by the owner's voluntary abandonment. There is no duty to use or enjoy an easement as a condition of the right to retain the easement. Therefore, to constitute an abandonment, there either must be an overt act which affirmatively and unequivocally shows an intent to abandon the easement, or a failure to act. This carries the implication that the owner neither claims nor retains any interest in the easement. The dominant owner must clearly relinquish possession or use of the easement. The abandonment is complete the moment the intent to abandon and the relinquishment of possession or use unite. 11

Destruction by Agreement: Abrogation

An easement may be terminated by an agreement between the owners of the dominant and servient estates. This agreement is often known as an abrogation agreement because it abrogates or ends the easement. If the examiner encounters an abrogation agreement in the chain of title which terminates the easement to be insured, the easement is uninsurable.

Waiver of an Easement

If a customer requests that an easement be waived as an exception on the title commitment for a servient tenement, the title company will usually require that a validly executed abrogation agreement be recorded. This agreement must be executed by all parties having an interest in the dominant tenement. In some cases, a necessary parties search should be ordered to determine the list of parties who will need to join in the abrogation agreement.

This articles incorporates Chicago Title Insurance Company Underwriting Guidebooks and examining manuals, as well as a September, 1997 article on Easements by Jeffrey Rezwin and Mary Scmuttenmaer of Chicago Title Insurance Company. These materials are incorporated without specific citation.

1. W. Burby Handbook of the Law of Real Property S23 (3rd Edition, 1965).

2. The Law of Easements and Licenses in Land, Bruce and Ely, p. 1-2 (1988).

3. Park County Rod and Gun Club v. Department of Highways, 163 Montana 372,377; 517 P. 2d 353,355 (1973).

4. Baseball Publishing v. Bruton, 302 Mass. 54, 56, 18 N. E. 2d 362,364 (1938).

5. R. Powell, The Law of Real Property, P. 430 (1987).

6. Taylor v. Lanahan, 73, Ill. App. 3d 829, 832; 399 NE 2d 425, 428 (1977).

7. The Law of Easements and Licenses in Land, Bruce and Ely, p. 2-5.(1988).

8. The Law of Easements and Licenses in Land, Bruce and Ely, p. 2-6 and 2-7 (1988).

9. Curtin v. Franchetti, 156 Conn. 387, 389; 242 A. 2d 725, 727 (1968).

10. Ellis v. McClung 291 Ill. App. 3d 448, 459,460 (1997).

11. Illinois Real Property Service, Sales and Transfers, Section 30:48 (1988).

Neda Dabestani-Ryba is a licensed Realtor in Maryland. She is a member of the President's Circle of Top Real Estate Professionals. She can be reached at (800) 536-3806 or visit her website for more information: http://neda.dabestani.pcragent.com/ Prudential Carruthers REALTORS is an independently owned and operated member of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates, Inc., a Prudential Financial company. Equal Housing Opportunity

How to Care for Your Kitten

Caring for a kitten is a lot of work. With her high energy and intense curiosity and sense of adventure, raising a kitten will keep you on your toes. Careful attention during the first year of life will set a strong foundation for a long, loving relationship with your cat.

Kittens aged 8-12 weeks need four meals a day, 3-6 months three meals, and kittens over 6 months old, two meals.

Follow the guidelines on the food packaging as to how much to provide in each feeding. Give your kitten both moist and dry food, so she is less likely to become a finicky eater later. When you offer moist food, be sure to pick it up after about 30 minutes. Cats love moist food, but if you let them eat it at their leisure, they will become "lazy" eaters. Limit the availability of the good stuff, and your kitten will learn to "get it while the getting is good." It is a good idea to leave dry food out all day so she can snack on it as she pleases. It is vital that your kitten learn to eat dry kibble, as the crunchy food helps keep her teeth and gums healthy.

Your kitten will likely spend a lot of time licking her fur, so you won't need to bathe her. Both she and you will benefit from regular brushing sessions, however. Time spent grooming your kitten gets her used to handling and lets you monitor her health and development. Many kittens are afraid of a brush at first, or think it are a toy. If you are patient and loving, you can teach your young cat to enjoy the soothing sensation of being brushed. Cats often mutually groom each other, so by brushing her you are expressing your "love" to her.

While you groom your cat, begin getting her used to having her ears, eyes, mouth and paws handled. Move your hands over her body, restraining her from time to time as you touch and manipulate different body parts. At first you may only be able to touch her lip, but over a period of days and weeks you should be able to lift her lip and touch her gums. When you handle her paws, gently squeeze her toes to extend her claws. This the technique you will use later to trim her claws, and the sooner you begin getting her used to it the less traumatic it will be for both of you.

Kittens have a lot of energy. If you don't provide an outlet for it, she will find one of her own. Chasing a wind-up toy or ball, stalking and pouncing on a lure attached to a string or just racing around the room are all positive outlets for her energy. Be careful, however, to keep the rough play under control. Never use your hands or feet as a lure. Strongly discourage her from attacking your hands or feet; what seems cute when she's a kitten encourages her to be aggressive with you. Always keep a stuffed toy within reach so that if she tries to attack you, you can rub the animal against her tummy to encourage her to wrestle with it.

To care for a cat you will need to:

* Provide plenty of human companionship

* Provide regular, suitable meals with a constant supply of fresh water

* Provide a clean and comfortable bed

* Provide the cat with outdoor access or be prepared to empty and clean a litter tray on a daily basis

* Groom it regularly. Longhaired cats require daily grooming

* Have it neutered between 4 and 6 months old

* Vaccinate against the major feline diseases regularly

* Worm regularly and provide treatment for fleas

* Take the cat to the vet when it shows any sign of illness - pet insurance can help offset the cost of veterinary treatment.

Pet Medication Supplies http://www.pet-medication-supplies.net can help you get the best possible pet health supplies. Advantix, Arthramine, Cosequin, Frontline, Heartgard - find the best deals in pet medication for flea and tick control, arthritis and lyme disease. Upto 50% discount everyday on brand names.

It?s One Thing for People to Buy Your Product or Service, but It?s Another for Them to Tattoo Your

William Harley and Arthur Davidson, both in their early twenties, built their first motorcycle in 1903. During their first year, the company's entire output was only 1 motorbike; however, by 1910, the company had sold 3,200. Movies such as Easy Rider made Harleys a cultural icon and soon the company attracted people who loved its bad-boy mystique, powerfulness, rumbling voice, distinctive roar, and toughness. It sounded like nothing else on the road, and even Elvis Presley and Steve McQueen longed to ride one.

The Harley-Davidson Motor Company has had its ups and downs, and at times, the downs seemed as if they would end in bankruptcy. In the sixties, Honda, Kawasaki, and Yamaha invaded the American market, and when sales at Harley-Davidson dropped drastically due to decreasing quality and increasing competition, the company began to look for buyers and was finally sold. However, the new owners of Harley Davidson knew little about how to restore profitability. The quality became so bad that dealers had to place cardboard under bikes in the showroom to absorb the oil leaking.

Daniel Gross, in Forbes Greatest Business Stories of all Times, recounts how in 1981, with the aid of Citibank, a team of former Harley-Davidson executives began negotiations to reacquire the company and rescue it from bankruptcy. Among these executives was William Davidson, the grandson of the founder Arthur Davidson. In a classic leveraged buyout, they pooled $1 million in equity and borrowed $80 million from a consortium of banks lead by Citibank.

Harley's rescue team of loyal executives knew that the Japanese motorbike manufacturers were far ahead in regard to quality management, and they made a bold decision to tour a nearby Honda plant. Paradoxically, the Japanese had learned Total Quality Management from the Americans, Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran. The new business concept outlined by these two pioneers was a new management approach that, interestingly enough, had been rejected by American manufacturers. As a result, they offered this approach to Japanese manufactures that were eager to learn and implement it. Therefore, soon after their tour of the Honda plant, the Harley Davidson Motor Company decided to put into practice this originally rejected approach.

After implementing just-in-time inventory (JIT) and employee involvement, costs at Harley had dropped significantly; this meant that the company only needed to sell 35,000 bikes instead of 53,000 in order to break even. Their lobbying at Washington also helped, and import tariffs were raised temporarily from 4 to 40 percent on Japanese bikes. This extra breathing space was something that the U.S. motorbike company desperately needed for its recovery.

The combination of visiting a Japanese motorbike manufacturing plant and lobbying in Washington for import tariffs was a daring move on behalf of Harley's executives in their attempt to bring back profitability and growth to the company. Another important strategic move was the company's unique marketing and branding campaigns. Studies showed that about 75 % of Harley customers made repeat purchases, and executives quickly recognized a pattern that refocused the company's overall strategy. Simply put, they needed to find a way to appeal to the extraordinary loyalty of customers, which they found in creating a community that valued the experience of riding a Harley more than the product itself.

The sponsorship of a "Harley Owners' Group" has been one of the most creative and innovative strategies that has helped create the experience of this product. Without realizing it, Harley executives had pioneered a new paradigm that would be increasingly embraced by other industries in their quest to increase profitability by converting their product into an experience. The company started to organize rallies to strengthen the relationship between its members, dealers, and employees, while also promoting the Harley experience to potential customers. The Harley Owners' Groups became immensely popular; it allowed motorcycle owners to feel as if they belonged to one big family. In 1987, there were 73,000 registered members, and Harley now boasts to have no less than 450,000 members.

In 1983, the company launched a marketing campaign called SuperRide, which authorized over 600 dealerships to invite people to test-drive Harleys. Over 40,000 potential new customers accepted the invitation, and from then on, many customers were not just buying a motorcycle when they bought a Harley; instead, they were buying "the Harley Experience."

Harley-Davidson offered its customers a free one-year membership to a local riding group, motorcycle publications, private receptions at motorcycle events, insurance, emergency roadside service, rental arrangements on vacation, and a host of other member benefits. Branding the experience, not just the product, has allowed the company to expand how it captures value, including a line of clothing, a parts and accessories business, and Harley-Davidson Visa card.

If you were to scan the list of companies that delivered the greatest returns on investment during the 1990s, you would discover Harley-Davidson. Only a few companies have been successful in inventing entirely new business models, or profoundly reinventing existing ones. Harley-Davidson went from supplying motorcycles to antisocial raiders to selling a lifestyle to the aging bad boy wannabes caught in their midlife crises. Traditionally, Harley-Davidson bike owners came from the working and middle classes, but as quality and prices of the bad-boy-bikes rose, and with energetic marketing, the company soon attracted a different class of buyers-currently one third of Harley buyers are professionals or managers, and 60% are college graduates. The new customer segments of Harley are the Rolex Riders or the Rich Urban Bikers. Hell's Angels do not run in the same group anymore. Now there are groups of accountants, lawyers and doctors. Women also account for a significant portion of the new riders, and there are women-only riders clubs spreading all over the globe.

The future looks bright for the U.S. motorbike company. According to The Economist, overall U.S. sales increased over 20% in 2000, and more than 650,000 new motorcycles were sold in the U.S. in the same year, up from 539,000 the year before. Bike buyers spent an estimated $5.45 billion on new bikes in 2000.

Stay alert and get it early. The new branding paradigm is to sell a lifestyle, a personality and it is also about appealing to emotions of your customers. Increasingly, it will be more and more about creating an experience around the product. Brand managers and executives will need a new set of lenses. The rules have changed as well as the opportunities to maximize profitability and create value in the process. Nonetheless, the majority of companies continue to follow traditional ad campaigns and they seem to ignore the fact that the media has fragmented into hundreds of cable channels, thousands of magazine titles and millions of Internet pages.

Consumers are no longer sitting ducks for commercials; they are looking for new experiences. Whether it is the bad-boy-aura of the Harley riding experience, the exquisite coffee experience in Starbucks caf?s, or the active participation in Net communities, more and more companies will need to follow these early new branding pioneers. They will need to look into the dynamics of their relationships with customers and the nature of their interaction. They will need to ask themselves some serious "out-of-the-box" questions if they want to move with the shifting value that is the result of constantly changing market conditions.

Branding has changed and so have marketing and advertising campaigns. New variability, heterogeneity where there was once homogeneity, newly emerging stratifications of wealth, new preferences, and new life styles are all characteristics of the 21st century customer that are here to stay. We better get used to it, at lease until the next paradigm is discovered. Remember, the companies that are creating new wealth are not just getting better; they are becoming different-mind-bogglingly different!

Bibliography:
Barker, Joel. Paradigms. Harper Business, 1993.

Bedbury, Scott. A New Brand World: Eight Principles for Achieving Brand Leadership in the 21st Century, Viking Press, 2002.

Gross, Daniel: Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time, John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Hamel, Gary. "Innovation Now," in Fast Company (http://www.fastcompany.com/online/65/innovation.html), December 2002

Kotter, John P., Leading Change, Harvard Business School Press, 1996, pp. 4 ? 14.

Teerlink, Rich, and Ozley, Lee: More Than a Motorcycle: The Leadership Journey at Harley-Davidson, Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Young, James Webb. Technique for Producing Ideas, McGraw-Hill, p. 14.

Josef Schinwald is consultant in Performance Measurement and professor in Business Strategy at the University of Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and his didactic material must not be replicated without the given permission to do so. Copyright ? 2003-2005 Business Design Innovation. Josef is also owner of ValueQuest, LLC, a e-commerce business, and you can visit his sites at My Motorcycle Leather http://www.my-motorcycle-leather.com and Stylish Wedding Favors http://www.stylish-wedding-favors.com.

Adapting Blog Technologies To Corporate E-Newsletters

Every January, trade publications put out a list of predictions for the coming year. They discuss products, services and trends that they think will change the way business is done, labeling these "disruptive technologies."

The idea of disruptive technologies comes from Clayton Christensen's 1997 book, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. A disruptive technology is a method, procedure, skill, device, or material that redefines the competitive standards. Note that the technology doesn't have to be a physical item and that it often forces us to re-examine the way we work.

InfoWorld's list of disruptive technologies for 2003 included open source, self-service CRM, digital identity, and my personal favorite, Weblogs. How can a simple, Web-based journal be disruptive?

For starters, it's worth describing what a Weblog is. Basically, a Weblog or "blog" is a personally created, online, time-stamped web page that includes the thoughts, ideas, and comments of the "blogger." The musings are usually brief, but they are published frequently and consistently. People can subscribe to receive the blog updates via e-mail. Often, the blogger is an expert on the subject he/she is discussing.

At first glance, it doesn't appear that blogs would be at all disruptive. So why all the hype? If we look closely at the structure and intent of blogs as a communications tool, we can see some powerful ideas at work.

Blogs are a direct, one-to-many vehicle for communicating ideas. They expand an individual's ability to communicate. They are fresh and timely. The blogger, in order to maintain interest, must communicate often. Blogs enable a single person to share ideas, insights, and useful knowledge with an audience. Thanks to the Web, the audience can be a global one.

Whenever a new tool or process-such as e-mail- expands communications, the effects are far-reaching and dramatic. Even though blogs have been around for 3-4 years, they could be the next big thing.

Blogs Are The "Real Voice"

Two important characteristics of blogs are that they are written by a person who is knowledgeable and passionate about the topic, and that they are written in a "real voice." This is a cosmic shift from the marketing and public relations materials that are the staple of business communications.

Often, when information goes through a formal marketing or PR process, the end result is an attractive, expensive, stale, diluted document written in corporate speak. This result is generally due to the processes that evolved to accommodate the costs and standards of print technology, rather than to the incompetence or malevolence of corporate communicators. The edge, the authenticity, and the voice of the professional speaking to his fellow professionals is lost.

Blogs offer the human voice that can be loud, controversial, and even wacky. But the realness of the blog inspires trust and piques people's curiosity. A blog can create a community and a dynamic discussion.

If you are a product manager working in the chemical products industry, chances are that you would rather hear about the real experiences of other product managers in your industry than read a glossy marketing piece put out by the marcom department. Blogs fit this communications requirement perfectly.

Blogs Are Simple

Weblogs are easy for people to publish, read and respond to. They can foster a community of like-minded individuals and be the catalyst for spirited discussions. Blogs are an inherently proactive form of communications. Weblog participants can subscribe to receive scheduled postings to the blog. Weblogs are inexpensive to produce and they can include a variety of multimedia content (audio, video, files, etc.) and hypertext links that add value to the discussion.

Blogs Empower The Individual

There are a host of tools on the Internet that make blogging a snap! Blogs empower a single person to capitalize on the reach and ubiquity of the Web. And they don't require the investment or recurring costs of print technologies.

Blogs Empower The Enterprise

Blogs empower the knowledgeable people within a company to share their insights, know-how, and expertise. The value to a corporation is that this knowledge can be organized, distributed, and leveraged to increase the value of different product and service offerings to the customer.

If a corporation is going to use a blog, however, it should understand that controlling the content of the discussion is difficult. If you want an authentic exchange, you have to be willing to accept the stone-throwing and critical comments that often occur in a blog. This requires extending trust and giving up some of the control a company would normally have when it publishes a press release or hosts its own online forum, for example. The upside is that people will listen to a real voice.

Adapting Blog Concepts To Your Newsletters

You can adapt blog technologies to your corporate electronic newsletters by taking advantage of the underlying concepts. You can, for example:

* Publish a small amount of well-organized information frequently and regularly

* Include content from individuals who are knowledgeable and passionate about their work

* Make it easy for your employees to communicate directly in their own, human voice

* Respect the reader by making sure your e-newsletter provides value and that he/she wants to receive it.

E-newsletters geared towards educating a marketplace, rather than those focused on advertising or marketing, turn out to be particularly effective. E-newsletters offer an affordable, direct way for the experts in a company to communicate with an audience. This means that a product manager or an engineer can enhance the flow of information and make it more accessible to those who want it.

Think of your channel and the information needs of your partners. Your company has a wealth of information that would help them sell your products more effectively. There is much insight within your partner community that could be leveraged throughout the channel. And your technical experts and engineers have critical knowledge and understanding that everyone could utilize.

What's often missing is an easy way for the "know-how" keepers to capture their knowledge, organize it, and deliver it. The best e-newsletters are written in a real voice, not in corporate speak.

Two years ago, the book The Cluetrain Manifesto shook up the business community (see http://www.cluetrain.com/book.html). The revelation? That business is about humans. As Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Petzinger Jr. writes in the foreword: "I was dumbstruck. There in a few pages, I read a startlingly concise summary of everything I'd seen in twenty-one years as a reporter, editor, bureau chief and columnist for my newspaper. The idea that business, at bottom, is fundamentally human. That engineering remains second-rate without aesthetics. That natural, human conversation is the true language of commerce. That corporations work best when the people on the inside have the fullest contact possible with people on the outside."

It turns out that the human "voice" is an underserved or ignored need. In a world of 6+ billion inhabitants, the individual craves to speak and to be heard.

References

Blogs As Disruptive Tech: How Weblogs Are Flying Under The Radar Of The Content Management Giants, By John Hiler, CEO, Webcrimson, http://www.webcrimson.com/ourstories/blogsdisruptivetech.Htm

Making Room For Disruptive And Emergent Technologies, By Hugh Blackmer, Science Librarian, Washington & Lee University, http://home.wlu.edu/~blackmerh/sabb/nitle2.html*

Blogs As Disruptive Innovation: What A Brave New World Blogging Is Building!, by Dr. James V. McGee, Professor, The Kellogg School Of Management,

http://www.mcgeesmusings.net/2002/05/15.html

Weblogs At Harvard Law, Bookmark List For ABCD Weblogs Meeting, By Dave Winer,

http://Blogs.Law.Harvard.Edu/Stories/Storyreader$199

Todd Brehe

Director of Communication Products

Gallatin Technologies, Inc.

http://www.gallatin.com

(719) 597-3366

tbrehe@gallatin.com