Victoria Communicaton

As more baby boomers approach retirement, new homes designed for aging adults are popping up everywhere. There are numerous housing developments and adult communities springing up around the country designed for residents over the age of 55.
Many of these communities offer the opportunity for socializing, recreation, outdoor maintenance that’s taken care of, on-site restaurants, golf courses and numerous other amenities. There are generally four types of retirement communities. These are independent living facilities, active adult communities, continuing care retirement communities and assisted living residences.
Most new housing developments that target aging adults tend to be either active adult communities (AACs) or a blend of AACs with some continuing care facilities, like an on-site doctor or medical facility.
If you’re thinking about moving for your retirement, new homes in age-restricted resort communities can be a fantastic option. No more lawn work, lots of activities, and beautiful settings await you. But, how do you choose the right community for you? Keep reading for a breakdown of the criteria you should look for in a retirement community.
How Close is it to the Kids?
If being close to your family is important, then you’ll want to look for a home or retirement community that’s close to your kids. Another consideration is space. Many units are sold as one-bedroom condominiums or two-bedroom homes. If you’re planning to have many grandchildren visit, you may want to look for a community that offers larger units.
How do the Philosophies and Principles Compare to Yours?
Many retirement communities and active adult living developments have certain philosophies. The question is, do they match your own? If you love hunting and fishing, you may not enjoy spending your retirement in a community dedicated to vegetarianism and artistic pursuits.
For example, there’s a retirement community in Arizona that’s committed to academic research, another in Florida that’s focused on extremely active living and yet another in California with a passion toward being an environmentally sustainable community. So, before you buy, make sure you understand the driving principles.
Is It Pedestrian Friendly?
The reality is that many seniors don’t continue to drive for the duration of their lives. So, finding a retirement community that is either very pedestrian friendly or has easy access to public transit is critical. You’ll appreciate the easy access to groceries and pharmacies.
Would I Get Along with the Other Residents?
Before you buy into a new retirement or adult community, you should always attend an information session to get a feel for other potential residents. Alternatively, if you’re moving into an existing community, ask to spend the day at their recreation hall or community lounge.
Look around the room and ask yourself if you could see yourself spending your retirement with these people? Can you envision yourself sharing years of retirement together? Whether or not your home is new and beautiful, enjoying your neighbors is a critical part of enjoying your overall community experience, and you want to be sure to include that factor in your decision.

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Effective communication is one of the most important lessons you will ever learn. Your ability to communicate effectively will have an affect on both your personal and business life.
One of the most important things in a relationship – whether it is a business or personal relationship – is communication. There is a big difference between talking and communicating. Communication involves more than just mindless chatter – it involves all parties using their listening skills as well as talking skills. In most instances, whether in business or personal relationships, most problems are caused by ineffective communication. Effective communication happens when all parties understand the information or idea that is being discussed. Learning the art of communicating effectively will make both your personal and business relationships smoother.Rules For Communicating Effectively
The following rules will help you learn to communicate more effectively and eliminate many misunderstandings:Organization – The first step is to know what message you want the listener to receive. Systematically organize your thoughts so that your message will be clear and easy to understand. Unorganized thoughts can lead to misunderstandings and confuse the listener. If you don’t know what message you want to convey, how can you expect the recipient of the message to know what you are trying to convey?Planning – Important conversations should be planned ahead of time. Think of several scenarios with different reactions and plan where you will go with each reaction. Think about the person with whom you will be communicating, taking into consideration that person’s personality and behavior. Prepare a solution for each reaction so that you know beforehand how you will respond.Body Language – Non-verbal signals are a large part of the communication factor. Your facial expressions and gestures will play a role in determining the response that you will receive. Your body language must match your words for your communication to be clear. Sending mixed signals is one of the most frequent causes of miscommunication.Simple and Concise – The goal is to convey a certain message that creates a response. Keep your key points simple and easy to understand. If you state your point in a clear and concise manner without repeating yourself, your message will be easier for the recipient to understand.Respond – Often times, it is hard to separate facts from feelings. You should always respond to the person you are communicating with rather than reacting to the person emotionally. Be sure to clearly answer any questions or concerns that the person may have, and again – keep it simple.Common Ground – Try to find a common ground with the person you are communicating with. Don’t place your focus on differences of opinion, but work together to find a common ground that all parties can be comfortable with.Stay Positive – Staying positive will decrease the chance that the person you are communicating with will react to you rather than respond. Negative statements more often elicit a negative reaction. Positive statements will more often elicit a positive response.Listen – The goal of effective communication is for all parties involved to come to an understanding about the topic of the conversation. It is very important that you listen to what the other person has to say and address any concerns that either of you may have. Many times, whether the person likes a change or not, they are more willing to make the change if they feel that the person communicating with them actually listens to their point of view.
Good communication skills are an important part of leading a successful life. Having good communication skills improves both your personal and business relationships and makes life more pleasant for all involved.

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The concept of marketing communication is shifting in this fast changing world. Businesses are seeing the emergency of new world, a world of information and complex communication networks.  The new communicator’s task is to process and channel the right people at the right time and channel the right way. Peter Duckers makes the point that “Innovation are begin with abandonment it’s what you stop that counts.

Peter Ducker once said that purpose of business is not to make sale, but how to make a customer ‘the customer today has a variety of choices when it comes for buying a product /services. Most of us who work in marketing communication business today grew up during the year mass communication developed around the world.

 Marketing communication actually deals with one of the most popular aspects of the five Ps of marketing –promotion. The other four are product, pricing, place and people. There are closely related to marketing communication but its real function with promotion. Several communication channels which constitute the promotion mix are available to an organization for carrying out the promotional activity.

From verbal to Visual

                                  If you are the age of 40, there is a good chance you were joined as a verbal communicator. You are trained throughout your carrier in spelling, grammar, how to phrase sentences, how not to dangle participles and so on. The emphasis was on writing and reading skills. Therefore you are like your parents before you a member of a verbal generation.

           

                     If you are under 40, chances are you are member of the visual generation, this generation; this generation was raised on TV, movies speeches MTV and the spoken world. The educational emphasis although we don’t like to acknowledge it, was on sounds, symbols, signs, pictures and icons with which you learned to communicate with you.

Medium of marketing communication

              Marketing communication integrates humanities, social sciences and business administration to prepare managers for building a realistic strategies in the  integrated

Fields of realistic strategies in the integrated fields of advertising, public relations, brand communication direct / data base marketing, sales, promotion and e-commerce.

How marketing communication work:-

           Marketing communication supports streamlines and mechanizes the selling effort

By:-

First sales call-

                 Even before the sales person reaches the prospective customers and tries to explain to him/her the various features to promote sale, the marketing communication might have already created a desire to know more in the minds of the customer.

Considering the media carefully

If your target audience is very broad such as national market for medium priced automobiles, the media planner will probably select a network TV which had a broad reach . If the target is narrower and specialized audience such as women’s magazines, would be selected.

Selling when the sales representative is not there

Either when the sales representative has not reached the customer or when he/ she has called explained the product and left, it is easy for the customer to go back to the marketing communication.

Written pamphlets

   Generally one component of marketing communication could be written pamphlets/ information brochures telling the details of the product.

This new concept which is called marketing communication is the judicious and

effective use of the product promotional tools so that universal clear and effective promotional message is communicated among the target audience.

                                                                                                         Lec. Sumitra Biswal

                                                                                                                         

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In this world of competition and everyone vying for the other person’s job it is important to acquire better skill sets and keep ahead of the competition. One such skill is communication. With the best communication skills required by the corporate world today you can be assured that career advancements will surely be thrown to the wind and you will be left in the shallow while the rest of your colleagues will climb the ladder of success.
Communication skills or the power to effectively communicate with co-workers and business clients or customers is the most important qualification of a successful executive. Any business needs to have excellent communication facilities to be understood within and without the boundaries of the business. Managers and senior executives must constantly work on developing their communication skills if they are to effectively handle their domains and make the business more productive.
Signing up for a short term course in communication skills is one way to improve your chances of career advancement. Look at it this way, if you improve your communication skills you will be able to effectively communicate with your superiors and thus will be able to communicate to them your need to advance in the organization. You may be dropping hints for a promotion but the boss might not be able to understand you, this is one example of bad communication skills. If you look around you will find many people climbing the corporate ladder just because they have better certifications in communication skills. Many universities even have degree programs for those who want to study communication techniques and enhance their communication skills.
A degree in communication skills will assure your prospective or present employer that your profile of skills include honesty, sociability, communication skills, integrity, decision making ability, speaking, reasoning, listening and a host of other skills. All these skills are acknowledged by the Department of Labor as the key skills needed for managers to effectively manage their domains in order to produce the best productivity in terms of man hours. This is endorsed by every business house in the world. Effective communication skills are something no business can do without.
You can be assured that your career advancement opportunities will greatly increase once you have enhanced your communication skills. Being able to speak effectively in public and address groups of people is important to get your ideas across. You may be needed to communicate to people individually or in groups through public forums. You may be needed to do this personally or through some medium such as the internet, newspapers, magazines or the radio and even television. Your communication skills will permit you to make an effective impact on your target audience if you have the necessary skills in communications.

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If you are just beginning your international business development you are probably concerned about avoiding cultural communication blunders. There are stories out there of major companies making major business mistakes.

Enough to damper any business’ international fervor. Most peoples reflex is to look at the other cultures first. After all, they are the ones that are different.

You might be tempted to start by researching all the possible types of cultural communication blunders with all of the different cultures out there.

Stop!

International business is different today than before. Internet marketing provides businesses a universal international communication tool. If you are lucky enough to be a native English speaker you are probably using internet marketing as a key element to your international business expansion. English is the second language of choice throughout the world.

Most initial international business development is done in English, or at least with very little foreign language content. There is no reason to become confused with studying different cultures first. You will probably be wasting your time.

Here is why:

Of course your foreign prospect or client will be different from you if he lives in a different culture. You will need to find a common ground to communicate with him. If he speaks some English this is not common enough ground. His language skills will not be the same as yours.

Cultural Communication Visualization

If communication barriers represent the distance between the two of you, you will need to move from where you are to meet him somewhere along the path separating you.

So if you visualize this, what’s the first thing you need to do?

Review Your Own Communication First

Before studying other cultures, you must look at your own communication. Here’s why:

How can you make communication easier with your international prospect or client?

Some people’s reflex is to speak to foreigners like babies. This is not the solution. So how can eliminate blunders when communicating with your foreign clients?

Internationalize Your English

The English language is widely used in international business. So much so that we can often overlook our own English language communication practices.

Before looking at the differences in other cultures and learning about them, turn your focus onto your own communication style. If you give each individual communication with your foreign clients your full attention and adapt your own language to something they can understand you will create more

Are you committed to speeding up your international sales cycles?

Learn how to combine cross-cultural marketing tools and international sales strategies for faster sales.

Join us on the International Sales Road Map.

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While community living was once reserved for the “over 55″ population, this lifestyle has since evolved; branching out into huge master-planned communities and themed neighborhoods. Here are some of the more unique versions we’ve run across.

Pla d’Adet in the Blue Ridge Mountains represents the vision of professional cyclist, George Hincapie. This family oriented community is perfect for those interested in a healthy, fitness-oriented lifestyle. Along with regular amenities, Pla d’Adet has a 38,000 square-foot state-of-the art training facility, a 25-meter indoor pool, a resort-style outdoor pool, studios for aerobics, group cycling, and yoga, spa and dry sauna.

The 97 one to two-acre home sites range in price from $400,000 to over $1.5 million depending on elevation, location and mountain views. The community is connected with a system of wilderness trails, pathways, cycling loops and owner access roads.

The number of equestrian communities in the U.S. has doubled over the last few years. Now you can live in a country setting, while your horse lives a stone’s throw away, in the lap of luxury. Facilities often include a complete equestrian center featuring barns, paddocks and pastures and activities such as hunter/jumper shows and other horsey type events. Many of these neighborhoods are located on or near trail systems that offer miles of scenic trail-riding.

Also growing in popularity are gay- and lesbian-oriented developments. Currently there are four communities in operation and about 18 more slated for future development across the country.

Retirement communities have come a long way since grandma and grandpa’s trailer park. Today these neighborhoods are geared toward every budget, lifestyle and health need, and contain every amenity imaginable.

Designed for the senior with an active lifestyle, these communities are strategically located close to lakes, golf courses or acreage to take advantage of the many associated recreational activities. They generally have active social programs, a fitness center and community center, and are located to many local amenities.

Continuing Care Communities allow their residents to remain in the same location as they age. Accommodations change as their needs change and may range from individually maintained homes to 24-hr nursing care facilities. The available activities and amenities vary to meet the needs of the different lifestyles of the residents.

Manufactured Home Communities are low maintenance communities that range from affordable, budget-friendly sites to elegant golf club or waterfront homes. Some are seasonal resorts located near lakes with extensive boating and fishing, while others are year-round communities.

RV Communities cater to seniors on the move and may include homes with RV parking or temporary sites for parking the vehicles. They’re usually located in a scenic setting and include community areas with extensive social programs, and recreational amenities such as a pool, walking/biking trails, and tennis courts.

Upscale Communities range from beachfront locations to award-winning golf courses to breathtaking mountain views, and just about everything in between. You can get a patio home, decked out to the nines, or a huge custom home perfect for visits from the grandchildren. No matter which you choose you will know that you’ve stepped into a luxury community.

With a population of over 75,000, the Villages in Florida is more like a “golf city” than a golf community. They have special transportation trails especially built for golf carts. Amenities include – are you ready – over 40 recreation centers, over 24 executive golf courses, 8 championship golf courses with country clubs, a golf academy, polo field, 3 fitness centers, woodworking shop, community gardens, archery range, 2 libraries and several schools (for the employees of The Villages). The community also has two homeowners associations, a daily newspaper, a radio station and a cable channel. Whew!

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Communication is a basic tool of success in modern days. Communication means interaction between persons, or to a crowd. Interpersonal communication efficacy is considered as a skill since the bond of relationships relies on the power of it. The focus of the communication is to makes others understand about what you want to make them know. The primary need of the communication is that it must be clear and evident. The modern days are mentioned as the communication age since an evolution in the communication modes has been taking place. The developments in the communication have helped to shrink the world indeed into a global village. However, as the communication modes evolves, the necessity to streamline the communication also increases.
While streamline your communication, you must be conscious to use words, which are sufficient to convey your idea. The communication has to be molded considering various factors such as the occasion, mode of communication, and the person to whom you are communicating. Communication includes all the means of interaction such as speaking, writing, gestures, and expression. The basic protocol, which the person has to maintain in the communication, is considered as the etiquette of communication.
Streamlining of the communication has to be done according to the context of interaction. In case of business relationships, communication is extremely important. The special feature of business communication is that it must be short, and precise to the matter. In public speaking, communication has to be interesting. You have to adopt a sort of demonstration in public speaking, to make it appreciable for the whole crowd. Context relevant examples and jokes will make it really attractive. The preference in the personal communication has to fix in accordance with the other person. However, prior preparation for communication is advisable, in common to all types of communication.
The advent to new technologies has raised the necessity of streamlining the communication. From face to face interactions and mails, now, the horizon of communication has extended to telephone, fax, mobile phone and internet. The etiquette of communication has to be readjusted, with accordance with the peculiarities of the mode of communication such as for telephone speaking manners is important and for internet quick reply is the requirement. However, in streamlining, the general requirements for communication must be retained, such as it has to be interesting and pleasing. Any how, if you want the expected response, you definitely have to be an active listener too.
To add on, remember the saying, first impression is the best impression. An impressive start and interactive gestures will certainly make your attempt remarkable, in direct communications.

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The bare knuckled fight for the democratic nominee has me hooked! Not only am I fascinated by the race but I am also floored by the poor level of communication displayed by some of the candidates’ communication staff. With a mixture of um’s, err’s, mumbled words, poor eye contact and closed body language I can only imagine the success they could achieve if they chose to communicate effectively.
Whether it is a job interview, a salary negotiation with your boss or the race for the White House – choosing to communicate effectively will ensure you are heard the way you want to be heard. Effective communication is not a reflex response so can be difficult to use but luckily it can be learned, practiced and mastered. This article aims to explain what effective communication is, why it is so important and also to provide you with 10 tips to effective communication.
I encourage you to read on, to continue to communicate effectively and to start to notice the difference.What is effective communication?
On average, about 70% of our time is spent communicating, whether it is verbal, nonverbal or through listening, reading or writing.
In basic terms, communication is the transmitting of an idea or an opinion from one person or group to another person or group; an exchange of ideas. Effective communication is required to ensure the message is delivered, received, interpreted and acted upon in the way it was intended. Whoever you are office junior, CEO or stay at home dad, effective communication is key to achieving both your personal and professional goals.
There are two main elements to Effective Communication, assertive speaking and active listening.
Assertive speaking – To project yourself (verbally and non verbally) in a direct, confident and relaxed way, in order to be able to deliver your message, image or idea in the way that you meant it to be heard, whilst at the same time encouraging the audience to do the same.
Active listening – Utilizing empathy and respect to listen to both the content (verbal) and the emotional (non-verbal) elements of the message, idea or image being delivered in order to hear the message as it was meant to be heard.
Effective communication requires more than just words, it needs positive, direct and confident body language, facial expressions, pace, and tone of your voice to all add weight to what you want to say.
Professor Mehrabian of the University of California looked at how face to face communication is received by any listener. The research discovered effective communication is based around 3 main areas, with the content or words used only accounting for 7% of the whole message.
Impact of communication
Facial expressions / gestures / body language55%
Tone of voice38%
Content / words7%Achieving Effective Communication
At school we are taught to read, write and speak appropriately. I am sure we can all remember a teacher telling us to ‘be quiet’ or the ever popular ’shut up and (listen)’. But the lack of formal training to listen, coupled with stress, deadlines and tension at work it is not surprising that we can go through our work and home life without properly listening.
We are often caught in a ‘tug of war’ scenario where more than one person is trying to speak at the same time, struggling for control of the conversation resulting in no-one receiving the right message. Tension is created, the conversation takes an adversarial tone and ineffective communication takes over. Effective communicators are aiming to achieve a ’see-saw’ style interaction, where one person is the speaker and the other person is listener. This usually switches between the people involved as they aim to achieve the same goal – mutual understanding and collaborative working.10 Tips to Effective Communication
Here are 10 tips for active listening and assertive speaking taken from my Effective Communication Toolkit.
1 Eye contact and body language – There is no need to stare the speaker out but do retain an appropriate amount of eye contact so that the speaker can tell that you are listening. Without eye contact they might assume that you have switched off. As the speaker you want your audience to be focused on what you are saying and not on the fact that you are playing with something in your pocket or glancing nervously toward the exit. As a listener ensure you display a positive set of body language – an open posture, make encouraging non verbal gestures – such as nodding or smiling.
2 Tone and pace of your voice – Change the pace and tone of your voice to match the words you are saying. When you want to emphasize a specific point – speak with more urgency – maybe varying the pace and increasing the volume of your voice. This encourages people to listen to what you are saying as oppose to a monotone which might just send your audience to sleep!
3 Responsibility – Take ownership of your message and show you believe in what you are saying. Ensure you know your subject so you retain your confidence throughout – especially at question time. Speak in the positive – be relaxed, confident and direct – emphasize what you CAN do.
4 Direct and confident – The listener will be more open to any message being delivered if it being done so in a direct and confident manner. The message will be believable and the audience will be confident in what you are saying.
5 Solution focused – Your message will more likely be heard if it is positive with clear thought through solutions. Avoid apportioning blame or pulling up past challenges but focus on what can be done now.
6 Do your homework – Do some research before presenting or speaking to an individual or group you are unfamiliar with. This will ensure that your message is delivered in a way that is appropriate to your audience.
7 The full message – As a listener note taking can help so you can keep up with what is being said and easily refer back for clarification. Take in the full message and remember that the words are only 7% of the overall message.
8 Probing and open questions – If you are in anyway unclear as to what is being said, ask open ended questions. They start with when, where, what, why, who and how. These types of questions generate dialogue. Closed questions (questions that elicit a yes/no answer) are best used at the end of a funnel of open questions to gain agreement or acceptance of an issue or to lead to the end of a conversation.
9 Non-judgmental – Although the message you are listening to might not have your agenda at its centre, there are more positive ways of adding to this than casting your own judgment. Avoid judgmental statements in your feedback and caution the use of questions starting with ‘why’ as they can often carry a judgmental tone. As an alternative to ‘why’ use ‘ perhaps you could walk me through your thinking around…’. This invites the speaker to be more open.
10 Sharing relevant examples – Sharing a relevant example will encourage the speaker and might give weight to their message. Ensure you do not detract away from the speaker by putting your agenda first.

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