PERPINYÀ -> CASTELLDEFELS, FROM CASTLE TO CASTLE

Today, February 2nd, is Candlemas, and therefore, it is a very special day in places like Molins de Rei in Catalunya or Tenerife in the Islas Canarias. It is also a very special day in Ciutat de Palma, because you can see the figure of eight effect in its cathedral, and even in Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania where they celebrate Groundhog Day.

This morning, Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have been having breakfast in front of the Castillet in Perpinyà before saying goodbye to this beautiful city. In fact, it is not a goodbye, but a so far because being in Perpinyà is being home despite the Treaty of the Pyrenees.

 

In Perpinyà, as in the rest of the Catalan Countries, there is a saying that goes:

Si la Candelera plora, l'hivern és fora.
Si la Candelera riu, l'hivern és viu.
 

If Candlemas cries, winter is out.
If Candlemas laughs, winter is alive.

 

Joseph has taken a train back to Lyon where he will stay until Thursday,​​ Claire will continue to manage her business from Barcelona and The Grandma will leave this afternoon for Castelldefels where a new project awaits her. 

 

They have been intense and spectacular days visiting wonderful places and meeting fantastic people in the midst of torrential rain, snowstorms and freezing temperatures, although it seems that the sun has not come out much in Barcelona either.

 

More information: Ajuntament de Barcelona

The Castillet, Castellet in Standard Catalan, is an ancient fortification and city gate located in Perpinyà, Rosselló. 

This monument, a strong symbol of the city and has become a museum: Museu Català de les Arts i Tradicions Populars (La Casa Pairal). He was also called in certain periods Baluard or Bastilla.

The Castillet consists of three parts, namely:

-The Castillet proper built towards 1368 To defend the new door opened at that moment within the precincts of the city;

-The Notre-Dame or Petit Castillet gate, adjacent to the east flank of the previous building and which dates from 1481-1485;

-The polygonal bastion, established in 1542 In front of the Castillet proper to cover the approaches.

It is considered an archaeological monument of the greatest importance for the history of the city, and constitutes a unique type of military architecture. It is also decorative with its coronation of crenellations, consoles and turrets in Moorish style.

The Castillet proper was built around 1368 by the architect Guillaume Gatard on the orders of the Infant Don Joan of Aragon, to replace the door known as the Vernet which allowed to cross the ramparts and to communicate the city with the suburb. The new passage had a drawbridge that no longer exists. The massive construction of the building was that of a defensive castle to resist any offensive coming from the north. The ephemeral occupation of the Rosselló by Louis XI made it possible to change its destination. The fortress became useless, since every conflict with France was over, and it became a state prison. The windows were lined with iron fences, and the passage of the drawbridge was suppressed.

However, it was necessary to ensure an exit of the city towards the Vernet and the Petit Castillet was juxtaposed to the primitive building in 1478. It was the Portal of Nostra Dona del Pont or Gate of Our Lady of the Bridge . 

In 1542, Charles Quint had Castillet covered to the north by means of a polygonal bastion, the tower and the tower of which were advancing towards the Basse (river to the north). The workers used materials from the Portal of Nostra Dona del Pont, which was demolished (and the houses in the faubourg) for strategic reasons. 

Following the destruction of this chapel Castillet was placed under the protection of Nostra Dona del Pont and the statue of the Virgin who adorned it took place in the chapel. Thereafter, the statue was placed on the facade in a simple niche in the wall (the concave niche, visible today, adorned with a Gothic frame dates from 1864). 

Vauban strengthened the polygonal bastion of Charles V and restored the Castillet to a state of defense. During this century the Guard Corps was also built. It was a rather simple building, demolished in 1843, located on the south side on the ground floor and covered with tiles. It served as its name indicates the place of life of the Body of guard. A courtyard along the wall of Castillet allowed access to the door of the monument. 

In 1904, the fortified walls of Perpinyà were demolished but Castillet was respected. The crutches which connected it to the ramparts disappeared and the bastion and its watch were dynamited. In the twentieth century, the Castillet housed the Municipal Archives of Perpinyà.

More information: Perpignan Tourisme

 I believe very much in a dialogue between buildings 
-I believe it's always been there. 
I think buildings have different identities 
and live very well next to each other. 
We always have the shock of the new, and that's fine. 
The renaissance style is totally different from the medieval, 
and they have a dialogue across time.

Richard Rogers

This afternoon, The Grandma has started a new project in Castelldefels that will keep her busy for six months talking about communication, writing, dialectics, innovation, AI, planning and evaluation in the field of teaching and mental health.

Returning to Castelldefels is always a reason for joy because it means meeting again with the colleagues with whom you share work and with whom you work every day with the aim of improving, through teaching, the lives of people who want to improve their knowledge and skills in their respective jobs.

When you arrive in Castelldefels and cross the train bridge, you have a splendid view of the castle that gives the city its name in honour of the bravery of their ancestors who defended the population from external attacks, especially from Muslims and pirates. The city still preserves many watchtowers which, like the castle, are a must-see cultural visit to understand its history.

Castelldefels Castle is a frontier fortress in the town of Castelldefels, Catalunya, that was built to defend the frontier of the Carolingian Empire against neighbouring Muslim territories, particularly the Caliphate of Córdoba. The fortress was first recorded in the 10th century, as was the former parish church of Santa Maria, contained within its outer wall.

The castle occupies a hilltop to the northeast of the modern town centre and the castle complex includes the castle keep, a church, associated outbuildings, and a cemetery, all contained within a curtain wall. The hill was first occupied in ancient times and archaeologists have excavated remains of a Laietani settlement dating from the 3rd to the 1st century BC, and a Roman villa dating from the 1st to the 6th century AD. The castle was first recorded in AD 967, and by the 14th century a fortified house existed with a strong curtain wall. The church was also fortified in the 14th century. The castle as it stands today was largely built in the 16th century as a response to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

The church of Santa Maria was built on the hill in the 10th century by the monastery of Sant Cugat, which had been given instruction to develop the Castelldefels region by Sunyer, Count of Barcelona. The new church was first mentioned in a document dating to AD 967. The first mention of a castle on the hill is an indirect reference to the church of Santa Maria de Castrum Felix (Fortunate Castle in Latin). Archaeologists have not identified any remains of this early castle, suggesting that it may have been just a tower or perishable fortification, or that it stood on the highest part of the hill, located within the present-day castle courtyard, the bedrock of which was levelled during the 16th century.

The church structure visible today is Romanesque in style and dates from the 11th century. The Romanesque church was probably consecrated in 1106. It has a single nave with three apses, a transept, and supports a small belltower.

By the 14th-15th centuries, regional instability led to the increased need for defences, and the church was fortified. Records from the period indicate that the hilltop had been occupied by a fortified house with a strong curtain wall. The earliest known remains of the castle date to the 14th century; a truncated circular tower to the south of the church is of this date. Also in the 14th century, the church was partially fortified, particularly the southern apse, and battlements were added.

Archaeological reconnaissance of the hillside below the castle revealed abundant ancient remains, leading to the conclusion that the hill supported an ancient Iberian settlement and a later Roman villa. The Iberian settlement, inhabited by the Laietani, has been dated from the middle of the 3rd century BC to the end of the 1st century BC. The town of the Laietani covered the hilltop and the adjoining southern and eastern flanks. An Iberian water cistern was found carved from the bedrock under the castle's subsoil. A number of Iberian house remains were excavated under the church, although none have been found under the main area of the castle due to later modifications to the land surface, in order to level the courtyard in the middle of the 16th century.

More information: Patrimoni Generalitat de Catalunya

 But now I have come to believe 
that the whole world is an enigma, 
a harmless enigma that is made terrible 
by our own mad attempt to interpret it 
as though it had an underlying truth.

Umberto Eco

GARRAF NATURAL PARK, ENJOYING NATURE & HISTORY

Today has been a cloudy grey day in Barcelona and a bit cold.

Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have decided to take their bikes and go for a little ride to Sitges to enjoy the Garraf massif and to be able to observe the birds that live there.

It is a route of about 5 hours and 80 kilometres that allows you to enjoy one of the most beautiful and, perhaps, unknown Natural Parks along the GR-92.

The Garraf Massif, in Catalan  Massís del Garraf, is a mountain range of the Catalan Coastal Range. Its cliffs reach the Mediterranean waters. Its highest point on the coastal side is La Morella, 593 metres above sea level and further inland rises the higher, although less conspicuous, Montau (657 m).

The Garraf Massif gives its name to the Garraf comarca, as well as to the little seashore village of Garraf. It is located south of Barcelona, between the coastal towns of Castelldefels and Sitges. The small town of Olivella, Plana Novella with its Buddhist monastery, as well as the abandoned village of Jafre are located in the middle of the massif, in the Natural Park area.

This coastal calcareous mountain range is sparsely wooded, and has many rocky denuded areas. The main vegetation is maquis shrubland and the Mediterranean Fan Palm is an endemic species of these mountains. It has over 400 karstic shafts and caves, including La Falconera, a very large cave with an underground lake.

The Garraf Park is a 12,376-hectare area of ​​natural interest that is part of the Network of Natural Parks protected, promoted and managed by the Barcelona Provincial Council through the Area of ​​Natural Spaces and Green Infrastructure.

The park is spread over the municipalities of Avinyonet del Penedès, Begues, Castelldefels, Gavà, Olesa de Bonesvalls, Olivella, Sant Pere de Ribes, Sitges and Vilanova i la Geltrú. It is twinned with the Italian parks of Riserva Naturale Monte Soratte (2000) and the Parco Naturale della Maremma (2001).

In the park you can find remains of ancient human occupation (such as the castle of Eramprunyà and the abandoned villages of Campdàsens and Jafre) and farmhouses that are still dedicated to agriculture or park services (such as Can Planes and La Pleta). Right on the border of the park there is also the Creu de Sant Isidre, on Puig d'en Boronet, much appreciated by the people of Sitges.

The coastal situation determines a typically Mediterranean climate, with scarce but torrential rains in spring and autumn, mild and temperate winters, and hot and dry summers. This last characteristic limits the number of animal species capable of settling there. In order to withstand these conditions, plants develop a series of adaptations aimed at survival and improving their effectiveness in competition with other plants.

The torrential nature of the rains causes an extraordinarily powerful mechanical erosion that drags away all kinds of materials; if we add chemical erosion, which dissolves the limestone rock, the effect is impressive: deep and steep valleys and streams, with a tortuous and beautiful layout that the people of the country call fondos.

More information: Parc Natural del Garraf

More information: DIBA

 Nature does not hurry, 
yet everything is accomplished.

Lao Tzu

R2-D2, THE ASTROMECH DROID THAT SAVES THE DAY

Today, The Grandma has finished her English course in Castelldefels with The Bishops. It has been a wonderful time with her nice partners. They have been playing some game to practice oral English, and they have been talking about leaders and leadership.

Good luck, Bishops!

R2-D2 is a fictional robot character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas.

He has appeared in ten of the eleven theatrical Star Wars films to date. At various points throughout the course of the films, R2, an astromech droid, is a friend to C-3PO, Padmé Amidala, Anakin Skywalker, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. R2-D2 and his companion C-3PO are the only characters to appear in every theatrical Star Wars film, with the exception of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

English actor Kenny Baker played R2-D2 in all three original Star Wars films and received billing credit for the character in the prequel trilogy, where Baker's role was reduced as R2-D2 was portrayed mainly by radio controlled props and CGI models. In the sequel trilogy, Baker was credited as consultant for The Force Awakens; however, Jimmy Vee also co-performed the character in some scenes. Vee later took over the role beginning in The Last Jedi. In The Rise of Skywalker, puppeteers Hassan Taj and Lee Towersey perform the role of R2-D2, replacing Jimmy Vee, who had played the role in the previous two films. His sounds and vocal effects were created by sound designer Ben Burtt.

R2-D2 was designed in artwork by Ralph McQuarrie, co-developed by John Stears and built by Peteric Engineering. The revised Empire Strikes Back droids had fibreglass shells built by Tony Dyson and his White Horse Toy Company.

George Lucas's creation of R2-D2 was influenced by the peasant Matashichi from Akira Kurosawa's 1958 feature film The Hidden Fortress (released in the United States in 1962), although his personality is completely the opposite. Lucas and artist Ralph McQuarrie also drew inspiration from the robots Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Douglas Trumbull's 1972 film Silent Running.

More information: Star Wars

Around the same time that A New Hope was being shot, Ray Harryhausen had already created "Bubo" for the 1981 film Clash of the Titans. In the film, Bubo is a mechanical metal owl that flies heavily and communicates through whistles and tweets. Harryhausen denied a relation.

The name derives from when Lucas was making one of his earlier films, American Graffiti. Sound editor Walter Murch states that he is responsible for the utterance which sparked the name for the droid. Murch asked for Reel 2, Dialog Track 2, in the abbreviated form R-2-D-2. Lucas, who was in the room and had dozed off while working on the script for Star Wars, momentarily woke when he heard the request and, after asking for clarification, stated that it was a great name before going back to writing his script.

R2-D2 stands for Second Generation Robotic Droid Series-2, according to a Star Wars encyclopedia published after the release of the film Star Wars. Tony Dyson, owner of the special effects studio The White Horse Toy Company, was commissioned by special effects supervisor Brian Johnson to fabricate the revised mechanical design for The Empire Strikes Back, making several units operated by remote control. A number were used by Baker, and two were stunt double models made for the scene where the droid was shot from the swamp onto the shore on Dagobah.

More information: Live About

Several R2-D2 models were built for the original Star Wars films; one that was remote controlled and rolled on three wheeled legs, and others which were worn by English actor Kenny Baker and walked on two legs. Deep Roy (who also doubled Yoda in several scenes), served as Baker's double, in both Episodes V and VI; providing stunts and filling in when Baker was unavailable. The original props for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope were designed by John Stears and built by Stears' team and Peteric Engineering. The revised fibreglass droids used in The Empire Strikes Back were built by Tony Dyson and the White Horse Toy Company. The radio controlled R2 was operated by John Stears in A New Hope, Brian Johnson in The Empire Strikes Back and by Kit West in Return of the Jedi.

R2-D2 was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A replica can be seen at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. 

The Smithsonian Institution included R2-D2 in its list of 101 Objects that Made America.

In 2022, R2-D2 was surveyed as being the most popular movie robot in the United States.

The telescope dome of Zweibrücken Observatory in Germany was repainted to resemble R2-D2 in 2018.

More information: Ranker

A leader is best when people barely know he exists,
when his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
they will say: we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

IT MUST BE THE BEST MUSEUM IN ROMANESQUE ART...

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels. After some vacation days, it has been a little hard to come back to office, but The Bishops have done another masterclass.

First, they have been practising deductions with must and can, and they have been learning countable and uncountable nouns with many, much and a lot of.

Finally, they have described some art works from MNAC, and they have done some crosswords to improve vocabulary.

More information: Must/Mustn't & Can/Can't

More information: Countable & Uncountable Nouns

More information: Many, Much & A Lot Of

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in English National Art Museum of Catalonia, abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia.

Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme.

The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government.

That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito.

The Oval Hall was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995, when the Romanesque Art section was reopened, to 2004.

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004.

More information: MNAC

The history of this institution dates back to the 19th century, when, in accordance with the principles that inspired Catalonia's cultural and political Renaixença (renaissance), a movement particularly active in that century, many projects were launched to help revive and conserve the country's artistic heritage.

This process began with the establishment of the Museu d'Antiguitats de Barcelona (Barcelona Museum of Antiquities) in the Chapel of St Agatha (1880) and the Museu Municipal de Belles Arts (Municipal Fine Art Museum) in the Palau de Belles Arts (1891), a palace built to mark the occasion of the 1888 Universal Exhibition. 

A project to install all these Catalan art collections in the Palau Nacional, launched in 1934 under the initiative of Joaquim Folch i Torres, the first director of Catalonia Museum of Art, was frustrated by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), when for protection many works were transferred to Olot, Darnius and Paris, where an important exhibit was established. 

During the postwar period, the 19th- and 20th-century collections were installed in the Museu d'Art Modern, housed from 1945 to 2004 in the Arsenal building in Barcelona's Parc de la Ciutadella, whilst the Romanesque, Gothic and baroque collections were installed in the Palau in 1942.

The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government.

More information: MNAC-Twitter

In 1992 a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995, when the Romanesque Art section was reopened, to 2004.

Since 2004, the Palau Nacional has once more housed several magnificent art collections, mostly by Catalan art, but also European art. The works from that first museum have now been enriched by new purchases and donations, tracing the country's art history from early medieval times to the mid-20th century: from Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and baroque to modern art. This heritage is completed by the Gabinet Numismàtic de Catalunya (coin and medal collections), the Gabinet de Dibuixos i Gravats (drawings and engravings) and the library.

The Museu Nacional, as a museological institution of reference in the country, promotes a network that joins together the art museums in a common collaboration strategy, for placing value and spreading Catalan artistic heritage. The network of art museums was created with the aim of developing services, projects and activities jointly, so as to achieve a greater social, touristic and scientific projection among all the member museums.

The following museums currently form part: Biblioteca-Museu Víctor Balaguer, de Vilanova i la Geltrú; el Museu d'Art de Girona; el Museu Episcopal de Vic; Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona; el Museu del Cau Ferrat, de Sitges; el Museu de la Garrotxa, d'Olot; el Museu d'Art Jaume Morera, de Lleida; el Museu de Lleida Diocesà i Comarcal; el Museu de l'Empordà, de Figueres; el Museu de Reus; el Museu de Valls; el Museu de Manresa; el Museu d'Art de Sabadell; el Museu Abelló, de Mollet del Vallès; el Museu d'Art Modern de Tarragona; el Museu d'Art de Cerdanyola; la Fundació Apel·les Fenosa, del Vendrell; el Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona; el Museu del Disseny de Barcelona; el Museu Frederic Marès, de Barcelona i la Fundació Palau, de Caldes d'Estrac.

More information: MNAC-Youtube

Externally nothing much is altered for the present;
the basic tendency of Romanesque art
remains anti-naturalistic and hieratic.

Arnold Hauser

SURREALISM, UNCONSCIOUS MIND TO EXPRESS ITSELF

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have been describing surrealistic works created by Salvador Dalí. 

Next, they have proposed a plan to survive a crisis of communication.

Finally, they have played Clue, also known as Cluedo, a fantastic board game when you have to question to discover the great mysteries of a murder: who the murderer is, where it happens and what kind of tool the murderer chooses to kill the victim.

More information: Salvador Dalí, Surrealism & Eccentricism in Púbol 

Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself.

Its aim was, according to leader André Breton, to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality, or surreality. It produced works of painting, writing, theatre, filmmaking, photography, and other media.

Works of Surrealism feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (for instance, of the pure psychic automatism Breton speaks of in the first Surrealist Manifesto), with the works themselves being secondary, i.e. artifacts of surrealist experimentation.

Leader Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement. At the time, the movement was associated with political causes such as communism and anarchism. It was influenced by the Dada movement of the 1910s.

The term Surrealism originated with Guillaume Apollinaire in 1917. However, the Surrealist movement was not officially established until after October 1924, when the Surrealist Manifesto published by French poet and critic André Breton succeeded in claiming the term for his group over a rival faction led by Yvan Goll, who had published his own Surrealist manifesto two weeks prior.

The most important center of the movement was Paris, France. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, impacting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

More information: The Art Story

The word surrealism was first coined in March 1917 by Guillaume Apollinaire. He wrote in a letter to Paul Dermée: All things considered, I think in fact it is better to adopt surrealism than supernaturalism, which I first used [Tout bien examiné, je crois en effet qu'il vaut mieux adopter surréalisme que surnaturalisme que j'avais d'abord employé].

Apollinaire used the term in his program notes for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Parade, which premiered 18 May 1917.

The movement in the mid-1920s was characterized by meetings in cafes where the Surrealists played collaborative drawing games, discussed the theories of Surrealism, and developed a variety of techniques such as automatic drawing. Breton initially doubted that visual arts could even be useful in the Surrealist movement since they appeared to be less malleable and open to chance and automatism. This caution was overcome by the discovery of such techniques as frottage, grattage and decalcomania.

Surrealists believe that non-Western cultures also provide a continued source of inspiration for Surrealist activity because some may induce a better balance between instrumental reason and imagination in flight than Western culture.

Surrealism has had an identifiable impact on radical and revolutionary politics, both directly -as in some Surrealists joining or allying themselves with radical political groups, movements and parties- and indirectly -through the way in which Surrealists emphasize the intimate link between freeing imagination and the mind, and liberation from repressive and archaic social structures.

More information: Artsy

 Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only
what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.

Salvador Dalí

BRANDING, EXPOSING YOUR NAME AROUND THE WORLD

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have been talking about plurals in English.

Next, they have practised must and should modal verbs again.

Finally, they have given some advice to Rennette Watson to improve her brand around the world.

More information: Plural

 

More information: Learning English with Oxford

In marketing, brand management begins with an analysis on how a brand is currently perceived in the market, proceeds to planning how the brand should be perceived if it is to achieve its objectives and continues with ensuring that the brand is perceived as planned and secures its objectives.

Developing a good relationship with target markets is essential for brand management. Tangible elements of brand management include the product itself; its look, price, and packaging. The intangible elements are the experiences that the target markets share with the brand, and also the relationships they have with the brand. A brand manager would oversee all aspects of the consumer's brand association as well as relationships with members of the supply chain.

More information: Twitter, Communications with 280 Characters

It is defined as the process of creating a relationship or a connection between a company's product and emotional perception of the customer for the purpose of generating segregation among competition and building loyalty among customers.

Brand management is a function of marketing that uses special techniques in order to increase the perceived value of a product. Based on the aims of the established marketing strategy, brand management enables the price of products to grow and builds loyal customers through positive associations and images or a strong awareness of the brand.

Brand management is the process of identifying the core value of a particular brand and reflecting the core value among the targeted customers. In modern terms, a brand could be corporate, product, service, or person.

RNT, Rennette's brand

Brand management builds brand credibility and credible brands only can build brand loyalty, bounce back from circumstantial crisis, and can benefit from price-sensitive customers. The earliest origins of branding can be traced to pre-historic times. 

The practice may have first begun with the branding of farm animals in the middle East in the neolithic period. Stone Age and Bronze Age cave paintings depict images of branded cattle. Egyptian funerary artwork also depicts branded animals. Over time, the practice was extended to marking personal property such as pottery or tools, and eventually some type of brand or insignia was attached to goods intended for trade.

Around 4,000 years ago, producers began by attaching simple stone seals to products which, over time, were transformed into clay seals bearing impressed images, often associated with the producer's personal identity thus giving the product a personality.

A number of archaeological research studies have found extensive evidence of branding, packaging and labelling in antiquity. Archaeologists have identified some 1,000 different Roman potters' marks of the early Roman Empire, suggesting that branding was a relatively widespread practice.

More information: The Branding Journal

In Pompeii (circa 35 CE), Umbricius Scauras, a manufacturer of fish sauce, also known as garum, was branding his amphora which travelled across the entire Mediterranean. Mosaic patterns in the atrium of his house were decorated with images of amphora bearing his personal brand and quality claims.

In the East, evidence of branding also dates to an early period. From as early as 200 BCE, Chinese packaging and branding was used to signal family, place names and product quality, and the use of government imposed product branding was used between 600 and 900 AD.

In Japan, branding has a long heritage. For many Japanese businesses, a mon or seal is an East Asian form of brand or trademark.

The impetus for more widespread branding was often provided by government laws, requiring producers to meet minimum quality specifications or to standardise weights and measures, which in turn, was driven by public concerns about quality and fairness in exchange. The use of hallmarks, applied to precious metal objects, was well in place by the 4th century CE in Byzantium.

Evidence of silver bars marked under authority of the Emperor Augustinian dates to around 350 CE, and represents one of the oldest known forms of consumer protection. Hundreds of silver objects, including chalices, cups, plates, rings and bullion, all bearing hallmarks from the early Byzantine period, have been found and documented. Hallmarks for silver and gold were introduced in Britain in 1300.

In Medieval Europe, branding was applied to a broader range of goods and services. Craft guilds, which sprang up across Europe around this time, codified and reinforced, systems of marking products to ensure quality and standards. Bread-makers, silversmiths and goldsmiths all marked their wares during this period.

By 1266, English bakers were required by law to put a symbol on each product they sold. Bricui et al. have argued that the number of different forms of brands blossomed from the 14th century following the period of European discovery and expansion.

More information: 99 Designs

Branding was more widely used in the 19th century, following the industrial revolution, and the development of new professions like marketing, manufacturing and business management formalised the study of brands and branding as a key business activity.

Branding is a way of differentiating product from mere commodities, and therefore the use of branding expanded with each advance in transportation, communication, and trade.

With the rise of mass media in the early 20th century, companies soon adopted techniques that would allow their advertising messages to stand out; slogans, mascots, and jingles began to appear on radio in the 1920s and early television in the 1930s. By the 1930s, these advertising spots, as the packets of time became known, were being sold by the station's geographical sales representatives, ushering in an era of national radio advertising.

From the first decades of the 20th-century, advertisers began to focus on developing brand personality, brand image and brand identity-concepts.

By the 1940s, manufacturers began to recognize the way in which consumers were developing relationships with their brands in a social/psychological/anthropological sense. Advertisers began to use motivational research and consumer research to gather insights into consumer purchasing. Throughout the late 20th-century, brand advertisers began to imbue goods and services with a personality, based on the insight that consumers searched for brands with personalities that matched their own.

Among the most highly visible and recognizable brands is the script and logo for Coca-Cola products. Despite numerous blind tests indicating that Coke's flavor is not preferred, Coca-Cola continues to enjoy a dominant share of the cola market.

Modern brand management also intersects with legal issues such as genericization of trademark.  Yet, in a sense, reaching this stage of market domination is itself a triumph of brand management, in that becoming so dominant typically involves strong profit.

More information: Branding Mag

 

  

Your brand is your name, basically.

A lot of people don't know that they need to build their brand;

your brand is what keeps you moving.

Meek Mill

BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP MATRIX & THE PRODUCT

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have practised must and should modal verbs.

Next, they have created a BCG matrix.

More information: Should/Shouldn't

More information: Must/Mustn't

The growth-share matrix (aka the product portfolio matrix, Boston Box, BCG-matrix, Boston matrix, Boston Consulting Group analysis, portfolio diagram) is a chart created in a collaborative effort by BCG employees: Alan Zakon first sketched it and then, together with his colleagues, refined it.

BCG's founder Bruce D. Henderson popularized the concept in an essay titled The Product Portfolio in BCG's publication Perspectives in 1970. The purpose of the matrix is to help corporations to analyze their business units, that is, their product lines. This helps the company allocate resources and is used as an analytical tool in brand marketing, product management, strategic management, and portfolio analysis.

To use the chart, analysts plot a scatter graph to rank the business units (or products) on the basis of their relative market shares and growth rates.

-Cash cows is where a company has high market share in a slow-growing industry. These units typically generate cash in excess of the amount of cash needed to maintain the business.

-Dogs, more charitably called pets, are units with low market share in a mature, slow-growing industry. These units typically "break even", generating barely enough cash to maintain the business's market share.

-Question marks (also known as a problem child or Wild dogs) are businesses operating with a low market share in a high-growth market. They are a starting point for most businesses. Question marks have a potential to gain market share and become stars, and eventually cash cows when market growth slows.

-Stars are units with a high market share in a fast-growing industry. They are graduated question marks with a market- or niche-leading trajectory. The hope is that stars become next cash cows.

As a particular industry matures and its growth slows, all business units become either cash cows or dogs. The natural cycle for most business units is that they start as question marks, then turn into stars. Eventually, the market stops growing; thus, the business unit becomes a cash cow. At the end of the cycle, the cash cow turns into a dog.

As BCG stated in 1970, only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its strengths to truly capitalize on its growth opportunities. 

The balanced portfolio has:

-Stars whose high share and high growth assure the future;

-Cash cows that supply funds for that future growth; and

-Question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds.

More information: BCG

The financial markets generally are unpredictable.
So that one has to have different scenarios...
The idea that you can actually predict
what's going to happen contradicts
my way of looking at the market.

George Soros

THE FUTURE, MAY & WILL FOR WISHES & PREDICTIONS

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

First, they have practised future tense and indefinite pronouns composed by some, any and no.

Next, they have read some tarot cards and have predicted the future using Will/Won't, and they have expressed their best wishes using May.

It has been another interesting class where they have been talking about different themes like the troubadours, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Gypsy culture, and the importance of space and time in compositions and explanations.

More information: Some, Any & No Compounds

More information: Future Simple (Will)

More information: May

Forever Young is a song by Bob Dylan, recorded in California in November 1973. The song first appeared, in two different versions, a slow-pace and a fast-pace, on Dylan's fourteenth studio album Planet Waves.

A demo version of the song, recorded in New York City in June 1973, was included on Dylan's 1985 compilation Biograph. In the notes included with that album, Dylan is quoted as saying that he wrote Forever Young in Tucson, Arizona, thinking about one of his sons and not wanting to be too sentimental.

 

A live version of the song, recorded in Tokyo on 28 February 1978 and included on Dylan's album Bob Dylan at Budokan, was released as a European single in 1979.

 
Written as a lullaby for his eldest son Jesse, born in 1966, Dylan's song relates a father's hopes that his child will remain strong and happy.

It opens with the lines, May God bless and keep you always / May your wishes all come true, echoing the priestly blessing from the Book of Numbers, which has lines that begin: May the Lord bless you and guard you / May the Lord make His face shed light upon you. Not wishing to sound too sentimental, Dylan included two versions of the song on the album Planet Waves, one a lullaby and the other more rock-oriented.

In notes on Forever Young written for the 2007 album Dylan, Bill Flanagan writes that Dylan and the Band got together and quickly knocked off an album, Planet Waves, that featured two versions of a blessing from a parent to a child. In the years he was away from stage, Dylan had become a father. He had that in common with a good chunk of the audience. The song reflected it. Memorably recited on American television by Howard Cosell when Muhammad Ali won the heavyweight crown for the third time.

 

According to his website, Dylan performed the song live 493 times between its live debut in 1974 and its last outing in 2011. This includes a duet with Bruce Springsteen at the Concert for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, in 1995. Dylan also performed the song live on the Late Show with David Letterman in 1993.

 

Rod Stewart recorded a song titled Forever Young that was released as a single and included on his 1988 album Out of Order. Stewart's manager, Arnold Stiefel, said, [I]t would be fair to say that while the melody and the music is not at all the same [as Dylan's song], the idea of the song is similar. The architecture of the lyrics of the song is very much from Dylan–there are definite similarities.

 

The similarities were enough to cause Stiefel to contact Dylan, who requested a share of the royalties, and Stewart agreed.

 

More information: Bob Dylan

 

 May you grow to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
And may you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
And may you stay forever young.

 

Bob Dylan

STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS

Today, The Grandma has continued her English classes with The Bishops in Castelldefels.

 

First, they have welcome Pilar, a new member of the group. 

 

Later, they have practised the order of adjectives, and created a SWOT matrix, the strategic planning technique that talks about Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

More information: Order of Adjectives

SWOT analysis or SWOT matrix is a strategic planning technique used to help a person or organization identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or project planning.

This technique, which operates by peeling back layers of the company is designed for use in the preliminary stages of decision-making processes and can be used as a tool for evaluation of the strategic position of a city or organization. It is intended to specify the objectives of the business venture or project and identify the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieving those objectives.

Users of a SWOT analysis often ask and answer questions to generate meaningful information for each category to make the tool useful and identify their competitive advantage.

SWOT has been described as the tried-and-true tool of strategic analysis, but has also been criticized for its limitations.

SWOT assumes that strengths and weaknesses are frequently internally-related, while opportunities and threats commonly focus are due to the external environment.

The name is an acronym for the four parameters the technique examines:

-Strengths: characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over others.

-Weaknesses: characteristics of the business that place the business or project at a disadvantage relative to others.

-Opportunities: elements in the environment that the business or project could exploit to its advantage.

-Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project.

More information: Improving to Find New Chances

The degree to which the internal environment of the firm matches with the external environment is expressed by the concept of strategic fit. Identification of SWOTs is important because they can inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective.

First, decision-makers should consider whether the objective is attainable, given the SWOTs. If the objective is not attainable, they must select a different objective and repeat the process.

Some authors credit SWOT to Albert Humphrey, who led a convention at the Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International, in the 1960s and 1970s using data from Fortune 500 companies. However, Humphrey himself did not claim the creation of SWOT, and the origins remain obscure.

Internal factors are viewed as strengths or weaknesses depending upon their effect on the organization's objectives.

What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses (distractions, competition) for another objective. The factors may include personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities, and all of the marketing mix's 4Ps.

External factors include macroeconomics, technological change, legislation, and sociocultural changes, as well as changes in the marketplace. Results are often presented in the form of a matrix.

SWOT analysis is a method of categorization for which lists are compiled, uncritically and without prioritization, rather than seeking important factors to achieving objectives; weak opportunities may appear to balance strong threats.

The SWOT analysis has been used in community work as a tool to identify positive and negative factors within organizations, communities, and the broader society that promote or inhibit successful implementation of social services and social change efforts.

It is used as a preliminary resource, assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in a community served by a nonprofit or community organization.

Although SWOT analysis is a part of the planning, it will not provide a strategic plan if used by itself, but a SWOT list can becomes a series of recommendations.

More information: Bigg Success (Part I)

Strengths and Weaknesses (internal factors within an organization):

-Human resources-staff, volunteers, board members, target population

-Physical resources-your location, building, equipment

-Financial-grants, funding agencies, other sources of income

-Activities and processes-programs you run, systems you employ

-Past experiences-building blocks for learning and success, your reputation in the community

Opportunities and Threats, external factors stemming from community or societal forces:

-Future trends in your field or the culture

-The economy—local, national, or international

-Funding sources—foundations, donors, legislatures

-Demographics—changes in the age, race, gender, culture of those you serve or in your area

-The physical environment —is your building in a growing part of town? Is the bus company cutting routes?

-Legislation—do new federal requirements make your job harder...or easier?

-Local, national, or international events

Although the SWOT analysis was originally designed as an organizational method for business and industries, it has been replicated in various community work as a tool for identifying external and internal support to combat internal and external opposition.

The SWOT analysis is necessary to provide direction to the next stages of the change process. It has been used by community organizers and community members to further social justice in the context of Social Work practice.

More information: Bigg Success (Part II)

 

  

 A SWOT analysis involves asking,

What are our strengths and weaknesses?

What are our opportunities? What are the threats?

Amanda Lang