Hello everyone,
After discussing and reading about visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis for a few days I would like you to think about the merits of such skills in the workplace. Respond to this blog entry with the equivalent to 1.5-2 pages (double spaced in a Word document) endorsing the merits of teaching visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills to Dunder Mifflin employees.
Be sure to discuss why it's a good idea, why it's worth the extra time and money, How employees would be better prepared to do their jobs with such skills, and anything else you deem significant enough to discuss.
Please post your response by 8 AM on Monday Feb. 22.
Daniel
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Teaching the employees of Dunder Mifflin skills in visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis are worthy investments. Being in the business of selling, it is important to understand how best to convey a message to consumers or fellow employees most effectively. Whether a flier sent to potential customers or presentation given to corporate leaders, the employees at Dunder Mifflin need to know how to best create visuals or put together speeches. The mastery of these attributes will create a more successful and cohesive corporation.
ReplyDeleteAn advertisement or pamphlet about Dunder Mifflin is a great way to enhance a business’s profits. Effective strategies to create a successful visual need to be taught to the employees in order to reap the benefits of the endeavor. For example, the creator needs to know how lines can be used to draw the viewer’s attention to important elements. The use of color can aide to a visual and the manipulation of it should be known to Dunder Mifflin employees. Finally, how to best convey the desired message can be taught and put into action.
While presenting to corporate leaders, a professional report needs to be delivered. Strategies in public speaking would help the employees to ensure that the corporate headquarters get a good impression of the branch presenting. Public speaking can be done through memorization, impromptu, scripted, or extemporaneous means. The informed employees of Dunder Mifflin with this information could figure out the best means to deliver their presentation and thus have a more successful speech. Using visuals in a presentation is important. The employees need to be experienced in the best means to use visuals. Visuals can greatly aide in a presentation is done correctly. The following tactics could help the employees at Dunder Mifflin: not displaying visuals until they is ready to be discussed, point to what is important in the visual, tell the audience what should be seen in the visual, and not ending with a visual.
There are many ways to enhance a presentation. The expense of teaching employees warrants itself, when results are received. A successful presenter will anticipate questions, deliver an appropriate presentation aimed to the audience, and finally transitions and main points will be clear. Keeping a uniform standard of presentation throughout Dunder Mifflin ensures that all branches have an understanding of what is required of them. Communication is essential in running a large corporation. Investing in education for its employees is a worthy endeavor for Dunder Mifflin.
Teaching visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis to Dunder Mifflin employees would be a very effective way to boost sales and the rapport Dunder Mifflin has with its customers. Effectively teaching proper visual rhetoric strategies would allow employees to better communicate with customers/clients as well as help the company work as a more cohesive team.
ReplyDeleteEven though it would initially take time to address, in the long run, employees familiar with a background in visual rhetoric could save time because presentations, reports, and other documents would be effectively communicated right away. Therefore extra time wouldn’t be needed to explain charts or figures. A good example of using visual rhetoric that would benefit Dunder Mifflin is using different colorings and line patterns in presentations or reports that draw the reader’s eye to the main message being conveyed. In doing so, the viewer’s attention will stay focused on what you want them to see. When doing this, however, it is important to maintain ethical values. Some unethical approaches to visual rhetoric would be to manipulate data or alter the scale of the axes in a plot to emphasize a certain point.
Other benefits of Dunder Mifflin employees being well versed in visual rhetoric are that they would be familiar with useful conventions. Once learned, these conventions could be used on many presentation or reports that are of similar nature. Rhetorical analysis can also demonstrate a strong sense of letteracy. Some benefits of rhetorical analysis during speeches might include being more prepared for questions by anticipating them in advance as well speaking naturally during a speech and not writing too complicated.
Teaching visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills to Dunder Mifflin employees would help performances of employees and the company. As the company which is trying hard to make profit, visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills would affect selling in the positive way enough to improve the selling. There are two things that can be affected by teaching visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills to Dunder Mifflin employees such as advertisements, and presentations.
ReplyDeleteThe first one that can be affected is advertisements. For every business in the world need some type of advertisements in order to begin and maintain the business. There are few types of advertisements that do not require visual rhetoric including radio advertisements. However, most of advertisements including TV commercials, magazine and newspaper advertisements, and pamphlets require some kind of visual rhetoric. If the employees are taught to be experts of using visual rhetoric, it can increase effectiveness of advertisements. For example, the employees should know how to utilize some factors such as lines, and colors. Using different types of line and colors in advertisements can make viewers to pay close attention to advertisements and messages that the company emphasized would be passed on the viewers.
The other one that can be affected is presentations. For the employees, presentations are really common thing to do to illustrate what they have done or what they are going to do. Presentations are the way of communication between the presenters and the audiences. In order to improve presentations to have better connections between the presenters and the audiences, visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills are required. Including not only text but also several types of visual components to support ideas of presenters such as charts, and graphs in presentations can enhance the understanding of contents for the audiences. For example, let’s suppose the employees are having a presentation about the statistics of something. If they just talk about the statistics without any visual rhetoric, the audiences would think the presentation is just full of some numbers and hard to understand, but if there are some visual rhetoric to support or show the statistics in some types of charts and graphs, the audience would have better understandings of the numbers.
Teaching visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills to Dunder Mifflin employees is beneficial to the employees and the company because it can improve the effectiveness of two things including advertisements and presentations. Therefore, the employees need to be taught about visual rhetoric/rhetorical analysis skills
Visual rhetoric represents a vital part of social communication for every business. For an employee of a paper company to have the skills to rhetorically analyze or create a visual piece would be exceptionally useful. The time and effort it would take to train the employees of Dunder Mifflin on analysis techniques and creation strategies would be well worth the company’s time.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the greatest benefit for teaching the Dunder Mifflin employees about visual rhetoric would be so they can inform and advise customers about product selection with regard to the customers own visual rhetoric. As a paper company, employees must be able to help customers decide what type of paper product will suit their needs. Part of this decision is based on what the application of the paper is. If the paper is to be used in visual rhetoric, factors such as color and line placement must be kept in mind. An employee must be able to help the customer analyze what the visual rhetoric will look like, what kind of paper to use and how best to utilize the paper, in terms of color and lines, to make the visual rhetoric the most effective at conveying its message. One of Dunder Mifflin’s core values is its extraordinary customer service and having this skill will add to our employee’s ability to provide this service.
Another benefit for teaching the employees about rhetorical analysis and visual rhetoric would be the improvement of the marketing strategy for the company. The whole purpose of visual rhetoric is to convince the audience of your message or product. To any company, an effective marketing campaign can create tremendous business. Further, Dunder Mifflin is a paper company and should be expected to be able to create compelling visual rhetoric using its own products. This means that the marketing team must be able to utilize proper techniques when creating the ad and teaching them about visual rhetoric and analysis would achieve this.
A third benefit would be strictly for the personal improvement of the employees business skills. Many times throughout the career of a business person, they must present their ideas or results to their manager or co-workers. Having the skills needed to create an effective presentation which includes visual rhetoric is important to all individuals in this position. Training employees in visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis will help create or improve these skills.
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ReplyDeleteTeaching employees visual rhetorical analysis skills is necessary for the company's future success. It is definitely worth of an investment to teach these skills to the Dunder Mifflin’s employees. They will be better prepared to do their job better, which will lead to the company’s profit. Rhetorical analysis skills are especially important for employees in a Dunder Mifflin company, a business company that depends on its sales. Visual rhetoric is a way of understanding the relationship among clients, users, and designers. Dunder Mifflin will be able to advertise more effectively, which will lead to bigger sales of their products, and staying in business longer.
ReplyDeleteSince the customer service has been one of the Dunder Mifflin’s priorities, visual rhetorical skills will improve the interaction between employees and customers. The Dunder Mifflin’s official website has not only an informational purpose but also a persuasive one. It sells the product by making users happy with their purchase. Visual rhetoric is important to consider, when coming up with these advertisement images. While designing an image through visual rhetoric, ethos, logos and pathos play an important role. To appeal to customer’s ethos, ask what image of the client should the document put forward. To appeal to logos, ask what the most important information this document convey is. Finally, the appeal to pathos evokes an intended emotional response in the user.
With the expertise in visual rhetoric, Dunder Mifflin’s employees will be better at persuasion in their proposals. For the company, there are three main categories proposals to convince someone of doing the business with. A services proposal means to perform a service, such as offering to design a website. The design of the website contributes to a rhetorical argument of the product and the company, and helps potential users feel good about the product they are purchasing. A sales proposal means to provide a product at a particular cost and under certain conditions. With the use of visual rhetoric techniques, can persuade users that they should buy more products from the company. A grant proposal, to do a project that someone finds worthy of financial support. If done correctly, this kind of proposal encourages potential stockholders to buy stock in the corporation, as well as financial support from the investors.
To have the right effect, the documents made with the help of visual rhetoric have to represent interests of the users. First, Dunder Mifflin’s employees need to learn finding out what are the needs and expectations of their potential customers. This can be done through user research. The results of the research will help understand both visual perception and visual culture of the target market, and create visual aid to meet those specific needs.
Visual Rhetoric, when appropriately used, can be an incredibly powerful tool for the employees of Dunder Mifflin to utilize. Whether presenting to potential clients, colleagues or even upper management, individuals can truly benefit from an understanding of this concept. Having the ability to effectively convey messages through images can be very useful for employees at all levels of Dunder Mifflin which makes teaching the tools of visual rhetoric essential throughout the company.
ReplyDeleteEmployees who are well versed in visual rhetoric become much more effective sales people by being able to display products and images of the company in an effective manner. This will potentially boost individual performance while also helping Dunder Mifflin enhance their reputation. For the company internally, employees who have been taught and understand the use of visual rhetoric will become much more effective communicators, helping to streamline communications through the levels of the company.
To teach the employees of Dunder Mifflin how to effectively use and communicate using visual rhetoric, the company must be willing to invest the time and money necessary. While this venture may seem costly at first, the cost is no where near the future gain that is possible through the application of this tool. Dunder Mifflin will be able to market more effectively, communicate more efficiently with clients, and communicate more efficiently through the company. The cost of teaching visual rhetoric is only a small price to pay when looking at the future earning potential.
The sales people of Dunder Mifflin are already some of the most effective marketers in the office supply field. By teaching them the skills and usefulness of visual rhetoric our company can capture even more of the market. Employees will be able to concisely communicate with clients, helping to establish and address any concerns the client may have while also developing a great image of the particular sales person. As stated above, another key factor that will assist employees in their careers is there considerable ability to communicate more effectively with colleagues. Having this tool will give employees of Dunder Mifflin a higher standard of communication and help them through improved sales and inter office communications.
Teaching the employees of Dunder Mifflin how to effectively use visual rhetoric will help streamline the company’s communications and help individual employees in effectively making sales. By investing the time and the money on this tool, Dunder Mifflin can truly boost its image in the public eye and become a much more effective communicator in the business environment. Every employee throughout the company will benefit from learning these skills. Visual rhetoric is an incredibly powerful tool and should be taught to all employees of Dunder Mifflin.
Bryan Sherman
On first inspection, it would seem that visual rhetoric only has its place in the marketing department of a business. Color combinations, line placement, and icons seem most directly related to catching the eye of a potential customer and selling a product. However, every employee of a company is partially responsible for the success of that product or service, and visual rhetoric skills complement the analytical mind-set of a successful employee. The Dunder Mifflin Paper Company should provide some visual rhetoric training for all of its employees in order to improve the quality of their communication skills and thereby increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the company as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe marketing department of Dunder Mifflin would, of course, benefit from such training. The (visual and audio) composition of an advertisement is very instrumental in getting audiences to remember the advertisement and subsequently go out and purchase a product. Companies with recognizable advertisements are long-lasting, and longevity is important in any business venture.
However, marketing executives are not the only ones who need to understand visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric requires a certain amount of cultural competency which can significantly improve the relatability of Dunder Mifflin employees. Employees trained in visual rhetoric have a store of knowledge on what resonates with their culture—patriotism, empathy, religious morals, political leanings, pop stars for the current generation, past stars for an older generation, and topics that are cliché or out of date. The more an employee is attuned to the culture of the time—both for the current audience or market for a product and for markets that may not have been reached—the more they are able to connect with that culture and promote their business.
Visual rhetoric skills are also important within the business setting. Every employer looks for employees that have excellent communication skills—usually speaking and written—because it aids efficiency and clarity in the work place. Visual rhetoric does the same thing. Sitting through a presentation with no visuals can be mentally taxing. Human comprehension works on multiple levels and most people learn and remember better when they are given both auditory and visual stimulation. Having employees who understand the ways that their speech and visuals complement each other will allow for much more effective communication, especially during presentations and reports.
Visual rhetoric requires an employee to question the assumptions that they make about communication. They must ask: How would someone else interpret this, rather than me? When other people see this, do they see the same thing? Will someone else be able to follow my line of thinking, or am I assuming something that no one else will understand? These questions can also be applied to other forms of communication, making all interactions more effective. Because most visual components must incorporate the largest amount of information in the smallest space possible, employees will learn to be concise and to the point.
Training employees in order to develop their visual rhetoric skills would cost the Dunder Mifflin money. However, because these skills provide necessary lessons for interactions both with customers and with inter-office employees, the costs would not outweigh the benefits. Internal procedures would run more smoothly (and enjoyably), thereby cutting down on internally wasted time and resources. Company-customer would also clearly benefit, resulting in a more relatable and trustworthy company image and increased sales and profits. Dunder Mifflin would continue on its path of becoming a recognizable, successful corporation.
It do Dunder Mifflin good to teach the employees of Dunder Mifflin skills of visual rhetoric. It will help Dunder Mifflin succeed more in the business world. It will do this by helping in advertising. Using visuals can be a great source to show everyone what Dunder Mifflin is all about. Visuals should be used correctly to produce the best results. We can do this by teaching the skills of visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric skills could come in handy for just more than advertising. It can be helpful for presentations as well. Presentations and advertisement can be a great way to share information. The better you can portray the message the more successful it will be. That is why it is important to teach the employees of Dunder Mifflin visual rhetoric skills.
ReplyDeleteHaving the ability to teach and learn visual rhetoric and rhetoric analysis to Duder Mifflin employees would be a significant way to improve work ethic and the way everyone would perform. It would help employees to better their performance with costumers which would increase sales and productivity. Having the ability to communicate properly and doing it through a highly effective way such as visual rhetoric can not only better the Dunder Mifflin employees but everyone else as well.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it would take some time and much effort as well as money to teach visual rhetoric to the employees of Dunder Mifflin, the outcome would be very beneficial. It can only improve the company, and the way customers and the public looks at them. The employee must remember to consider the audience they are referring to and how they might react to the situation too. Just because it makes sense to the employee doesn’t mean the clients will follow the same concept. Employees who have the ability to use visual rhetoric will be successful in their personal contribution to the company, as well as help to boost the company’s image. Being able to display products in a proper fashion so that the customers can understand the concept will enhance individual performance that will eventually better the company as a whole later on down the road.
Visual rhetoric’s whole point is to effectively persuade the audience of the product and for any business company this is a vital part for a business to be successful and make an impact. All in all Dunder Mifflin employees should be taught the proper uses of visual rhetoric to develop a highly effective company that meets every costumers needs to the fullest.
It is important to teach the employees of Dunder Mifflin the skill set of visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis. As a business in sales, the visual presentation is what customers first look at. That is why it is important to present something that will catch the eyes of people exposed and gain their attention. With competitions out in the industry, it is up to Dunder Mifflin to distinguish their niche to the people. Why customers should purchase from DM and no one else.
ReplyDeleteThe skills will be very helpful in the Dunder Mifflin environment. For a company base on sales and marketing, it is essential for DM to have the best communication between employees and customers. On the marketing side, it is important for the employees to demonstrate the benefits being with DM. Marketers will be able to utilize the art of rhetoric visual in websites, fliers, advertisments on TV and magazines. The sale assocaite can benefit from this asset by presenting customers creative and informative handouts and booklets. With the help of rhetoric visual, this can be a way to persuade the customers and build the relationship.
Marketing and sales are not the only ones that will benefit from rhetoric visual trainning. The managers and executives can benefit the skill of rhetoric visual by using it in presentation. It is essential for the manager to utilize the rhetoric visual during presentations. It can demonstrate how well the branch is doing and show the imporvements and ideas.
It is a good idea because audience tends to memorize visual arts rather than words. Visuals can attract people's attention easier and allow them to recognize brands and logos. If Dunder Mifflin wants to have the competitive advantage, they can create in a visual sense. In the end, the money for the trainning will out pay itself. With every employee well aware of rhetoric visual, they will be able to help each other and create a pursuaive visual.
Employees can better do their job with the skill of rhetoric visual by demonstrating their ideas rather than trying to explain it in words. Visual sticks better in a person head rather than words. For example, if a person was to present an new idea for staple. It is best to demonstrate the idea of the new stapler and rather than just explaing it with words and hand gestures.
Rhetoric visual and rhetorical anaylsis is very important in a busienss enviroenmnt. Not only does it allow indivduals to freely express their thoughts, it also allows many more idea to be generate from that. It is also essential to visually implement Dunder Mifflin into the consumer's brain. Consumers will be impleneted with brand recognition and everytime the logo pops up, they will remember DM. If Dunder Mifflin knows what their target market wants and their needs, they will be able to take advantage of rhetoric visual skills.
Teaching rhetorical awareness to Dunder Mifflin employees will never be a waste of time or effort. Simply being able to recognize when rhetoric is being used is a huge help to anyone involved in business especially sales. Rhetoric exists everywhere in some form or another and it is always a powerful force. However, in the workplace one must pay attention to where it is coming from and what forms it takes. In business rhetoric can be best utilized to sell a product or idea and thus workers need to be aware of this use of rhetoric. Awareness will allow people to know when something is being sold to them and allow them to make good decisions based on this knowledge. This rhetoric may also come in a less obvious way; it could appeal to human nature in order to sell something through popularity.
ReplyDeleteVisual rhetoric is also a valuable tool that can be used by several branches of the company. Marketing would be the most obvious beneficiers of such a skill as they can use it when designing any visual based advertisement. As a paper company, Dunder Mifflin may not have large billboards advertising their products or ads in the local newspaper, but subtle advertising between businesses or on the sides of delivery trucks can be more effective than one would first think.
After reading the comic it is easy to see how people can be drawn to symbols or icons in visual rhetoric. The natural desire to fit in is apparent everywhere, in some cases it leads to people desiring what others have. Cartoons and comics laughing at these human desires has become a common trend, they entice their readers by giving examples of ethos as shown through natural emotions. In one showing two couples, one older and the other younger, the older woman looks at the younger woman and thinks, “If only I had her figure,” while the younger woman looks back and thinks, “If only I had her diamonds.” The younger man looks at the old one thinking, “If only I had his money,” the older man staring back thinks, “If only I had his wife.” (Human). It is only natural for human beings to desire more, for with these additional things they could attain even more of their desires. This comic is a perfect example of this as each person begins to think of what they could accomplish if only they had what the other person had. Coupled with the desire to belong to a community oriented group, these human goals to improve their personal lives’ will drive a society forward while the desire for conformity keeps the group together and ever-changing as shown in the variety of comic strips. And these are all reasons why Dunder Mifflin employees need at least a basic understanding of rhetoric, because we are all human.
- A. Marker
It is important for people to acknowledge and understand the idea of visual rhetoric, especially in the workplace. When it comes to Dunder Mifflin, the company is at a point where re-identifying its image is crucial, and an understanding of visual rhetoric may prove to be beneficial. Because they cannot compete with their larger competitors’ low prices, Dunder Mifflin must provide the consumer with something equally as important as low prices, which may prove difficult with the current state of the economy. Dunder Mifflin can use visual rhetoric in a new advertising campaign aimed at changing the current image of the company.
ReplyDeleteFor an advertisement campaign to be effective it is important for Dunder Mifflin to know the needs, motivations, and lifestyles of the target audience before the creation of an ad. Once they pinpoint the exact needs of the customers, they can make the name “Dunder Mifflin” synonymous with things like outstanding customer service and high quality office supplies. This can be done through the use of rhetorical devices like icons and slogans incorporated into every advertisement. Advertisements usually depict visual rhetoric because they include the components that make someone think or act, or at least encourage them to think a certain way. Product placements, or simply making appearances in different forms of media, would also be crucial. This could be as simple as showing Dunder Mifflin’s logo on bus stop benches. The combination of advertisements and product placements would all have to incorporate the same theme and somehow acknowledge that their prices are slightly higher but their quality and customer care far exceed the competition. The message portrayed must convince customers that these elements may sometimes be more important than cost.
Understanding visual rhetoric and its place in the recreation of Dunder Mifflin’s public perception would be important for all employees, not just those involved in advertising. Those in the sales department not only need to know the product they are selling, but the image associated with it. The image associated with it must be depicted in the advertisements.
Sources:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Visual_Rhetoric/Mediums_and_Manifestations_of_Visual_Rhetoric
Visual rhetoric is important in the work place because it demonstrates professionalism in a way that cannot necessarily be expressed with spoken word. A company needs to have an identity visually because most of the time, that is what people see first. Visuals are important to presentations because they can make or break them. One of the most important aspects of presentation can often be the visual, and when it comes to choosing the visual, that can also be important. One must decide what point they would like to get across and resonate with the audience. If you are trying to get people to understand the impact of numbers then using some sort of graph to help visualize a percentage would be most helpful. For Dunder Mifflin employees, it is extremely important to understand visual rhetoric as well as how to use it properly because ultimately, sales is what matters. Selling products is what Dunder Mifflin needs to do to survive, which means presenting the material in the best way possible. A quick visual that is going to stay in the mind of the customer in a positive way is the goal, so knowing how to use visual rhetoric is imperative. It is also helpful to know so that employees know how to use it properly, being careful not to misuse or misrepresent the company. If one employee makes a presentation to other employees, clients, etc., and does not properly use visuals, that not only makes them look bad, but also makes the company of Dunder Mifflin look bad for hiring or not educating that individual. Employees knowing how to properly use visuals will be well prepared for their presentations and will not only be able to create effective presentations, but will feel good about the job they have done. Visual rhetoric and the understanding of it is only going to benefit the company. Employees will have all the skills needed to be great salesmen and women, as well as effective communicators. Taking the time ad money and investing it into educating Dunder Mifflin employees on visual rhetoric and other tools necessary will ensure that Dunder Mifflin is flawless.
ReplyDeleteDunder Mifflin is a company constantly aiming to improve itself, and it is on the shoulders of all Dunder Mifflin personnel to see this become a reality. In order to maximize success, as well as minimize losses in time and effort, it is important that each member of the Dunder Mifflin team know how to communicate the goals of the new vision for the company. Each member of the team must know where we are going, how we will get there, and what advantages we will create by doings so, but above all, the team must relay this information to our valued customers.
ReplyDeleteThe Dunder Mifflin team will accomplish this goal of excellence when given the proper tools to do so. These tools are a fluency in both Visual Rhetoric and Rhetorical Analysis. Visual Rhetoric allows for the conveyance of massive amounts of information to an audience, the skilled use of visuals can greatly increase the effectiveness of each member of the Dunder Mifflin team as they convey the new vision both internally and externally. If it is true and a picture is really worth a thousand words, Dunder Mifflin would be foolish to overlook the opportunity to use visuals to our advantage. Beyond this, a trained individual in Rhetorical Analysis will know how to more effectively and efficiently use the tools provided them to further the aims of Dunder Mifflin’s new direction. Members of the team aware of the conventions of communication will be better prepared to evaluate and correct internally the efforts of their peers in the many interactions Dunder Mifflin participates in every day. Increased efficiency and understanding will result from a work force that is given the tools to communicate on a large scale using visuals well.
This is by no means a call to turn Dunder Mifflin’s team into rhetoricians or scholars, simply to improve upon the overall effectiveness of every member’s internal and external communication. With this improvement, the new vision of Dunder Mifflin will more quickly and effectively become reality. The additional training is a strategic investment in Dunder Mifflin’s future and will continue to provide advantages for years to come. A more effective and cohesive team can only bring benefits to the company. By using the tools of Visual Rhetoric and Rhetorical Analysis, communication on a large scale will be accomplished by more team members on an improved level of quality. As the team communicates Dunder Mifflin’s new direction both internally and externally with a renewed effectiveness, the vision for the future will quickly become the reality of the present.
After discussing and reading about visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis for a few days I think there are many benefits to having these skills in the workplace. Visual aids can have a huge impact on presentations in sales, reporting on company figures, presenting new ideas to coworkers and connecting with a client. If used correctly visual rhetoric shows the listener or reader what to focus on, it emphasizes the main point, it allows another pathway to understanding the presentation and it can organize an idea. Visual rhetoric can be in the form of pictures, graphs, charts, numbers, maps, etc. A worker who knows how to use visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis knows how to incorporate it in the purpose of the presentation, incorporate into who their audience is and figure out which type of rhetoric will work the best to relay their information to the audience. It's a good idea to have and use these skills in the workplace in order to persuade a boss, coworker or client. Just like words, images can have an emotional appeal, ethical appeal or logic appeal to an audience. These appeals can be crucial in winning a client or promoting a product, which is why training employees to have and use visual rhetoric skills, is worth the extra time and money.
ReplyDeleteDunder Mifflin employees would be better prepared to do their jobs with such skills because the use visual rhetoric in the paper industry could hugely expand their company. In order to reach a vastly larger amount of people than a letter or phone call, having a website to display news, history, products and even things like their environmental attitude would make their information easy and accessible. Being able to use graphs and tables and charts to show the CEO how well the Scranton branch is doing would help spare employees at times of cutbacks. Images of Dunder Mifflin’s product line compared to competitor’s products could affect which company a client chooses. Skills as seemingly insignificant as the ability to put together and organized, colorful or dramatic presentation helps show the audience what to focus on, what is important and what they should remember. The skill of using color alone could allow an employee to show relationships, organize images, emphasize points, etc. Along with visual rhetoric come ethical decisions because it is easy to alter images and graphs to benefit a cause. It is also a skill to know how to present visual rhetoric, such as when and where it is appropriate, as well as, how many images are too many, if the images mach the oral presentation and if the images show what the audience needs to see.
Teaching visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis to employees would be a valuable investment for Dunder Mifflin. Because the company makes its money by selling their office products, they should utilize the most effective way to convince consumers to purchase them. This can be achieved through visual rhetoric. For example, the Dunder Mifflin website could be designed to more effectively target consumers. While the logo is in the upper left hand corner – like the university websites we looked at in class – the link to purchase products is mixed in with other headlines. The designers of the website could apply the techniques of visual rhetoric by using lines to draw the eye to words like “Purchase” or “Buy Here.” The element of color could also be applied here by using red or another contrasting/eye-catching color to clearly show people where to buy the products. A designer proficient in visual rhetoric would probably choose a different picture for the opening page of the website as well. The current picture is several stacks of paper. While the picture repeatedly displays the company logo, the picture may be more effective if it showed something more intriguing. A picture of an employee interacting with a customer may also be effective because it would reinforce the message of superior customer relations which Dunder Mifflin continually emphasizes. An employee that received training in visual rhetoric could apply these suggestions and techniques to design more effective visuals (websites, etc.) and potentially increase sales. Therefore, the money spent on training would come full circle through an increase in profits.
ReplyDeleteApplying the skills of visual rhetoric will also be beneficial to employee presentations. For example, when Michael tries to convince his boss that the Scranton branch should not be terminated, his use of visuals was neither convincing nor appropriate. He did not take into account his audience. Because Michael did not create a visual that addressed his target audience, he also failed to create a message that would be convincing to that specific audience. Michael’s visuals portrayed a message of unity among its employees. But what his audience (his boss/CEO) needed to see to be convinced was a message emphasizing productivity and profitability. If Michael had been trained in visual rhetoric techniques, the visuals in his presentation could have been more appropriate for the situation.
For Dunder Mifflin associates, employing effective visual rhetoric could be a very important and useful skill for them to have. Being in a sales position for example, one of the most important things to consider when dealing with potential customers is how they view your product. The more you can help your product appeal to the customer, the better chances you have of making the sale. So when creating commercials and newspaper/magazine advertisements for Dunder Mifflin's paper products, the use of visual rhetoric becomes vital to the success of these advertisements. This makes training in the use of proper visual rhetoric a worthwhile cost investment for all staff because it increases their recognition of what it takes to sell their product. This is especially the case due to the extremely dull and boring nature of the product that Dunder Mifflin supplies: office products.
ReplyDeleteAs for a typical sale, visual rhetoric can help in two fashions: through presentations, or flyers handed out to the same clientele. For presentations, the goal for Dunder Mifflin sales associates is not only to sell their office products, but they're selling an important business relationship with the customer. This makes it especially important that their presentation stands out to the customer. Another important use of visual rhetoric in presentations is to their bosses because in a lot of cases you must convince your boss that your idea, concept, or design in the best. For flyers, the goal is to appeal to the market Dunder Mifflin is invested in by relating to the customer and intriguing them enough to give them a call. Only through the use of proper visual rhetoric strategies to relate the product to the desired consumer base can this be done well.
That aside, adequate training in the use of visual rhetoric is important for all employees because it allows the average employee to recognize what it takes to sell Dunder Mifflin products. With an idea of how the company is advertised to the general public, employees have a better idea of what their employer vision or goal of the product is. This allows them to adapt and modify their work to fit this style or vision which can really help in the sales of the office products they sell.
Both rhetorical analysis and visual rhetoric are important and should be observed and understood in all areas, but specifically the work area as will be discussed. As general rhetoric has already been discussed in a previous paper this shall focus on visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric is important in all forms of communication in the work place. In casual conversation posture and hand gestures can tell convey a lot of information to your audience, primarily your confidence and interest level regarding the topic being discussed. For example, if a supervisor comes to your work area unexpected and begins to ask about your work, your visual signs can say more than your words. Posture and hand signals can show a lack of confidence about a project you are working on, despite how confident and assuring you intend for your words to be. Although this is important, the specific scenario where visual rhetoric is often most critical is in a formal presentation.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing to consider in a presentation to a supervisor or peers is the audience. An engineer presenting a research study at a convention will likely need to use a very different visual rhetoric than someone presenting their idea for a cost cutting measure to a supervisor. Visual aids are a very helpful tool and almost always used in these presentations. However the speaker needs to consider the timing and appropriateness of any visual aid that they utilize. Any visual aid needs to be easy to use and even more importantly, easy for the audience to see and understand. Again, this requires the speaker to know their audience and be able to make assumptions based on it. Using an engineer as an example again, a presentation to his or her peers will likely use technical terms that do not need to be explained or discussed as the audience can be expected to know it already. However a supervisor may not know those terms, so even giving the same presentation the visual aids and other rhetoric need to be altered in such a way that the previously assumed portions can be adequately explained.
So in essence visual rhetoric is very important part of communication and depends primarily to the audience and the specific subject matter. Because of its importance in being able to both understand what someone is visually expressing, and how express oneself it is worth time and money required to gives employees at least a general understanding if not a highly detailed understanding of the use and awareness of visual rhetoric.
This is Joe Westergreen:
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding visual rhetoric allows people to be able to come up with the best strategy for presenting information to their audience. Visual rhetoric skills are very valuable for any person to have especially employees at Dunder Mifflin because their work is focused around sales. It is important to teach visual rhetoric and rhetorical analysis to employees at Dunder Mifflin because it will improve the way that they can interact with their clients and will increase sales in the long run. Understanding the basic process and ideas associated with visual rhetoric will allow employees to learn how to clearly and effectively present data to an audience. Training employees about the different techniques of visual rhetoric, the software available to create effective visuals, and the proper ways to use visual rhetoric in the workplace will drastically improve the company in the long run.
Teaching visual rhetoric at Dunder Mifflin will help teach the employees the most effective ways to present their products to clients. There are many visual tools available and it is important to understand what the best tool to use in each situation is. Some common visual tools include tables, graphs, charts, and graphics. It is useful to understand the different uses of each of these tools to be able to select the most effective visual display for the purpose and audience for each situation. These tools allow the audience to quickly see the main points and comparisons that the presenter is trying to make. When using these charts and figures in presentations and advertisements color can be used to focus the viewer’s attention and clarify complex relationships. Teaching employees how to effectively use these skills will increase revenue.
There is lots of simple software out there today that can help to create effective graphics quickly for all kinds of presentations, including sales meetings with potential clients. It would be extremely beneficial for the employees at Dunder Mifflin to have some classes about this software so that they can look more professional when presenting data to clients, other employees, or headquarters. This software includes graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator, presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, and Spreadsheet software such as Excel which can be used to create charts and graphs quickly.
Teaching visual rhetoric will have initial costs, but the potential that this training can help to improve the way employees at Dunder Mifflin do their jobs is endless. It will allow them to understand the proper way to present data so that it highlights the point that they are trying to make while still being accurate and ethical. Being able to create more effective advertisements and presentations will increase sales and allow Dunder Mifflin to expand their client base.
Visual rhetoric is an essential part of marketing and advertisement. For these reasons it is necessary that every employee at Dunder Mifflin recieves training in this field of experteice. Some might ask why everyone is required to learn these points but at some point each and every employee must sell a product or themselves for Dunder Mifflin.
ReplyDeleteVisual Rhetoric is a valuable skill to teach any employee regardless of their job. It is absolutely essential in any business environment. For many small businesses like Dunder Mifflin, who rely on personal sales staff to combat cost cutting major market chains, rhetoric becomes the only way to compete. In a society like the United States in which both companies and individuals are constantly bombarded with countless telemarketers, it is very easy to simply hang up a phone without a thought.
ReplyDeleteEmployees at Dunder Mifflin do a majority of their sales calls over the phone. This makes their job even harder as they need to convince a customer based purely on customer service while avoiding discussion of the bottom line higher costs. In order to supplement what may be seen by most customers as a disappointment of higher prices, employees at Dunder Mifflin should utilize the technology given to them in the internet and email. By sending a potential customer a visual presentation (such as in Power Point) a sales call can turn into a full blown investor style meeting in which visual aids, charts and other pertinent information can be conveyed to the customers more effectively.
The art of persuasion is something that can benefit all positions in an office like that of Dunder Mifflin. For many small companies word of mouth is the best advertisement. With a knowledgeable staff ranging from secretaries to warehouse employees who are able to explain why their product is superior to competitors clientele base should grow rapidly. This is why it is pertinent to send every employee of Dunder Mifflin to a short course designed to teach rhetorical analysis and visual rhetoric as well as a course teaching a visual program such as Power Point. Classes such as these can be brought in house to the office itself for a flat rate group course. In addition software such as Power Point is relatively inexpensive compared to the benefits that will be yielded.
Visual rhetorical skills and good training in them should be a focus of the Dunder Mifflin Company. Being well trained in this skill can be an investment in the future for a company but it can really pay off especially when employers are doing presentations or doing a persuasive speech. Also training in visual rhetoric will help them do a better job at work all around because their sales skills will increase and there ability to relate to people will get better from their enhanced rhetorical skills.
ReplyDeleteFrom watching the office I noticed that a big priority of Dunder Mifflin’s is their customer service. With visual rhetoric the employees at Dunder Mifflin could find more was to relate to their customers and do more to bring in more revenues. The ability to be persuasive and to persuade customers and being able to used all available ways of communication is huge for a company especially if it can give Dunder Mifflin a competitive edge over other paper company sales divisions also it can over all make Dunder Mifflin’s paper sales better in general.
Finally the marketing department could really benefit from visual rhetoric. Visual rhetoric training could really help the marketing team for the company. For example if the company was creating commercials their commercials could get better and be more effective. If the companies marketing team could really use the rhetorical training and with it they could push forward in market share and do better in sales and brand recognition.