Marketing Profile Analysis On Pandora Internet Radio Media Essay

Marketing Profile Analysis On Pandora Internet Radio Media Essay For our Group project we will be doing a marketing profile analysis on Pandora Internet Radio. First, we will explain what the company does. Next, an in depth analysis including the site navigation, the Pandora business model, brand interactivity, the brand look, brand personality, their competitors, Pandoras metrics, what kind of consumers use Pandora, how consumers behave, and where Pandora could use room for improvement will follow. In the business model we will look at how Pandora makes their revenue through the different services they offer. Site navigation will describe where each click will take you and how to get from page to page. Brand interactivity explains how not only user can interact with Pandora, but how Pandora can interact with its users. Further, we will see how the brand looks across different formats from computer screens to mobile phones in brand look. Next, in brand personality, we will discuss what kind personalities are embedded in the brand. Also, while looking at competitors we will see how Pandora fares against their top competitors and what they do differently. Pandoras metrics will include the sites traffic, how long a consumer stays connected to a site, and its reach. Finally, when we look at consumers, we will look at how the Net gen is the majority of Pandora users, and how consumers move through the behavior model of acquisition, consumption, and disposition. What is Pandora? Pandora is a Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. They started up in 2000 and according to their website its the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Users can enter a song or artist and Pandora will play music that you entered, but also music that is stylistically and auditorily similar. They have more than 50 music analyist that study and listen to the music one song at a time, collecting details on every song based on close to 400 attributes that include melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, and lyrics. According to their website, the typical analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process, and has completed intensive training in the Music Genomes rigorous and precise methodology. Pandora never uses any bots or machines to extract data from any of the songs. The songs are always being updated and new songs are continually added to their ever expanding catalogue of titles. Site navigation Pandoras website is very easy to access. The address is http://www.pandora.com/. When the page loads, there are 3 places you can click at the top half of the page. You can register a new account, log-in with a preexisting account, or type in an artist, or song, and immediately begin listening to music. Clicking on the register hyperlink takes you to the registration page and is completely free. The only information needed is an email address, a password, the persons birth year, their US zip code, and their gender. There is a opt-out check box for personalized recommendations and tips. Once everything is complete you can click register for free of cancel. Registering for a Pandora account allows you to save you stations and access them from anywhere. If sign -in is chosen, all that is need is an email address and password. This takes you to all of your saved stations and also allows you to type in a new station or artist. Typing in an artist or song starts playing the music. The bottom half of the page is newer. There is a space where you can click to see the information about the music you are playing, view a mini feed of your profile, select music by genre, learn about how to get Pandora radio on your mobile phone and in your home, and see whats happening in the Pandora video series. Below this feed, you can view concert listings, gift a station where you can make a station and give it to another Pandora user, look at bookmarked songs, and again, go to the video series page. Business model The business model for Pandora is mostly ad driven. Consumers can register for free and begin listening to music immediately. Users are never required to pay anything because it is payed for by the advertisements. However, they have two more aspects to the business model. Once free Pandora accounts reach the 40 hour mark of listening per month, the music stops and you are required to pay 99 cents for unlimited listening for the rest of the month. You can also just come back the next month for another 40 free hours. Each month has the same choice on the limit and they never bill you after the fact of charge you. The final part of the business model is a paid Pandora One subscription account. This offers unlimited listening hours each month, plus no advertisements. It comes with a high stream quality, desktop application, extended interaction timeout, and a mini player. This can be purchased for a subscription for 36 dollars per year. Pandora also has a box through HP that you can purchase to stream music anywhere in your home. It has built in speakers and Wi-Fi connectivity. Aside from music, you can now view the Pandora vise series and look up concerts coming to areas near your town. Pandora is branching out to video and live music avenues. They also work with mobile companies through advertising and putting mobile applications on phones so you can listen to Pandora anywhere instead of just a computer or home device. Pandora allows for users to expand their musical knowledge based on their own personal preferences without requiring the user to purchase songs on a whim. The seemingly archaic days of buy before you try have ended partly because of services like Pandora. Pandora gives users the option to purchase each song multiple ways in a variety of digital formats. One of these methods is to buy a song via iTunes. While the iTunes service itself allows for the sampling of a given song, it does not give users the ability to stream the entire song prior to purchase.    Brand Interactivity Pandora is becoming more that just an internet radio player. Consumers can create a profile much like social networking sites and add friends to communicate with. Users can leave comments on other users profiles, share radio stations, and even find other Pandora listeners. With Pandora mobile applications, users can access this information where ever they are and listen to music straight from their mobile phones. Not only can you search to find song, or artist, you can also take a look at the Pandora video series, which is a video blog that contains videos about music, how the music is made, and where to hear it. Pandora also has a written blog where users can interact and comment on posts. The final point of interactivity is users can see a schedule of local live shows in their area. The list is based on your bookmarks list, thumb up and you station seeds, so the concerts that they show you are going to be based off of what your profile says you listen to and what you like. For each event, you can click on the ticket info button which takes you to the event website, to view the event and get tickets. This can also all be accessed from the mobile phone application. Brand look across formats Pandoras brand look is, for the most part, uniform across its various mediums. The page is identical no matter what browser you chose to view it on. This is extremely important for a service like Pandora. This is because a user might choose to view this content on a computer loaded with a browser that is different from the browser that they usually use Pandora on. An example of this would be a user who usually uses their windows-based computer loaded with Internet Explorer to access Pandora being forced for some reason to use a mac-based computer loaded with Safari. Because of Pandoras uniformity across platforms, this user will be able to use their Pandora on the mac-based computer without the initial learning curve often associated with using new web based services. Pandora is also able to be accessed on various broadband enabled mobile devices. Pandora has taken steps to make their service as uniform and consistent as possible across the mobile devices that might be used to access Pandora. For instance, Pandora accessed on a users Apple iPhone 3G looks almost identical to Pandora accessed on another users Motorola MOTORAZR V3. Furthermore, the page layout on both devices mirrors that of Pandora accessed on the users personal computers. This is another step Pandora has taken in order to reduce any additional learning curve that might be associated with accessing Pandora service on a users mobile device. Brand Personality Pandoras brand personality includes both a mechanical passion for music as well as a passion for connecting users with music that they otherwise might not have had or wanted access to. This mechanical passion for music is made evident by Pandoras Music Genome Project. Because of this mechanical passion, Pandoras brand gives off a scientific vibe. Pandora is also very diverse because no one persons musical taste is exactly like the next person. Musical taste is something that is very unique and Pandora is trying to cater to each persons uniqueness. They know each person is different, which what makes them different from other internet radio stations. Pandora is kind of like the guy that no one really cared about, but then everyone wants to know him because they realized how cool he really is. Major Competitors While Pandora brings many new and unique features to free internet radio, it is hardly the only game in town. Last.fm, Imeem, and Grooveshark are just a few internet radio alternatives to Pandora. Each of these services offers their own take on Internet radio. Lately, Last.fm has taken the position of Pandoras primary competitor. Like Pandora, Last.fm offers users the ability to stream custom playlists based on a users personal preference. While both services share this feature, they have unique and independent ways of doing so. Last.fm employs a technique called Scrobbling to determine which songs rise or fall in popularity. This is accomplished by the user downloading software on their personal computers and ranking their streaming music. With millions of users doing this on a daily basis, this is a great way to crowdsource popularity. Pandora on the other hand is based on The Music Genome Project. This is essentially a database of artist-defined analysis of each song. This analysis is primarily based on the songs musical attributes as well as unique qualities associated with the each song. So one on hand, you have millions of laymen ratings helping to improve the listeners streaming experience, and on the other hand you have a selected group of well trained ears pouring over individual songs to produce unique playlists for the user. Which is better is left up to the individual user. Recently, one of Pandoras competitors, Imeem, has stolen a substantial amount of traffic away from Pandora. Imeem is part social networking site, part internet media service. With Imeem, users interact with each other by streaming, uploading, and sharing music and videos. Imeem also allows users to build and share custom playlists with others directly on Imeems website or via an imbedded Imeem player through external sites such as Facebook and Myspace. Other online music services such as Grooveshark compete with Pandora. Grooveshark allows users to upload, stream, and vote on content similar to Imeem. Grooveshark also incorporates a Pandora-like system for recommending content based on the users personal song choices. With all these great features, why is Groovesharks traffic almost stagnant next to Pandoras mammoth annual growth of close to three million users? Grooveshark users have provided criticism that Grooveshark does not indemnify its users against any unlicensed uploaded content. Essentially, this means that Grooveshark is not responsible for the content that they host. Pandora Site Metrics According to Alexa.com, a website that specializes in web traffic metrics, Pandora is ranked 82nd for United States website traffic. This sandwiches Pandora between Newegg.com, arguably the internets largest electronic retailer, and the United States Postal Service for internet traffic. There are many metrics with which to compare a websites e-traffic and ultimately said websites/services success. The first of these metrics and arguably the most important is a websites daily traffic rank trend. This metric compares Pandoras daily traffic against other websites accessed. According to this metric, daily Pandora traffic has fluctuated over the past year. Currently, Pandora is ranked 371. Another metric with which to compare Pandora to its competitors is the time the average user stays connected to the given website. Currently, the average Pandora user stays connected eleven minutes. In relation to Pandoras previously discussed competitors, Pandora has the longest user retention rate. This compares to Last.fm and Imeems five minute and Groovesharks seven minute user retention rate. The last metric used is Reach. Reach refers to the percentage of global internet users who visit Pandora. According to Alexa, 97.7% of Pandoras users access Pandora from within the United States. This metric shows that Pandora has a strong national user base but should look into expanding their international user base. This is not necessarily the case for Pandoras competitors. Imeem, for example, has an extremely strong user base in Thailand, having a national user base of only 42.8% United States users. Last.fm has a United States user base of 35.2% with the remaining 65% consisting of international users. Ultimately, Pandora will need to begin increasing their international traffic if they plan on sustaining their growth. Customer Profile The types of people we see using Pandora, more frequently, and more often are the Net Generation. They were typically born from 1980-2000 and are anywhere from 10-30 years old. The reason that the Netgeners use Pandora more is because Pandora is a digital product and the Netgeners are growing up in a digital world. They are different from other generation in that their lives are surrounded by digital media. (Tapscott) 73% of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet. For most teenagers it is a way of life. So, it is only natural that we see this age demographic using Pandora services. The characteristics of these consumers are as follows according to Tapscott. They have fierce independence because they create online identities and acquire knowledge to make their own decisions. They have and Intellectual and emotional openness and view the world in a global context. They have very free expression and have strong views. They are also very innovative and have a strong desire to be more mature than their predecessors. They investigate things out of curiosity, demands real time and fast processing, are very sensitive to corporate interest, and are very trusting online. Consumer Behavior Acquisition How the consumer gets content from Pandora is that they find it. This is accomplished by typing in an artist name, or song name, and Pandora streams then the content. They also get to choose more or less what they listen too. Also creating a profile helps in the acquisition process. They also get to create stations so that they can the content that suits them best. Consumption The customer consumes content by listening to the music, reading the blogs, or watching Pandoras video series. They can also consume content by getting gift stations from other users and communicating with them through a simple messaging service. Disposition In the disposition process, consumers can bookmark and save songs to remember them later and even use the information so that they can personally own the song. The content never really goes away though. They can listen, watch, or read the duration of the content, but its always there for the consumer to go back and listen, watch, or read it again. Ideas for Growth   Ã‚              The first idea for growth, which I think will also target a larger market, is somehow incorporating their service into automobiles a little better.   Currently, Pandora can only be heard through computers and cell phone with broadband data plans. If Pandora can create a way for people to get internet radio in cars with services, they could reach a larger audience for people that either dont listen to music on their computers or dont have expensive smart phones. A way of implementing Pandora into an already well respected device would be to implement Pandora functionality into satellite radios. It would also be a safer alternative to have something compatible with a car that being distracted by a mobile device.   Ã‚           Next, Pandora needs to begin expanding into the international market. Currently, Pandora has blocked access to users outside of the United States. This clearly explains why Pandoras user base is comprised of 97.7% United States users. Pandora founder Tim Westergren spoke directly on the topic saying: As it stands now, there is still no affordable license for a webcaster to stream legally (ie. abiding by all standing copyright law and properly compensating performers and composers) anywhere outside the US. However, Pandora has publicly stated their commitment to finding a way to provide Pandora service to international users, leaving new potential users with only keep the faithà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Finally, Pandora should look to advertise their paid services more. Even if they dont in publications or Ads, they need to at least start pushing it on their website more. The guess would be that they dont want to seem like they are moving to a paid service, but if they want to stay in this business, more money is what it is going to take and they need to start pushing people to subscribe, or buy products from them. Channel Mix Plan The Channel mix plan for Pandora is Internet. It is the one channel that can reach the maximum number of clients for their business model. They also use a phone application as a channel through mobile Internet service providers. The messaging with customer through both channels is all opt-in only. You will only receive emails if you check a box and any information is only sent or retrievable of you want, or ask for it. Conclusion In conclusion, we have discussed Pandoras business model in detail. It seems that once Pandora can monetize their service appropriately, they will be an extremely, financially, successful digital media venture. Furthermore, Pandora has a great deal of legitimate future growth considering they have yet to expand their service outside of the United States. Ultimately, Pandora has an extremely bright future in the internet radio market.

The Worst Words :: Breast Cancer Dying Essays

The Worst Words The sun was shining through the open windows of the crowded, Twinkie-colored bus. The wind was blowing my hair into my face, and I could not wait to see my mommy. There were children yelling because it was Friday and school was out for the week. The excitement of the weekend was on all of the children’s minds. The bus slowed, turned into my mobile home park, and screeched to a stop. I got off the bus and ran into the arms of my mother. I remember her hair smelled like Pert Plus, and she was wearing her favorite perfume, White Shoulders. She would greet me off the bus every day. I loved to see her immediately after a long day of fifth grade. To me this was a normal day. However, to my mother, it was a scary, heartbreaking day. When we got home, she sat me down, looked at me, and said, â€Å"I need to tell you something. I don’t know if you will understand this, but, I have cancer.† Those words stick in my mind like a fly to flypaper. I remember not knowing exactly what she meant but I thought it was bad. I can still see her tears start to stream from her emerald green eyes. I have cancer. Why did my mommy have to have cancer? Whatever it was I knew I did not like it. It made her cry and made me want to fix what God had done to her. A few weeks passed by, full of testing and doctors’ visits. She had to go into the hospital for surgery one day. My dad told me that they were giving her a mastectomy. She was never going to feel adequate ever again. Only one breast will make any woman feel inadequate. I was scared and still did not fully understand what was going on. All I knew was that my mommy was not going to be home for a couple of days. It hurt not having her with me, because she had been there my whole life. My mother went in for a checkup a year after her breast cancer surgery and I went with her and my Grandma. My mother and Grandma were in the office for a couple of hours. I was scared. I read every magazine in the waiting room, waiting for them. The Worst Words :: Breast Cancer Dying Essays The Worst Words The sun was shining through the open windows of the crowded, Twinkie-colored bus. The wind was blowing my hair into my face, and I could not wait to see my mommy. There were children yelling because it was Friday and school was out for the week. The excitement of the weekend was on all of the children’s minds. The bus slowed, turned into my mobile home park, and screeched to a stop. I got off the bus and ran into the arms of my mother. I remember her hair smelled like Pert Plus, and she was wearing her favorite perfume, White Shoulders. She would greet me off the bus every day. I loved to see her immediately after a long day of fifth grade. To me this was a normal day. However, to my mother, it was a scary, heartbreaking day. When we got home, she sat me down, looked at me, and said, â€Å"I need to tell you something. I don’t know if you will understand this, but, I have cancer.† Those words stick in my mind like a fly to flypaper. I remember not knowing exactly what she meant but I thought it was bad. I can still see her tears start to stream from her emerald green eyes. I have cancer. Why did my mommy have to have cancer? Whatever it was I knew I did not like it. It made her cry and made me want to fix what God had done to her. A few weeks passed by, full of testing and doctors’ visits. She had to go into the hospital for surgery one day. My dad told me that they were giving her a mastectomy. She was never going to feel adequate ever again. Only one breast will make any woman feel inadequate. I was scared and still did not fully understand what was going on. All I knew was that my mommy was not going to be home for a couple of days. It hurt not having her with me, because she had been there my whole life. My mother went in for a checkup a year after her breast cancer surgery and I went with her and my Grandma. My mother and Grandma were in the office for a couple of hours. I was scared. I read every magazine in the waiting room, waiting for them.

Character Change in “The Jewelry” Essay

There have been many times in literature where writers will change the attitudes or beliefs of the main character of their story. Writers can do this a number of ways. They use things like tragic events or a change in setting to be the reason why a character changes. In Guy de Maupassant’s â€Å"The Jewelry,† the main character’s attitudes change multiple times throughout the story. The story begins with the narrator describing how the main character, M. Lantin, fell in love and married the girl of his dreams. He adores her so much that it is written that, â€Å"six years he married her, he loved her even more than he did the first day† (69). In fact, Lantin almost finds his wife to be flawless. The only faults that he finds in her are her love for the theatre and her passion for false jewelry. Lantin never understands his wife’s fondness towards fake jewelry. They cannot afford real jewelry and it seems as though Lantin wants to save her the embarrassment of parading around with fake jewelry. He tells her that she is better off wearing no jewelry so that she can show off her natural beauty and elegance. However, she does not listen to him and continues to wear her fake jewelry. At this point in the story, M. Lantin seems to be a stress-free man who is enjoying life with the girl of his dreams. He is not a rich man by any means, but, the love he shares with his wife fulfills his every need. Then, tragedy strikes. Lantin’s wife catches pneumonia one night after the Opera and dies eight days later. After the death of his wife, Lantin’s character changes from a careless man to a soul in despair. The narrator describes his anguish by saying, â€Å"His despair was so frightful that in one single month his hair turned white. He wept from morning till night, feeling his heart torn by inexpressible suffering-ever haunted by the memory of her, by the smile, by the voice, by all the charm of the dead woman† (70-71). hair has turned white in a single month. Lantin suffers day and night and is haunted by the mere memory of his wife. He keeps his wife’s bedroom exactly the same and as time goes by, his memory of her remains strong. Lantin ends up getting into debt and losing all his money. The first thing that comes to his mind is to sell his wife’s jewelry. The jewelry; which he does not think will bring him much money, has become an object of loathing and distant memories of his late wife. After rummaging  through most of her items, Latin finds his wife’s pearl necklace that he thinks might be only worth a few francs. He goes into a jewelry store to sell it. There, he finds out that it is real, and that it is worth a substantial amount of money. He goes into another jewelry store to receive a second opinion. To Lantin’s astonishment, not only is the necklace real, but the second store that he entered was the exact store where his wife bought the necklace for a substantial amount of money. It is here where Lantin’s character changes from being a sad and sorrowful man to a puzzled fellow searching for answers. This is evidenced in the text when Lantin is pondering to himself how his wife came across the money to buy such an expensive piece of jewelry. Maupassant describes Lantin’s puzzled mind by writing â€Å"He tried to reason, to understand. His wife could never have bought so valuable an object as that. Certainly not. But then, it must have been a present! A present from whom? What for?† (72-73) Lantin is so bewildered by these events that he barely makes it home for the night. The next morning, he goes out and realizes he has no money to get anything to eat. Lantin then remembered the substantial amount of money that the jeweler had offered him for the pearl necklace. He then returns to the jewelry store to tell the jeweler the necklace. While at the jewelry store, Lantin remembers that his wife had lots of other jewelry that might be worth a lot of money as well. He collects her other jewelry and sells it all to the jeweler. Lantin receives 196,000 francs for all of his late wife’s jewelry. At this point, Lantin’s mood changes again. He completely forgets his sorrows and no longer questions where his wife got the money for such expensive jewelry. The only emotions that Lantin is experiencing are ecstasy and sheer excitement. The text describes how Lantin’s desire was to â€Å"yell out to the passers-by ‘I am rich, too-I am! I have 200,000 francs!’ (74).† Lantin quits his job and dines at the finest restaurant. The story ends with Maupassant describing Lantin’s final mood change. Lantin marries a woman six months later with a terrible temper. The story ends by saying that Lantin’s new wife, â€Å"made his life very miserable. (75)† Guy de Maupassant changed Lantin’s mood multiple times in a short amount of time. From the happiness of his first marriage; to the sorrow after her tragic death; to the bewilderment that he experienced when he discovered that his late wife’s jewelry was real and how much it was worth; to the delight in the riches he acquired from selling it  all, and finally to the final misery he lives through because of his new wife. It was brilliant stories by Maupassant because it showed his character go through so many emotions in such a short amount of time. Maupassant’s readers are bound to relate to at least of these emotions that Lantin experiences. This helps make the story more appealing and relatable. It is the reason why most writers use character change in their stories. Work Cited Maupassant, Guy de. â€Å"The Jewelry.† In The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. W.W. Norton and Company, Inc. 2011. 69, 70-71, 72-73, 74, 75.

How Honeybees Turn Nectar Into Honey

The sweet, viscous honey we take for granted as a sweetener or cooking ingredient is the product of industrious honeybees working as a highly organized colony, collecting flower nectar and converting it into a high-sugar food store. The production of honey by bees involves several chemical processes, including digestion, regurgitation, enzyme activity, and evaporation. Bees create honey as a highly efficient food source to sustain themselves year-round, including the dormant months of winter—human beings are just along for the ride. In the commercial honey-gathering  industry, the excess honey in the hive is what is harvested for packaging and sale, with enough honey left in the hive to sustain the bee population until it becomes active again the following spring.   The Honeybee Colony A honeybee colony generally consists of one queen bee—the only fertile female; a few thousand drone bees, which are fertile males; and tens of thousands of worker bees, which are sterile females.  In the production of honey, these worker bees take on specialized roles as  foragers  and  house bees. Gathering and Processing Flower Nectar The actual process of transforming the flower nectar into honey requires teamwork. First,  older forager  worker bees  fly out from the hive in search of nectar-rich flowers. Using its straw-like proboscis, a forager bee drinks the liquid nectar from a flower and stores it in a special organ called the honey stomach. The bee continues to forage until its honey stomach is full, visiting 50 to 100  flowers per trip from the hive. At the moment the nectars reach the honey stomach, enzymes begin to break down the complex sugars of the nectar into simpler sugars that are less prone to crystallization. This process is called inversion. Handing Off the Nectar With a full belly, the forager  bee heads back to the hive and regurgitates the already modified nectar directly to  a younger house bee. The house bee ingests the sugary offering from the forager bee, and its own enzymes further break down the sugars. Within the hive, house bees pass the nectar from individual to individual until the water content is reduced to about 20 percent. At this point, the last house bee regurgitates the fully inverted nectar into a cell of the honeycomb.   Next, the hive bees beat their wings furiously, fanning the nectar to evaporate its remaining water content; evaporation is also helped by the temperature inside a hive being a constant 93 to 95 F. As the water evaporates, the sugars thicken into a substance recognizable as honey. When an individual cell is full of honey, the house bee caps the beeswax cell, sealing the honey into the honeycomb for later consumption. The beeswax is produced by glands on the bees abdomen. Collecting Pollen While most foraging bees are dedicated to collecting nectar for the production of honey, about 15 to 30 percent of the foragers are collecting pollen on their flights out from the hive.  The pollen is used to make beebread, the bees main source of dietary protein. The pollen also provides bees with fats, vitamins, and minerals. To keep pollen from spoiling, the bees add enzymes and acids to it  from salivary gland secretions. How Much Honey Is Produced? A single worker bee lives only a few weeks and in that time produces only about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.  But working cooperatively, a hives thousands of worker bees can produce more than  200 pounds of honey for the colony within a year. Of this amount, a beekeeper can harvest 30 to 60 pounds of honey without compromising the colonys ability to survive the winter.   The Food Value of Honey A tablespoon of honey contains 60 calories, 16 grams of sugar, and 17 grams of carbs. For humans, its a less bad sweetener than refined sugar, because honey contains antioxidants and enzymes. Honey can vary in color, flavor, and antioxidant level, depending on where it is produced because it can be made from so many different trees and flowers. For example, eucalyptus honey may seem to have a hint of menthol flavor. Honey made from nectar from fruit bushes may have more fruity undertones than honey  made from nectars of flowering plants. Honey produced and sold locally is often much more unique in taste than honey manufactured on a huge scale and appearing on grocery store shelves, because these widely distributed products are highly refined and pasteurized, and they may be blends of honey  from many different regions.   Honey can be purchased in several different forms. It is available as a traditional viscous liquid in glass or plastic bottles, or it can be purchased as slabs of honeycomb with honey still packed in the cells. You can also buy honey in granulated form or whipped or creamed to make it easier to spread.   Bee Species All honey consumed by people is produced by only seven different species of  honeybees. Other types of bees, and a few other insects, also make honey, but these types are not used for commercial production and human consumption. Bumblebees, for example, make a similar honey-like substance to store their nectar, but its not the sweet delicacy that honeybees make.  Neither is it made in the same quantity because, in  a bumblebee colony, only the queen hibernates for the winter. About Nectar   Honey is not possible at all without nectar from flowering plants. Nectar is a sweet, liquidy substance produced by glands within plant flowers. Nectar is an  evolutionary adaptation that attracts insects to the flowers by offering them nutrition. In return, the insects help fertilize the flowers by transmitting pollen particles clinging to their bodies from flower to flower during their foraging activities. In this synergetic relationship, both parties benefit: Bees and other insects gain food while simultaneously transmitting the pollen necessary to fertilization and seed production in the flowering plants. In its natural state, nectar contains about 80 percent  water, along with complex sugars. Left unattended, nectar eventually ferments and is useless as a food source for bees. It cannot be stored for any length of time by the insects. But by transforming the nectar into honey, the bees create an efficient and usable carbohydrate that is only 14 to 18 percent water and one that can be stored almost indefinitely without fermenting or spoiling. Pound for pound, honey provides bees with a much more concentrated energy source that can sustain them through cold winter months.