American Pie. Coercive Sexuality

Coercive Sexuality By Diep Chu FS 337 March 2013 Coercive Sexuality Coercive sexuality is an important factor in American Pie movie. In this movie, audiences can see different pictures of teenagers trying to experiences sexual intercourse for the first time in their lives (Zide, Perry, and Weitz, 1999). And the more aggressive they are, people can see coercive sexuality involved in different scenes. Coercive sexual behavior among students has been an area of concern to society.At the time when human sexuality topic becomes so popular in teenagers’ world, those students in the movies let people understand more about their points of views about sexuality. The question that I want to address in this paper is: Do we as a society treat some coercive sexuality as acceptable, or even desirable? In what way do the attitudes towards these mirrors the attitudes of our society in general? It would shocked some people how teens think about sex so openly and wrongfully, which against many basic human morality. Do we as a society treat some coercive sexuality as acceptable, or even desirable?We as a society don’t treat coercive sexuality as acceptable. We live in a society in which individuals form intimate relationships and shape their roles within authentic needs and desires rather than as a result of pressures to conform to any model. In this society, people are educated and empowered to make sexual decisions based on the safety, consent, and desire of all parties involved rather than based on an externally imposed morality. As youths in the movie do not have prepared much knowledge with technique in relationships, they had some sexual actions to force the girls have sex with them. Zide, Perry, and Weitz, 1999). In return, the girls reject it. When Oz asks the college girl: â€Å"Suck me, beautiful†, she was laughing and told him the he had to pay attention to pay attention to the girl and be sensitive to her feeling. Kevin’s first motivation i s to get laid with his girlfriend, Vicky. She refuses him few times until she feels totally ready. Jim did not aware that he broadcast Natalie’s sexual image to whole school. But on her side, she sure will not be happy to have him do that without her consent (Zide, Perry, and Weitz, 1999).In what way do the attitudes towards these mirrors the attitudes of our society in general? For many years society tried to control sexual behavior in youth by citing the traditional negative consequences of sexual experiences and community disapproval. Television, being the highly influential, has been both part of the solution and part of the problem in the area of sex and youth. At the beginning, Jim was watching porn and his parents notice it (Zide, Perry, and Weitz, 1999). This would happen to many families in our society today when kids are in puberty. Those entertainments affect teen’s sexual behavior heavily.They will copy those disapproval contents in it. At almost the end of the movie, those youth figured out they want to experience sex only because of peer pressure. They finally understand sex had no meaning without love or the girls’ willingness (Zide, Perry, and Weitz, 1999). Public education has had some major problems in this area and few schools have any real programs in sex education. Many parents do not want their children to learn about sex early. But the more they avoid it, the more kids want to learn about it. This movie indicates good pictures of how teens nowadays think about sex.The sexual values are much different in them nowadays. Male youths try to have the girls get laid with them just to show off with friends. Those aggressive attitudes sometime lead to unwanted sexual situations with their girlfriends. And society will determine it as coercive sexuality. These raise high concern to society today. In fact, schools should teach them more about human relationship and right technique in sexuality. References Zide, W. and Perry, C . (Producer), & Weitz, P. (Director). (1999). American Pie (Universal Picture). United States.

Premium Beer Market in Thailand Essay

There were various kinds of determinants influencing the enlargement of the beer market; especially the cause from gas price has risen up high like never before. Deriving the consumer products price had to be adjusted to avoid suffering from higher cost of production and transportation. On the other end, consumer’s purchasing power had become lower due to the higher cost of living; driving them to adapt to the economic situation they were facing. From the observation in the beer market, we could notice there were obvious changes in consumer’s behavior; consumers or drinkers tended to shift from having large size of beer 640ml. to the smaller size 330ml. in the form of small bottle or can. Moreover, there was a slightly drop in the frequency of buying beer also. (Source: B&A CO. ,LTD/Daily Manager Newspaper: May 1st 2005) In addition, government sectors also had plan in process to leverage IRS tax on alcohol beverage as the European Union had implemented it before in order to improve the social overall status and also eliminate beer industry pitfalls. Year 2006 In this year, there were many interesting movements occurring in the premium beer market. Beer manufacturers in the premium segment had planned an expansion in their production base to penetrate in other potential segments which were most likely to be the offering in light beer; providing more choices for consumers, containing less amount of alcohol or to be exact, lower than 5%. From the total amount of alcohol contained, although light beers were obviously positioned separately from the premium segment, still, they had become the new face of drinking premium beer which targeting on consumer who loves to drink healthier responded to the healthy concerning issues and rend in nowadays. Most importantly was light beers were actually sold in the cheaper price than premium beers. Plus with the facts that light beer market was still in the introduction stage, holding only 35 million liters in total production quantity or only 2% of the market shares in beer industry; therefore, showed that the light beers market still had more potential growth along the way (Source: Thai Beverage Marketing CO. LTD/Prachachat Newspaper: March 13th 2006) For the entrepreneur in light beers segment, San Miguel, the first brand penetrated into this market, was using the ‘Push Strategy’ in the early stage, implementing the intensive distribution to cover all convenience stores and on-premise market like pubs, bars, and restaurant in order to take advantages of being the first offering in the market. After the intensive distribution was taken place to cover all potential areas in the market, San Miguel immediately continued with the follow-up plan by using the ‘Pull Strategy’ in order to create more brand awareness through mass media; TV commercials, radio spots, and also held promotional events at particular on-premise restaurants, pubs. Moreover, San Miguel had collaborated with 104. 5FM FAT RADIO holding â€Å"San Miguel Music Fest Volume 2† which counted as the latest marketing activities of San Miguel. On the other hand, Chang Beer, who had been testing the light beer market since year 2005, decided to officially commercialize Chang Light into the premium market in March 2006; at a price of 45 baht per bottle which contains 4. 2% of alcohol volume; also implementing ‘sport marketing’ or ‘event sponsorship’ through golf and related activities. By March 2006, Singha Light was introduced to the premium market in Thailand. Although Singha was planning to focus on exporting their light beers to penetrate in Europe and America continents, but because of the high volume of alcohol up to 6% containing Singha Beer, it caused them to face with higher tax than the competitors. Plus, most drinkers in those markets preferred drinking beers with low degree of alcohol. Apart from that, Singha Light also put more focuses on driving the local market. Singha spent its marketing budget up to 150 million baht to present â€Å"Singha Light: The North Pole Challenge† in order to seek for 4 Thai persons getting once in a life time chance to travel up to the North Pole. Moreover, in this year, the government sectors had pushed through the new legislative law to be the mandatory for all alcoholic beverages. The law basically consisted of the regulations on selling and having to specific age of buyers, time and place of distribution. In addition, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or ORYOR) had come up with the restriction of having any kind of advertisements relating to alcoholic beverages except print advertorial section in non-Thai magazines and other media. These regulations were officially brought to used on December 3, 2006 and immediately caused all the billboards, logos, brand related signs to be taken down and prohibited. Pubs, bars, restaurants, and also convenience stores were forced not to put any signs or logos of alcoholic beverage which could be seen clearly from outside the facilities. However, there were some exceptions were allowed in the case of social responsibility or tourism related activities. For example, the regulation stated that the facilities providing alcoholic beverages must also provide other non-alcoholic beverages like drinking water or sparkling/soda water etc. The company name must not be the same or rhyme with the name of the alcoholic drinks brand; and marketing strategy like ‘corporate brand image’ was prohibited like naming the company ‘Beer Thai’. For other marketing promotional tools like using pretty girls, the regulation still allowed them to dress in color to indicate the brand but the logos of the brand on the clothes including umbrella were prohibited; and for the issue of specialties or free giveaways that contained any logos indicating brand was postponed to be reconsider for the appropriateness. Year 2007 With the continuation of rapidly gas price rising situation, it was bad influencing the consumers to construct the negative perspective towards the stability spending and earning in the upcoming future and also directly affected the consumer’s behavior. As observed from the quantity of total beers sold in the early April, which usually the most profitable season of the beer industry; 143. 5 million liters comparing to the average sales from other months 140. 6 million liters or 2. 1%. These numbers obviously reflected the stagnant sales reached as low as 2-3%; dropped from 4-5%; mostly because of the pressure on the purchasing power of consumer due to the government regulation trying to decrease the alcoholic drinks consumption. On the tax regulation issue on beers, The Excise Department had organized into 3 groups and assigned different tax fees depending on each segment. The premium beer will be paying tax at 37 baht/liter; 36 baht/liter for standard market and 28 baht/liter for the economy segment respectively. For the controversial advertising issue since last year was finally settled down in this year with the revised regulations allowing the product image to be on print media but without persuasive messages or any presenter. Also print media was required to put 25% caution message of the total area of the advertisement. And for the mass media especially on television, they had divided into 2 phrases. First phrase, the TV commercials during the 10pm were allowed to put up any logo of the brand to be shown for approximately 5 seconds, and for the second phrase, 30 seconds mark shots were allowed. These changes made had tremendous positive effects to the beer market. However, those regulations were not major obstruction for the beer market. Marketers tried to adjust and improve their strategies and tactics to come up with new way of advertising. Event Marketing was one of their strategies which effectively doubled up the frequency of use. In this year, the expansion of the total beer industry had constructed the 6% growth of both quantity and value. But if we carefully looked through the segments, we would found that the premium beer market had surprisingly decreased by 8%. These were caused by the psychological factors driven consumers’ behavior to decline; plus with the government regulation had made impacts on many brands to seeking for new ways to market their products since back in August 2006 which eventually projected the decline in many firms’ total sales volume. Year 2008 Nowadays, the beer market in Thailand is still holding the attractive market for the imported brands. From the current market condition, we can notice there are many international brands which are trying to penetrate into Thailand’s beer industry to capture their potential market shares; starts off with re-entering of Carlsberg S/A Company, Denmark with the brand ‘Carlsberg’ into Thai beer market; after they had left the Thai market for the last 4-5 years. This comeback of Carlsberg is driven by the their main company in the foreign country; by starting from having the San Miguel’s breweries factory in Pathumthani as their production site. In the meantime, their marketing team has already been put in place and been planning to start their first comeback marketing event in March; and follow with the officially introduction in June. Carlsberg is mainly focusing all their efforts in distribution channel and strategies more than any other aspects. Carlsberg will initiate into the hypermarket and position itself in the same level as Heineken. Apart from that, in March, Thai Beverage Marketing CO. ,LTD. lso has plan preparing the expansion the beer portfolio to cover all the potential markets. From having only Chang Beer and Archa Beer in the economy segment; Chang Light and Chang Draught in standard segment, therefore they have plan in launching Federbrau to penetrate in premium market. Asahi Asahi Super Dry was first introduce to beer market in Thailand in September 2002 by B&A Distribution Company Limited, one of the brands under Boon Rawd Brewery CO. ,LTD. Asahi was and still is the leader brand in Japan by having the most market shares in the beer market in Japan; by implementing the intensive distribution as their strategy, available to be purchased everywhere setting the price in the average range. Moreover, there has been improvement in the production procedure and logistics process in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the products and has tried to adjust the taste to be more preferable by Thai drinkers. They started out by focusing mainly on Japanese restaurants in order to construct the new customer base. By the year 2003, they have expanded more of their products into the common market including modern types of distribution channels like supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores etc. After some recession from the marketing strategies they had been implementing since the end of the year 2003; focusing on the taste of drought beer and plus with the innovative and futuristic of the products under the concept ‘Platinum Beer’ which derived from the sparkle silver-colored wrapped around the bottles and cans. But the selling point is somehow overestimated the perception of Thai drinkers. Therefore, in the year 2004, Asahi had decided to turn the other way around, back to its own origin which was Japan as the selling point along with the message of the bestselling beer in Japan by hoping the J Trend would eventually improve the Asahi Super Dry’s image. The result was quite successful; Asahi had captured the wider market share. By using J Trend, Asahi had effectively reached into the office workers which were employed in the Japanese firm or the group of people who have passionate in Japanese style including college students. Although there was not that large group of buyers, but most of them were likely to be identify as the middle class people, educated and have enough purchasing power. Year 2005 Asahi had decided to renovate the whole marketing strategy by turning to focus mainly on the concept â€Å"Think Difference† with â€Å"Color Marketing Strategy : Universally Communication†. They tried to emphasize on the silver strip on their products to create brand awareness, recognition and recall; distinguished from other brands in premium market. Source : B&A Distribution CO. ,LTD. /Prachachat : July 17, 2005) Later on, Asahi had captured more market shares especially the increasing in rural markets; 40% from the eastern and northern part and the rest 60% from Bangkok and Metropolitan. During the second semiannual, Asahi had set the marketing budget up to 120 million baht from the total 180 million baht in order to emphasize on below-the-line 70% and above-the-line 30%. Year 2006 Organizational management structure was rearranged; the management team from Boon Rawd Brewery had come in and totally taken places in all positions in Asahi by deviding the works into two major departments under 4 CEOs; 2 from Japan and 2 from Boon Rawd. Sales department was under the Boon Rawd management team and B&A would be taking care all of the marketing activities. Although there was major change in the management team, still they had not changed the positioning of Asahi and maintained its brand as international brand. San Miguel San Miguel first initiated into the beer industry by sponsoring in many golf competition; holding beer booths in many golf courses started from the middle of November and so on. Moreover, San Miguel had distributed their beers through many channels possible. However, San Miguel had the advantages over other competitors in terms of strong financial capability; therefore, San Miguel could use the turnkey operation; letting the 3rd party management team, which specialized in the particular kind of managing, to come in and run the business for them. Year 2005 San Miguel had decided to spend large amount of budget up to 375 million baht to settle down the contract with Pat-Kol Co. ,Ltd. in order to construct 95 rai of ‘Multi-Beverage Production Site’, which could be utilized to manufacture many kinds of beverage like fruit juice, drinking water, ready-to-drink tea/bottled tea, and also soft drinks in Amata City Industrial Park, Rayong. And debut its first brand of beer â€Å"Kirin† 2nd market leader from Japan. Year 2007 San Miguel had specified the marketing policies into major brands like San Miguel’s Low Calories Beer, San Mig Light as followed mandatory from the main headquarter. On the local market, San Miguel offered Blue Ice Beer as a standard brand and Red Horse Beer as an economy brand. These brands were already introduced to the Thai beer market for 2 years but they were intended just to test the market, and will be taken out of the market eventually. In this year, San Miguel had planned to emphasize more in below-the-line marketing; increasing from 60% to 70-80% mainly through pubs, bars, and restaurants in order to directly reach the right group of target; and decreased the above-the-line from 40% down to 20-30%. Moreover, they had planned to join with ‘Sugar Beet Restaurant’ in order to boost sales and build more brand awareness. Federbrau Thai Beverage Public Company Limited has just decided to introduce Federbrau into the premium beer market in order to fill up their beer portfolio. They have started off by distributing through on-premise channel like night clubs, pubs, bars since March by offering three sizes of products which are 630ml large bottle, 330ml small bottle, and 330ml can. These products will be further on distributing into another channel like supermarkets and hypermarkets. Feberbrau Beer is the imported brand from Germany; containing 4. 7% of alcohol volume which is the lightest taste provided nowadays like the word ‘Federbrau’ itself means ‘feather’. It is the first brand in Thailand which keeps practicing ‘Reinheitsgebot’, the law legislated in Germany allowing only 4 ingredients in brewing beer; water, malts, barley hops, and yeasts. Although the law has not passed the qualification of the EU, many breweries has still produced beer following this law in order to project higher standard than other manufacturer. Feberbrau Beer is being brewed by COSMOS Brewery (Thailand) Co. Ltd. , Wangnoi, Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya. Federbrau has planned to position its product as the genuine German beer; offering new choices for consumers though Thai drinkers might not know the story behind their recipe; therefore, it is focusing on sending messages indicating the German-style and creating the adventurous sensation by using blu e color. They are mainly targeting the ages between the ranges of 22-35 who have self confidence, freedom lovers, and have their own lifestyles. For the regulation issues, there are many strict regulations on alcoholic beverages to be complied. But since Federbrau has clearly stated its position, it would not create any conflicts between the brands like Chang Light under Thai Beverage itself unlike the previous conflict between Chang and Archa. The marketing plan of Federbrau for the first 9 months will be mostly focusing on emphasizing on above-the-line rather than below-the-line; all kinds of media including billboard will be used to promote the brand awareness and brand recall by started off in the Bangkok area and then move on to nationwide through TV, radio, newspaper, shop decoration and also holding event to cover all potential market opportunities.

Secret to Success

Everybody wants to judge themselves to the lens of a moment. They want to be cool right now and they are asking themselves, â€Å"What's the least I need to do to feel invigorated? What's the least I need to do to be successful?† Once I stopped asking these questions and I started thinking about really who I could become and really harnessing the human ability to adapt what people need to ascertain. Humans have become the apex predator not by being the toughest, not even by being the most intelligent but rather by being the most adaptive to change and when you realize all of us are born with nothing. Our job isn't to be peerless today. It is to build ourselves brick by brick and that is what separates the illustrious from everyone else. It's about actually delivering a result. We all have things that we're believing for, dreams that we want to attain but sometimes as it goes on month after month even year after year, we don't see anything changing. It's easy to get disheartened and think, â€Å"This is never going to happen. I'll just learn to live with it.† We all go through despondency, setbacks, and loss. Pain is a part of life; they don't leave us the same. Now, how it changes you is up to you. The challenge is don't just go through it, grow through it. There will always be forces trying to induce us to settle where we are. Life has a way of pushing our dreams down. They can become buried under discouragement, past mistakes, and low self-esteem. It's easy to settle from mediocrity even though we have all this potential obscured on the inside. Turn it all around and remember our aspirations. Stop worrying about the echo and start cogitating about the shout. Believe in who you can become tomorrow and let every day until the day you drop. Be about ringing that potential out of yourself, building something and becoming competent of something today that you weren't capable of yesterday of asking yourself how far you can go of becoming obsessed with that process and no longer thinking about the end. When you assimilate the difference between no longer focusing on being a titleholder and instead of delivering a championship performance, everything changed because it's the people who build themselves into someone who can give championship performances that win. The people you see who are victorious are the ones who tough grind every single day. They're the ones who have decided to keep working on enriching themselves and their work every time someone told them they weren't good enough or they weren't what they were looking for; the ones who never took no for an answer, who kept pushing forward when the world was telling them to quit because those were the people with a vision and a dream. These are the secrets to success, never giving up even when the cards are all dealt against you because they are just human. They had a goal but they didn't stop pursuing it, no matter what life threw their way. Having a strong will is a must and don't take no for an answer if it's what you really want. That's how you make it and that's how you become successful.

Usefulness of Cognitive Theories of Motivation Essay

Usefulness of Cognitive Theories of Motivation - Essay Example Observations made by economists indicate that entrepreneurial activities are deemed to be supreme sources of technological innovations hence it is important to understand the influence of regional culture on entrepreneurship activities. Recent surveys on entrepreneurship reveal that Wales has been doing quite well. This success is associated with regional focus on entrepreneurship behavior and development (Aldrich, 2000). Theories - These are set of statements devised to elaborate a phenomenon which has been reviewed more than once. The phenomena should be one that has been universally accepted and can be used to predict occurrence of natural phenomena. According to Aldrich (2000), success of entrepreneurs depends on their willingness to become what they want. In the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, individual willingness is essential during decision-making upon discovery of these opportunities. This aspect matters a great deal when an individual is pursuing resources and wh en designing mechanisms to be used in exploiting the discovered opportunities. Human motivations should accompany willingness for the entrepreneurial activities to be effected. Cognitive theories of motivation are very useful during decision making and it influences the way one undertakes the enterprising process. They affect locus of control i.e. individuals’ beliefs that their actions affect the outcomes (Aldrich, 2000). These theories help individuals to explore entrepreneurial related phenomena.

Lean operations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Lean operations - Essay Example Some scholars argued that the differences between the service and manufacturing (product) firms may interfere with the effectiveness of lean operations for the service sector (Atkinson, 2010; Lee et al., 2008). Services are intangible and can hardly be evaluated after â€Å"production,† so evaluation of efficiency and effectiveness can render complications. Other scholars stressed that lean operations are viable in the service firms, but important â€Å"actors,† such as managers, champions, enthusiast converters and implementers, must have fully prepared a change management plan (Esain, Williams, & Massey, 2008; Hines, Martins, & Beale, 2008). This essay explores how lean operations can be applied to the service industry, particularly to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). The NHS has applied Six Sigma and lean operations concepts to develop process and quality improvements. This paper begins with an overview of operation management, and then it d iscusses the theory of lean operations and lean operations at the NHS. This paper also identifies the advantages and disadvantages of lean services. Operation Management Operations management generally refers to managing processes that produce products or render services (Greasley, 2008, p.3). During the twentieth century, developments in the theory of operations management progressed. ... Factory management slowly evolved into operations management on the supposition that manufacturing ideas could also be implemented for service organizations (Seddonand, & O'Donovan, 2010, p.34). Operation management has increasingly adopted quality management philosophies, such as Just-in-time (JIT) or lean operations and Six Sigma. These management philosophies or strategies have different objectives, but they generally agree about continued incremental quality improvements that will streamline operations and make production of goods and services more effective and efficient (Coronad et al., 2004; Dean, et al., 2009). They also have the same perspective on being part of the broader strategic management objectives of the company, and the lack of this integration has led to many lean operations efforts (Seddonand, & O'Donovan, 2010, p.34). Theory of Lean Operations Lean operations started from the theory of â€Å"lean manufacturing† that was popularized by Toyota’s Produ ction System (TPS). In the 1950s, Toyota created a set of techniques that concentrated on the supply chain side of production (Lee et al., 2008, p.973). Founder of Toyota and a renowned inventor Sakichi Toyoda started the development of the lean manufacturing concept, where the management focused on constantly improving work flow to reduce costs (Karanjkar, 2008, p.10.1). With his son Kiichiro Toyoda, they perfected the operations management concept of lean manufacturing (Karanjkar, 2008, p.10.1). Nevertheless, although lean operations is closely connected with the Japanese, in reality, some elements of its framework can be linked to Henry Ford’s production system, who also designed his production system, so that he could make customized products by

Company Story Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Company Story Analysis - Case Study Example If one day I decided to work in farming business, Westafrmers would appear as a perfect opportunity for me because they have managed to create an exceptional narrative besides the product of high quality. In every story it is necessary to know the beginning because it usually defines further development. One of the most noticeable points of Westfarmers is their incredible growth from a local enterprise with $2, 050 paid up capital to $ 50 billion capital. Thus, the company seems to be almost self-made starting from the basic if not say the lowest level of farmer`s business. I feel great respect to such businesses that manage to choose right product, find right people, and make them work for the benefit of mutual enterprise. The story of Westafarmers is therefore a story of a wise business which was accumulating knowledge and experience step by step to transform into an international business. The age of the company is also impressive- 100 hundred years which means that the business has survived numerous world crises and only increased its profit eventually. It means that ordeals and problems are not threatening to Westafarmers or that it managed to overcome them effectively. But what is actually the philosophy of the company? It is made by people who cherished unique culture adding new traditions and management techniques. It seems that Westafarmers appreciate the contribution of each and every worker because the Chairman uses the metaphor to describe his feeling from working there â€Å"standing on the shoulders of giants†1 which means that the foundation of Westfarmers is extremely solid, strong, and unbreakable that for him, a hundred years after the company establishment working there is pure pleasure. Westfarmers is also a great and capturing story as it gives the citizens of the country more than 200.000 working places. It means that the company sees itself as the

The Chrysler PT Cruiser Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Chrysler PT Cruiser - Essay Example The Chrysler PT Cruiser The Chrysler Group is Daimler Chrysler AG’s unit which is world’s fifth biggest automaker producing company in both passengers as well as commercial vehicle segments. The Chrysler PT Cruiser is built by Chrysler which is a â€Å"retro† styled station wagon. It is the marquee of Daimler Chrysler. The model resembles in size and shape to the 1997 Chrysler CCV prototype. The marketing plan is all about repositioning and revitalising the PT Cruiser that has been struggling since many years and underwent a decline stage. PT Cruiser has been one of the successful retro-styled vehicles. More than 1.3 million PT Cruiser cars were manufactured since the year 2000. However, despite its stylish look and many advanced features, the sales of the car have been plummeting in the recent years. It has been analysed that the reason behind the sales slide and the failure of the PT Cruiser have been that the Chrysler didn’t invest the required sum in this model. It has even b een argued that the reason behind its failure has been that the car was never improved by the company over its life span. The target segment was primarily the middle aged people who bought these cars. There are always two basic strategic choices for any company. Either the company can segment the market or it can treat its entire market as its potential customers for the goods and services that it renders. By the word ‘segmentation’ the development of the unique marketing strategies in order to meet the market needs of the market place, is perceived. (Weinstein, 2004). In addition to the middle aged people the target segment should be youngsters as well. By driving its attention towards this particular segment, the company can gain a significant number of customers in comparison to the middle aged people. In terms of psychographic segmentation, the company needs to segment its market to the outgoing people who usually hangout with their friends and relatives. The company has been providing its services all over the world; however, it would be better if the company targets the Asian countries as there is huge potential in these countries. In terms of benefit segmentati on, the company needs to focus upon investing in the style of the product as it has not gone through much change with respect to the product and there has been no investment made to upgrade it. In terms of physiographic segmentation, the company can target both the economy minded as well as the high income group people. Marketing Objectives The main objective of the company must be to invest adequate resources so that they can appeal to the mass consumers. In the era of competition, it is important for the companies to keep themselves updated with the modern technologies. The major reason for the failure of the product has been that the model and features provided by the car were same throughout its entire of its 11 years existence in the market. Therefore, the main objective of the company must be to make changes in the product model along with providing new advanced features with the aim to beat the

Balance sheet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Balance sheet - Essay Example Balance sheets are generally prepared by a company at the end of its financial year. The balance sheets are presented in either horizontal or in vertical form. All the items present in the balance sheet of a company are discussed in details in this study. The dual aspect of balance sheet and the application of balance sheet have also been mentioned in this study. The users of balance sheets include the company managers to help them in analysing the financial conditions of the company, the investors and shareholders to help them in their decision making process regarding investment in the organisation and all other stakeholders of the company. With the increasing trend of globalisation most of the companies are trying to explore business opportunities in different parts of the world. As a result of this they need to comply with the regulatory requirements of different nations of the world. However with the advent of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and International Accounting Standards (IAS), the accounting practices followed in different nations are converging to make the financial statements including balance sheets more comparable in nature. A comparison between the balance sheet formats followed by companies in US and UK has been discussed in this study. 2. Balance Sheet Items All the items of a balance sheet fall under two broad headings, namely â€Å"Assets† and â€Å"Liabilities†. The items falling under the categories of assets and liabilities have been discussed below: 2.1 Assets Assets which are possessed by a business concern are categorised into two types, namely, current assets and fixed assets. Fixed assets are considered to be the long term assets of the company and current assets are considered to be the short term assets of the company. All these assets of the company are valued and represented in the balance sheet of the company at its book value or historical costs of those assets that is the costs of the asset s when it was first bought by the company. This is known as the historic cost convention (Horner, 2012, p. 42). However, as an exception to this convention or rule, some of the assets like the buildings possessed by the company are re-valued at its market price and then represented in its balance sheet. Sometimes, assets like goodwill generated internally by the company, including the values o different kinds of brands acquired by the company over a period of time are not included in its balance sheet. It is so because of the difficulty in accurately measuring the value of these kinds of assets. Let us now discuss in details about the assets of a company. 2.1.1 Fixed Assets Long term assets or fixed assets possessed by a company are sometimes referred to as non-current assets of the company. Fixed assets generally comprises of those assets of the company which are utilized by it for conducting its various business activities and are there with the company for a long period of time. They are not meant for resale by the organisation. The fixed assets of the company help it to generate sales or revenues through its business processes over a long period of time. Generally the fixed assets are required to be depreciated along its lifetime (Stittle, & Wearing, 2008, p. 60). Fixed assets of an organisation can further be grouped together into three different categories. They are: a) Tangible

Levi Strauss Signature Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Levi Strauss Signature - Case Study Example Levi’s brand is not as elastic as he put it because it has only been targeting a certain group in the market, for example, it could not design women jeans and younger people. The elasticity is low and this has overstretched the name of the brand with the introduction of the signature line (Levis Strauss & Co, 2011). 4. Develop the â€Å"brand schema† that you think existed for the overall Levis brand before and after the introduction of the Signature line (i.e., an associative network map of links and nodes). What are the marketing implications of the differences? The Levi’s Eco is a new product launched in 2006 and the difference with the rest is that it is made of organic cotton and sells at 30-68 dollars. The six environmental activism segments attracted to this type of jeans would be women in blue collar jobs, young children below 10 years, men aged above 55, I do not think that Levi’s Eco helps the brand with younger customers because young people do not prefer organic cotton clothes. They also feel that they are too warm for their bodies and are for old people. I think that Levi’s Strauss Signature may survive in the market as it is of a lower priced and designed in a way that taps the mass market. The Signature line also has styles for the entire family. The other advantage is selling at mass merchandisers, for example, in Wal-Mart where most people shop, therefore, easier access.  

The dramatic significance Essay Example for Free

The dramatic significance Essay Although in the previous act we were briefly introduced to the characters, their statuses were made clearer than their personalities which are conveyed in further depth in this scene. Prosperos story told to Miranda gives the audience a grasp of the identities of the people on stage in relation to him and why he may want them on the island in the certain groups, which is imperative if the audience is to understand the motives behind the characters actions both beforehand and presently. This is shown in the conversation between Antonio and Sebastian, as we were made aware of their crudeness and selfishness in the first scene, but it is only now that the relationship between them is conveyed. This is depicted by the continuation of each others jokes, and the similar way in which they view the situation: ADRIAN: The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. SEBASTIAN: As if it had lungs and rotten ones. ANTONIO: Or astwere perfumed by a fen. The motive of Antonios subjugation over his brother is also explained sub-textually. Shakespeare never states specifically, but it is suggested towards the end of this scene when Antonios pure ambition and lack of conscience is expressed. The audience could have believed that he had honest intention beforehand, as maybe he took Prosperos position as he was neglecting his duty, but this scene proves differently. Although him and Sebastian both share the same sardonic cynicism, with Antonio it conceals an underlying cunning and manipulative nature, unseen and unheard of formerly. O, If you but knew how you the purpose cherish Whiles thus you mock it! Sebastian on the other hand, displays a weaker disposition and so Antonio grasps the opportunity to use this to his advantage and use him for his own personal gain, giving an element of suspense to this scene as the act is not completed. It is important that each scene has a certain element of this, as if it seems that nothing is to happen, the audience will loose interest. Antonio has not changed at all from 12 years ago when we were first informed of him, unlike Alonso.

Is Apple Entry Into The Mobile Telephone Sector Marketing Essay

Is Apple Entry Into The Mobile Telephone Sector Marketing Essay According to Michael Porter (1979), industry is being influenced by five forces. The strategic business manager planning to develop an advantage over rival firms can use this model to better understand the industry plans in which the firm operates. Since iPhone is only offered by single networks such as O2 in UK and ATT in US, customers of other networks will have to wait until their contract expires, or pay an early cancellation fee (typically $200). The average duration of a cell phone contract is 2 years, which means that 25% of consumers plans will expire in the next 6 months. Since a $200 switching fee makes the iPhone very expensive. Apple introduced the device at high price for early adopters to earn abnormal profits and it slashed down iPhone price by 50% for rest of market segment. For Reference, In US When it reduce the price from $599.99 to $399.99 consumer were force to deal with the mobile carrier AT T mobility, in service package ranging from $59.99 to 99.99 per month. But in UK, low amount of inclusive minutes was not competitive. For reference, O2s iPhone deal allowed 200 inclusive minutes for pound 35 versus competitors that offers of 750 minutes in addition to a free phone. Apple reduces its prices or introduces new models for price-sensitive consumers, and its sales could expand considerably. Barriers to Entry/ Threat of New Entrants Ultimately the iPhone is going to face the most competition from imitators who can sell a similar or comparable device at a lower price. Most of these threats are going to come from established players in the cell phone industry (such as LG and Samsung) rather than companies trying to enter the cell phone market. Software companies such as Google and Microsoft may pose a credible threat at entering the cell phone market. Apple not only had to face a number of barriers to entry in the development of the iPhone but they must also worry about potential competitors (Google, Microsoft) overcoming them as well. Economies of Scale Apple already had pre-existing experience in manufacturing mass-market consumer electronics devices, many of which share components of the iPhone; so Apple was not adversely affected by this barrier. New entrants, however, may not have that luxury and the cell phone market is almost defined by its mass-market (which requires mass production and consumption) nature. Product Differentiation The iPhone is significantly different than its competitors product. Apple also has a certain amount of protection through the strength of its brand identity. iPhone launch was extremely different technology from other mobile companies. But to keep product differentiation consistent in long run would be challenge for Apple. Capital Requirements Apple enjoys a slight advantage here, though its an advantage that may be quickly lost. The other cell phone manufacturers have a lot of experience making cell phones, but not necessarily software. So, to most effectively compete with the iPhone they will need to invest significantly in certain areas. And Apple also has a lot of experience making hardware and software, which gives them an advantage to some extent over their competitors. In this sense, Apple itself did not face much problem with this barrier because of their experience creating both software and hardware. Future competitors looking to enter the cell phone market are less likely to have that advantage. Distribution Channels The iPhone will be only available at Apple and single network stores and it is only supported by the Single network such as o2 in UK. They are not able to sell iPhone in cell phone market and also they are making it difficult for people to even purchase the phone. A future entrant into the market may be able to make their product available for multiple carriers and multiple retailers. For instance, iPhone was available through 1300 Apple, O2 and Carphone warehouses shops in UK. Supplier Power The iPhone software that brings all features together and allows the user to interact with the phone in a compelling way. And Apple, of course, developed and owns the software. A producing industry requires raw materials labour, components, and other supplies. This requirement leads to buyer-supplier relationships between the industry and the firms that provide it the raw materials used to create products. Suppliers, if powerful, can exert an influence on the producing industry, such as selling raw materials at a high price to capture some of the industrys profits. But in case of Apple, The Software, Hardware, component is developed and owned by Apple itself. Hence, they have less threat from powerful suppliers. Buyer Power Here you ask yourself how easy it is for buyers to drive prices down. Again, this is driven by the number of buyers, the importance of each individual buyer to your business, the cost to them of switching from your products and services to those of someone else, and so on. Although the iPhones functionality would be attractive to business users, its price is considerably higher than that of Blackberries .This makes enterprise purchases unlikely, since businesses are typically price sensitive. However, the iPhones compelling mix of features makes it attractive to a broad set of cell-phone consumers. The iPhones market is limited by two factors: 1) the high price ($499 for 4 GB) and 2) Apples exclusive US carrier agreement with Cingular (For example AT T, O2).In case of Apple the buyers of the iPhone are somewhat more powerful. Given the relatively high price of the iPhone it remains to be seen whether consumers will pay a high price for Apple iPhone features when their needs may be equally met by cheaper alternatives. Threat of Substitutes A threat from substitutes exists if there are alternative products with lower prices of better performance parameters for the same purpose. The iPhone mainly distinguishes itself from competitors over its softwares and hardwares which are driven by a multi-touch screen. Apple claims various patents relating to this technology. However, it is still likely that other players in the market will soon be able to deliver similar products. Synaptics and LG have already disclosed details of coming products which feature touch-screen interfaces, as well. Software companies such as Google and Microsoft may pose a credible threat at entering the cell phone market. Evaluation Being aware of huge competition in mobile phone market, I decided to use porters five forces model to do analysis and based on analysis, I found that there is tough competition for mobile operators who act as both substitutes and new entrant. In the next 3-5 year if we see the industry would be more competitive than today. So many firms will be competing in the market and new firms will be try to come in the market for taking the advantage of profitability, which would reduce the profit of the firms. Consumer will have more choice because of substitution, and they can force the companies to reduce the prices of their product. And the supplier will have the power to raise the price of the raw material because of the high demand on the same time. Word Count: 1,109 words

The Third And Final Continent Essay

The Third And Final Continent Essay The character I have chosen for analysis from Jhumpa Lahiri short story, The Third and Final Continent, is the narrator, a very dynamic character who adapts to the traditions and lifestyles of the continents he travels to especially America. The narrator exhibits the most characteristics than any other character in the story because he is talking about his life and the actions that he takes when encountering a certain obstacle. The narrator also shows the most change than any other character. Living from one continent to another continent and then to another continent again can dramatically change how a person lives, thinks, and even eat. Despite all the changes that he experiences he still retains some traditions from his culture of origin with the help of a stranger that he meets. This is a positive characteristic that distinguishes the narrator from any other character in the story. The narrators life contrasts somewhat to other immigrants because they must all undergo a certain t ype of change and must worry about the passing of traditions to their American born children. The life of the narrator is a clear example of what most immigrants must go through when living in a new continent. The tone of the narrator sounds somewhat non enthusiastic or plain due to the fact that both of his parents have passed away. He shows strong love and respect for his parents. Before we cremated her I had cleaned each of her fingernails with a hairpin. I had assumed the role of eldest son, and had touched the flame to her temple; to release her tormented soul to heaven (Jhumpa Lahiri 654). The narrator is also a very well educated man, a graduate from LSE (London School of Economics), and he also has a knack for learning new things. I attended lectures at LSE. I read every article and advertisement, so I would grow familiar with things, and when my eyes grew tired I slept (Lahiri 650-651). The narrator faces an internal conflict: how can he be a modern American Indian and retain some of the old traditional Indian ways at the same time? His quest continues with the birth of his son, afraid that his son will forget his Indian traditions. So we drive to Cambridge to visit him, or bring him home for a weekend, so that he can eat rice with us with his hands, and speak in Bengali, things we sometimes worry he will no longer do after we die (Lahiri 662). The narrator tells to his son the journey of himself surviving in three totally different continents as a way for his son to gain the morale that he needs to overcome any obstacle. There is evidence in the story which suggest that the narrator is trying to find solutions for his problem because he tries to retain some of his old traditional ways by eating egg curry and walking barefoot in the house and being modern by telling his wife that she does not have to wear her sari all the time. And took turns cooking pots of egg cur ry, which we ate with our hands on a table covered with newspapers (Lahiri 650). There is no need to cover you head, I said. I dont mind. It doesnt matter here (Lahiri 660). Cooking egg curry is his main way of keeping Indian tradition alive. He cooks egg curry in India, in the crowded room in London, and even in his new home in America. He can never abandon his roots and obeys every aspect of his Indian culture. I regarded the proposition with neither objection nor enthusiasm. It was a duty expected of me, as it was expected of every man (Lahiri 654). The neutral remarks that he makes towards his arrange marriage shows that he is a very religious man, keeping alive some aspect of his tradition to allow him to survive the toughest of times. The narrator is astounded when he finds out from Mrs. Crofts daughter Helen that his land lady is over a century years old. I was mortified. I had assumed Mrs. Croft was in her eighties, perhaps as old as ninety (Lahiri 657). He could not bare the fact of a widow living all alone by herself because he once had close encounters with a widow before which drove her insane, his mother. Widowhood had driven my own mother insane. What pained me the most was to see her so unguarded And so it was my job to sit by mothers feet (Lahiri 657). When he realizes that Mrs. Croft is very old and also a widow for so long he starts to take care of her as if she was his own mother. At times I came downstairs before going to sleep, to make sure she was sitting upright on the bench, or was safe I her bedroom (Lahiri 658). This shows the narrators strong bond between stranger and stranger which later strengthens his relationship with Mala. His encounters with his land lady, Mrs. Croft guided him with his new life in America. He shows admiration for Mrs. Croft because she has survived for so long while keeping all of her old traditions intact and passing them on to her children. She added that it was also improper for a lady of Helens station to reveal her age and to wear a dress so high above the ankle (Lahiri 657). This paves the way for how the narrator should live his life and teach his son about Indian traditions. Mrs. Croft also symbolizes the narrators mother saying that Maya is a perfect lady! (Lahiri 662), as though she is approving of Maya to be the narrators wife. For immigrants, the challenges of exile, the loneliness, the constant sense of alienation, the knowledge of and longing for a lost world, are more explicit and distressing than for their children. On the other hand, the problem for the children of immigrants, those with strong ties to their country of origin, is that they feel neither one thing nor the other (Lahiri 663-664). This quote from Lahiri herself is basically what the theme of The Third and Final Continent is all about. It strongly interprets the narrators character in the story as an immigrant and the emotions that he feels when he enters a new country. It also explains the inner conflict in which he is trying to overcome of being a modern Indian and a traditional Indian at the same time, while explaining to his son how important it is to keep a little bit of tradition alive within you. Although not every immigrants life in America can relate to the narrators, it is true however that they all must undergo some type of chan ge when living in a new country for the very first time. Works Citied Lahiri, Jhumpa. Chapter 20/Fiction For Further Reading. Literature Reading, Reacting, Writing. 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 650-64. Print.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men Essays -- Fitzgerald Sad Y

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men F. Scott Fitzgerald’s All the Sad Young Men was his sixth book. The work was composed of nine short stories that had been published in magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post over the course of the previous year. The work was Fitzgerald’s third short story collection and followed the Great Gatsby in publication on the 26th of February 1926. To most, this book signaled Fitzgerald’s staying power as many of his seniors had believed that his initial success as a writer was lucky. They did not take Fitzgerald seriously as an author. On the whole, critics valued the work and praised some of the stories as the best Fitzgerald had written to date. The collection of short stories in All the Sad Young Men included: â€Å"The Rich Boy,† â€Å"Winter Dreams,† â€Å"The Baby Party,† â€Å"Absolution,† â€Å"Rags Martin-Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les,† â€Å"The Adjuster,† â€Å"Hot and Cold Blood,† â€Å"The Sensible Thing,† â€Å"Gretchen's Forty Winks.† Of these, â€Å"Absolution† was widely considered to be the best as it was an artistic piece as opposed to the ones that the critics claimed Fitzgerald wrote to sell. â€Å"Absolution† is a story about an eleven year old boy and a priest; even those who did not like this collection wrote favorably about this story. One critic said of â€Å"Absolution,† â€Å"Yet, it must be said, immediately, that ‘Absolution’ is a penetrating and profound effort to articulate life in primal and dark conflict. It is simple and stripped of all artifice. The poet and humanist in Fit zgerald is in this counting of the search of a boy and an elderly priest for absolute truth, in the conflicting presence of the demands of daily life with its common everydayness of people and trivial affairs.†[1] ... ...cal jazz age mold and reached new audiences. Fitzgerald also received the common criticism that he was writing to sell; many critics felt that â€Å"Absolution† and â€Å"The Rich Boy† with a few others from the selection were the only works of merit. Bibliography ed. Bryer, Jackson R. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Critical Reception. Burt Franklin & Co., Inc. 1978. http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bmangum/asymcr.html. (This site is not very informative.) http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/collection/dustjackets/sadmen.html. (Dust jacket) [1] Bryer, Jackson R. Pg. 258. [2] IBID. Pg. 259. [3] IBID. Pg. 253 [4] IBID. [5] http://www.georgetown.edu/tamlit/collections/fitzwrks.html#dreams [6] IBID. Pg. 260. [7] IBID. Pg. 258. [8] IBID. Pg. 259. [9] IBID. Pg. 261. [10] IBID. Pg. 261. [11] IBID. Pg. 270. [12] IBID. Pg. 269.

Child Development Essay -- Psychology, Locke, Rousseau, Piaget, Watson

There have been many visionaries that have developed theoretical frameworks which give a basic, general approach to understanding the ways in which children develop. Doherty and Hughes (2009) recall that early childhood progression is most commonly presented in terms of specific periods of time. Therefore, this tends to relate to the idea of fixed and limited stages that are strongly linked with chronological age, moreover, providing a very specific ordering of change. The most frequently identified periods of development are prenatal, infancy and toddlerhood, early childhood, later childhood and adolescence. Generalised theories on child development came about in the 17th century, with John Locke’s ‘Some Thoughts Concerning Education’ (1693) forming a foundation where a child was born as a â€Å"blank slate.† Contrastingly, Jean- Jacques Rousseau’s ‘Emile’ (1762) explored the idea that children were born with a sense of morality. These two theorists provide the origins of generalised development, meaning that within these theories, children develop in the same way. However, using Gewirtz and Pelaez-Nogueras’ (1992) criteria for evaluating theories, generalised theories do not take account for individual differences that exist as children grow and develop. Thus, it could be suggested that these broad patterns are not likely to be very helpful. Behaviourism, on the other hand, asserts that development of the individual can be achieved through observation of, and experiences in, the environment. It stipulates that development has to be based on observations rather than speculations about cognitive processes, which are by their nature unobservable. One early proponent of this theory was John Watson, who, in 1913, published a paper ... ...t reflects slow and steady change over time, or it goes through distinctly defined stages. Arguably, development should be considered as being largely continuous but having certain stages characterised by ‘milestone’ stages such as beginning to walk, where this new skill is clearly different from the child’s previous abilities. The development within early childhood can be seen to be due to many factors that have some clear effects upon some aspect of their progression, such as diverse environments and social settings. Every child experiences a unique combination of genetic and environmental influences that show how children have their own distinctive abilities, suggesting that generalised patterns are not very helpful indicators in considering the development of an individual child except as a loose framework within which to child’s development can be monitored.