Thirty Years War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Thirty Years War - Essay Example The Thirty Year War marks the last of its kind-a religious conflict fought under political guises. Unlike other religious wars, however, the Thirty Years War is known much more for its destruction, destitution, and lingering consequences: All this was effected by religion. Religion alone could have rendered possible all that was accomplished, but it was far from being the SOLE motive of the war. Had not private advantages and state interests been closely connected with it, vain and powerless would have been the arguments of theologians; and the cry of the people would never have met with princes so willing to espouse their cause, nor the new doctrines have found such numerous, brave, and persevering champions. The Reformation is undoubtedly owing in a great measure to the invincible power of truth, or of opinions which were held as such. The abuses in the old church, the absurdity of many of its dogmas, the extravagance of its requisitions, necessarily revolted the tempers of men, already half-won with the promise of a better light, and favourably disposed them towards the new doctrines. The charm of independence, the rich plunder of monastic institutions, made the Reformation attractive in the eyes of princes, and t ended not a little to strengthen their inward convictions (Schiller, 2006, p. 2). UndoubtedUndoubtedly, Europe had suffered through centuries of warfare before the Thirty Years War started in 1618; and the history of warfare, sadly, did not end after the Thirty Years War ended in 1648. In fact, shortly after the war in 1945, some historians tried to revise the traditional image of the Thirty Years War by: ...suggesting that the numerous complaints about the destruction of towns, the cruelty of soldiers and in general about unmitigated plunder, pillage and atrocities should not really be taken seriously. Rather, it is argued, they are so many cases of special pleading by farmers and citizens in order to get taxes and other impositions reduced (Asch, 2000, p. 291). Essentially, historians have attempted to scale down the level of destruction and destitution caused by the Thirty Years War by claiming that these farmers and citizens raised complaints and exaggerated their claims regarding the war in an effort to receive tax waivers and reductions (Asch, 2000). However, many historians have dismissed these claims. This dismissal may be partially due to a treatise released during the height of the Thirty Years War written by Franciscus Bonbra in which he describes some of the atrocities committed by mercenary soldiers: "They would rape any woman who seemed halfway attractive, plunder the houses, destroy the crops and beat and torture the peasants to extort money. In the end they would set the entire village on fire" (Asch, 2000, p. 292). Bonbra's treatise helped to lend credibility to the argument that the claims of destruction were valid; since Bonbra's treatise was written as a theoretical treatise rather than a petition seeking support or tax wa ivers (Asch, 2000). In truth, the Thirty Years War left a wave of destruction unmatched until the 20th Century's World Wars. The destruction, whether caused through poor militaristic strategies, army composition, or overall famine and disease, led to several changes

Commercialization of Beauty Essay Example for Free

Commercialization of Beauty Essay To help with any queries you may have about the examination, I have written some guidelines below. You will have had experience preparing exam questions in your review sessions. The following document provides some further hints and tips, with some sample questions at the end. I have also attached a document with questions from January and Resit last year, with an outline of what the answer should contain. What do I have to do? In the examination, you will be asked to select three questions to answer from a choice of six. Very broadly, these areas might be taken from the nine major sections listed in the course outline as below. 3) Marketing to Consumers Consumer Behaviour * Why is customer analysis an important component of strategic marketing management? Making reference to a company of your choice suggest TWO models that can be used in undertaking such an analysis. * With reference to models and products of your choice, describe both the Consumer Buying Process and four common types of behaviour that consumer’s exhibit. * Explain, using examples, how marketers try to influence consumers at the different stages of the consumer decision process. 5) Product Strategy, Brand Management * Describe and discuss each of the key stages involved in new product development and explain why innovation is a key marketing strategy for organisations today. * What is the Boston share/growth matrix? [30] In turn, give an example  product for each of the four boxes and describe the marketing implications. [70] * What is a positioning map and how are they useful to marketers? [50] For an industry of your choice draw an example of a positioning map with at least 6 product/brands located on it according to appropriate criteria with comments on the strengths and weaknesses of each location. [50] * Assess the advantages and disadvantages of brand extensions. Use appropriate examples to illustrate your answer. * Examine the components of effective brand positioning, illustrating your answer with examples of well-positioned brands and poorly positioned ones. 6) Pricing Strategy * Discuss the following strategy using pricing theories and concepts from the course: The only reason that companies set low prices is that their products are undifferentiated. * List and explain the keys mistakes a strategic marketer could make when setting the price of a good or service. * You have been asked by a company specialising in consumer electronics about the pricing of a new product about to be launched. Describe the factors that the company should consider in setting the price of their new product. * Discuss how pricing should play a strategic rather than a tactical role for an organisation. Use relevant industry examples to illustrate your answer. 7) Distribution Strategy * Marketing channel issues are amongst the most important decisions that  management faces. To what extent do you agree with this statement? * Why might a supply channel become disintermediated? 8) Promotions Strategy, Marketing Communications * Advertising is the most obvious form of promotion. Using examples, describe at least three other forms of promotional activity. * Identify and discuss the key strategic actions marketers must take to ensure Integrated Marketing Communications are successful. * Different advertising campaigns can have different objectives. With reference to recent examples, list and discuss four different types of objective. * There are five main promotional tools. Define each and use examples to illustrate their potential usefulness. 9) Services Marketing * Using strategic marketing theories and concepts, state whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: â€Å"Creating marketing strategies for services is no different to the marketing of goods†. * Discuss the extended marketing mix used for services. Why are these useful, given the characteristics of services? Below are listed the exam questions and outline answers for a previous January examination and Resit. The outline answers are produced so that the external examiner and markers have a good idea about what the answer should contain. However, to achieve top marks (70+) you would need to include these points in a coherent argument, aided by relevant examples and context. Resit 2012 1) What are the four distinguishing characteristics of services marketing? What challenges do these present to the formulation of marketing strategy and implementation? Answers should define what is meant by a service: a provider/client interaction that creates and captures value. Definitions such as â€Å"Deeds, processes, performances† (Zeithaml Bitner, 1996); â€Å"An activity or series of activities†¦ provided as solution to customer problems†(Gronroos, 2000); may be used. The four distinguishing characteristics of services marketing will be defined as: Intangible (as opposed to tangible goods): The implication of this is that services cannot be inventoried, or easily patented. They may therefore be easier to copy, and gaining real competitive advantage may be more difficult. Services cannot be readily displayed or communicated- this raises issues in terms of the promotional strategy and message designs that can be used. Airlines may emphasise the relaxation of being on board as the actual process of travel is more difficult to represent, and might be more problematic when communicating the company’s positioning strategy. Intangibility also makes pricing more difficult. With goods, a differentiation focus and premium pricing strategy may be clearly identified by the consumer through the tangible attributes of the products and the difference in quality. The quality of a set of accounts, or a medical procedure may be less tangible, and therefore high prices may need to be supported by other aspects of the strategy and marketing management process. The extended marketing mix, such as physical evidence may be helped to signal quality to consumers. Heterogeneous (as opposed to standardized): Service delivery and customer satisfaction depend on employee and customer actions. Therefore plans for marketing strategy and implementation cannot be guaranteed in the same way as for products. Service quality depends on many uncontrollable factors. There is no sure knowledge that the service delivered matches what was planned and promoted. The extended marketing mix, particularly the planning  of the ‘process’ may be to alleviate problems of standardization. Some companies such as McDonalds have tried to implement a standardized service experience. This may only be appropriate for some sectors however. For luxury services or professional services, the heterogeneous and client-specific exchange may be part of the value of the service. Companies will need to carefully monitor and control implementation. Simultaneous production and consumption – customers participate in and affect the transaction, and each other. Employees also affect the service outcome. Decentralisation may be essential. Mass production is difficult. Because services depend critically on the co-production relationship, it is very important that the service contract spell out mutual responsibilities and expectations. A significant percentage of service engagements (estimates range from 10-50 percent) do not meet the clients or providers expectations, resulting in poor performance and low satisfaction, and, therefore, in less value created and captured than anticipated. This gap is an opportunity for services innovation that will improve returns, performance and satisfaction. The training and management of people, another aspect of the extended marketing mix, may help the control and implementation of strategy in this respect. Perishability (as opposed to non-perishable)- It’s difficult to synchronise supply and demand. For many services, demand may be affected by geographical location, seasons, timing etc. Marketing management has to try to balance supply and demand, for example through pricing strategies- bundling return journeys or making seasonal promotions to stimulate demand off-peak. In this sense, segmentation, targeting and positioning is of key importance- identifying the value sought by different consumers and managing the marketing mix accordingly. Services cannot be resold or returned, therefore pricing and promotional tactics may be to sell services at cost alone, for example last minute hotel bookings and flights. Considering overheads are fixed, it is better to have costs covered than an empty seat or hotel room. However, these tactics may not integrate effectively with the company’s generic strategy. 2) What marketing strategies and marketing mix decisions are associated with the different phases of the product life cycle? Discuss how the product life cycle can help companies to plan its product portfolio. The concept of the plc should be introduced and how marketers use it to make strategic planning and marketing mix decisions. The four phases should be identified as: Introduction: Characterised by low sales and high cost per customer. There are ways which marketers categorise consumer’s willingness to adopt new products, such as Rogers (1983) seminal work on the adoption of innovation. At this phase the segments which should be indentified and targeted are innovators, who are risk takers and open to new ideas. A similar adoption model is proposed by Moore (1999). His chasm strategy would argue that the early phases should involve techies, to iron out bugs. There are few competitors at this stage, and therefore some advantages may be found in being first to market. Consumers may be willing to pay a premium price for products at the introduction stage, and therefore a market skimming strategy may be adopted. Alternatively depending on product type, a cost-plus or penetration strategy may be appropriate. Promotional strategy will have the objective of raising awareness. Heavy sales promotion may also be used. Distribution is likely to be selective at this phase. Growth: This phase is charaterised by rapidly rising sales, lower average cost per customer, and rising profits. At this phase early adopters will consider purchase. They should be targeted by companies as they tend to be respected opinion leaders in the product field will promote wider adoption through word of mouth. Moore’s (1999) model would propose that visionaries should be targeted to help find competitive advantage and to establish the basis of the appeal for the pragmatists. There will be a growing number of competitors at this phase so marketing management and strategy is likely to reflect this. Extensions, warranty, and service may become more important add-ons to secure competitive advantage. Pricing may be competitor-orientated or for penetration. Efforts should be made to build intensive distribution to try to remain market leader. Promotional efforts will continue to build awareness but in the mass market, rather than targeted at a niche. Maturity: This phase is characterised by peak sales, low cost per customer and high profits. Purchasers will be the early/late majority (or the pragmatists and conservatives). Competition is likely to have stabilized as weaker products are forced out of the market. Strategies at this stage might involve diversifying brands (brand leverage, brand extension) and product line changes (widening, filling, stretching). Prices will most likely be lowered at this stage, possibly to match or beat competitors. Sales promotion may become more prevalent. Generally promotional strategy will be to stress brand differences and encourage brand loyalty. Advertising will try to remind and reinforce the brand. Decline: This phase is characterised by declining sales, and declining profits. Laggards or the skeptics will buy the product now cost and risk is low and most other people have purchased the product. Competition will reduce as company’s divest products in a declining market with declining sales. Strategies at this phase may be to phase out weak items. Prices may be cut. All aspects of the marketing mix might be cut back to reduce costs with efforts made at the level to retain loyalists. The PLC can be used in planning a company’s product portfolio. The ideal is to have products at different phases of the life cycle so that products at the maturity phase can provide profits for investment in the mix for products at the introduction and growth phases. Portfolio planning models like the BCG matrix allow firms to address this, and to make sure they are channelling their efforts into products which have potential for growth (stars and question marks) or profit generation (cash cows). Portfolio planning will also be about phasing out products which do not have a future (dogs). Best answers will emphasise the limitations of the plc model (linearity, not all products ever do into decline). 3) Discuss the main areas an advertising company will consider when given a creative brief. Using examples, explain why a celebrity may be chosen as a  message source. What factors determine the success of a celebrity endorsement? Answers should outline the following areas for a creative brief: Positioning statement- what is the overall positioning of the brand. What are the key brand benefits and brand promise. It could be based on: Features: how the brand delivers its promise; Values and personality: what the brand stands for and signifies, which affects relationship and loyalty; or Key reward: may be based on one of these features, safety, classy personality etc. Proposition: spells out what you want to say: big ideas, strategically central. Potential sources of a proposition are: user characteristics, price, brand image, product service heritage, ways of using the product, comparison with rivals, surprising points etc. What are the specific objectives for the campaign- may be to inform, persuade, remind or reinforce. This should help formulate specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted/timed objectives. Objectives may be to move buyers through readiness stages. Models such as AIDA and Dagmar may be mentioned. Target market- what segments are being targeted. This will impact greatly on the message strategy, creative considerations and media choice. Communication is a transactional process whereby meaning is exchanged through the intentional use of symbols. The firm must encode- reduce the concepts to a set of symbols which the recipient will decode. There must be a shared view of what the symbols mean, a shared field of experience. This will be determined by the target market as well. Message strategy: appeals, themes or ideas that tie into the brand positioning and establish points of parity or points of difference. Rewards may be intrinsic e.g. quality or extrinsic e.g. traditional. Buyers expect one or more of the following rewards: rational, sensory, social or ego  satisfaction Creative structure- how should we express our message: informational (rational, logical, product demo, comparison, testimonials); transformational (non-product related benefit or image, stir up emotions, negative: fear, guilt, shame, positive: humour, love, pride and joy, often use borrowed interest devices- music, provocative images, cute animals etc.). Media choice- Where is the communication(s) going to appear? Media classes (media types such as PR, press, TV- does it reach the chosen audience?); Media vehicles (choice within the chosen class such as the Times or the Sun). How frequently? What impact? What exposure? (Burst- concentrated, Continuity, Pulsing etc.). How much is to be spent? Budget and control measures. Message source- who should express the message? Credibility, celebrity endorsement, modelling. Celebrity endorsement: used extensively. The product or service is given credibility through association with someone the audience trust or aspire to be like. Success depends on having a believable link between the meanings associated with the celebrity and the product; Class, status, gender, age, personality and lifestyle are all part of what the celebrity transfers to the product. Likeability also important; Celebrity credibility is comprised of attractiveness, trustworthiness and expertise. The various endorsements of a celebrity such as Tiger Woods may be used to discuss the effectiveness of this method. 4) Using the purchase of a particular product as an example, describe the decision process model of consumer behaviour. What are the short comings of the model in understanding this purchase? The answer to this question will largely depend on whether the student decides to focus on a high involvement purchase such as a car, or a low involvement purchase such as a can of soft drink. All answer will identify  the 5 stages of the decision process model of consumer behaviour: Problem recognition: consumer’s either recognise a problem or have a need triggered by internal or external stimuli. If the stimulus is internal for example hunger, it may rise to threshold level and become a drive. A need can be aroused by an external stimulus such as seeing a neighbour’s new car may trigger thoughts about buying one yourself. Information search: Sources of information may be personal, commercial, public or experiential. Of the total set of brands available, the consumer will only be aware of a subset called the awareness set. Some brands will meet the initial buying criteria and become part of the consideration set. As the consumer searches for further information, a few brands will form the choice set from which the final choice will be made. The awareness set will depend on whether companies have got themselves noticed. Consumers will then have positioned these according to a hierarchy of attributes- type/price/brand dominant. The car purchaser may decide on brands in the consideration set: audi/BMW/Mercedes. The drink purchaser may decide on type, cola with the options of Pepsi, Coca Cola and Supermarket own-brand. Evaluation- will depend on the need the consumer is satisfying; the benefits they are seeking; and the bundle of attributes that will satisfy this need. Attributes that deliver sought after benefits will vary: for the soft drink it may be taste, price, packaging, for the car it may be safety, performance, price. Expectancy value model assumes consumers arrive at decision about brands through an attribute evaluation procedure, combining brand beliefs, the positives and the negatives according to importance. Decision- the consumer makes the choice of their preferred brand and also decisions about quantity, timing and payment method. The car purchaser may have decided on a BMW but there was a waiting time and no interest-free finance so actually decided on an Audi. The soft drink purchaser discovered Pepsi had a trial price and opted for that. Post purchase behaviour- consumer’s often feel dissonance that stems from noticing disquieting features or hearing unfavourable things about the brand and will be alert to information that supports the purchase decision. No single process is used by all consumers, or by one consumer in all buying  situations. There are several processes which are not necessarily made on the basis of such conscious and rational judgements. Non-compensatory models of decision making using heuristics may be used, depending on brand knowledge, differences among brands and the social context. In reality, the soft drink purchaser is very likely just to choose the Cola brand they have previous experience of, or the one all their friends drink. The elaboration likelihood model would suggest consumers may take a peripheral route for this type of purchase, as they are unlikely to have the motivation for a diligent rational evaluation of alternatives. The consumer could just go straight from problem to decision, or certainly skip stages. This model also ignores other consumer psychology such as variety seeking, which happens in low involvement but significant brand difference sectors. Therefore consumers try Cherry Coke, Coke with Lime etc. purely for variety. A car on the other hand would demand the central route. Perceived risk will vary with the amount of money at stake, the amount of attribute uncertainty and the consumer’s self-confidence. For the purchase of a car, there could be functional, physical, financial, social, psychological and time risk. This uncertainty may lead the customer to postpone the decision, as might unanticipated situational factors, both of which are not included in the decision model. High involvement decisions are more likely to proceed down this central route for purchases that are financially involving, technically complex or have social implications (examples might be cars, mobiles). 5) What are the three key stages of the strategic marketing management process? Explain what activities are undertaken at each stage of the process and why this is so critical to a firm’s long term competitive advantage. Strategic analysis- where are we now? This is concerned with understanding the strategic position of the organisation in terms of its external environment, internal resources and competencies and the expectations and influences of stakeholders. Strategy is the development of long-range plans for the effective management of environmental opportunities and threats  while taking into account the organisation’s strengths and weaknesses. At this stage firms will collect and analyse relevant types of information about environmental forces and trends. This will be on two levels: the macro- for which a PEST analysis may be performed; and the micro- for which the Five Forces model for industry analysis may be used, in addition to analysing other relevant factors such as consumer behaviour and perceptive competitor analysis. The other environment is the internal environment in which a firm will identify its assets, resources and their application to determine where strengths and weaknesses may exist. Models such as a resource audit or value chain are used to collect this information. All relevant environmental analysis is then compiled into SWOT from which the organisation will determine where its future strategy should lie given the major factors and trends identified. This stage is crucial for competitive advantage as market information and intelligence is essential for developing a successful marketing strategy based on and for creating and sustaining competitive advantage is today’s rapidly changing environment. Strategic choice- where do we want to be? This involves understanding the underlying bases guiding future strategy, and generating strategic options for evaluation and selecting from among them. Strategy is decided upon in terms of objectives, financial decisions, segmentation, and positioning. These are the crucial and central decisions in developing a competitive marketing strategy. Based on the SWOT, strategic alternatives may be suggested and a decision needs to be made at corporate and SBU levels. Deciding the the mission and directional strategy and allocating resources will be decided at a corporate level. Portfolio planning models such as the BCG matrix may be used. At the SBU level, a generic strategic orientation (cost leadership, differentiation, focus) will be chosen based on unique competitive advantages. At the functional level, strategists consider decision such as what products to offer. Ansoff’s matrix may be used a tool to choose between the four possible options available to any organisation with regard to product/market strategy. Market segments to target and market position strategy are also decided at this stage, as well as competitive positioning and relationship strategies. Segmentation, targeting and positioning are the cornerstone of marketing strategy and key in developing  a distinctive position in the consumer’s mind, developing brand loyalty and therefore building long term consumer franchise that will help the company defend itself from competitive threats. Strategic implementation- how are we going to get there? This is the translation of strategy into organisational action through organisational structure and design, resource planning, and the management of strategic change. This involves the strategic, rather than tactical planning of product innovation, branding, services, pricing and distribution, marketing communications and emarketing. Some responses may also identify a fourth stage- strategic monitoring and control- did we get there? The importance of monitoring and control in strategic planning. 6) Identify what is meant by Value Chain Analysis. Why would a firm decide to use this analytical tool? Framework developed by Porter (1985) as a way of examining the nature and extent, if any, among the internal activities of a firm. Porter argues every firm is a collection of activities that are performed to design, produce, promote, deliver and support its product. All these activities can be represented in five primary activities and four support activities using a value chain concept. The primary activities of the value chain are inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales and services. Support activities are firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement. Value chain analysis has been widely used by firms as a means of analysing the internal activities of an organisation. One of the key benefits is the recognition that organisations are much more than a random collection of machines, money and people because these resources have no value unless they are deployed in activities and organised into systems which ensure products and services are produced and valued by the end customer. Firms which produce several products may evaluate several value chains. Examining each  chain and the linkages may allow firms to examine the potential synergies between the value chains of different products. Internal analysis provides a detailed understanding of those aspects of an organisation that are of strategic importance. It is often the way a firm’s assets and resources are applied that explain differences in performance among companies, rather than industry structure. It has been argued that the significance of the external environment has been over emphasised and a more appropriate focus for strategy is the organisation’s resource base. The key idea is that the value chain is a systematic way of examining all the activities a firm performs and how they interact to differentiate a firm’s value chain from its competitors value chains. This differentiation is recognised as a key source of competitive advantage. A firm is therefore likely to use this tool when undertaking a strategic analysis. It will analyse the various activities and determine where its strengths and weaknesses lie. For example high levels of absenteeism and ineffective warehouse automation may be identified as weaknesses. Strong research and development and salesforce results might be strengths. The company will then decide whether to match their strengths or to convert or nullify their weaknesses. The value chain would be used when determining a strategic capability profile or using a SWOT analysis. Answers may explore the alternative forms of internal analysis, such as the resource-based approach, performance analysis approach and functional analysis approach, commenting on potential strengths and weaknesses of these analytical tools. Like any strategic environmental analysis, internal analysis must be rigorously performed and undertaken at regular intervals to monitor and evaluate strategies and changes. Answers may also critique the fact that value creation does not only occur in the organisation but also in the supply and distribution channels. For example the quality of a car is influenced not only by the activities within the firm but by the quality of spare parts, components and the performance of distributors. January 2011 1) Discuss the factors that influence a companys choice of promotional mix. (50%) Name and describe the scope and characteristics of various promotional tools. (50%) The main 5 factors that influence the choice of the marketing mix are: 1) Resource availability and cost of promotional tools 2) Market size and concentration 3) Customer information needs 4) Product characteristics 5) Distribution push versus consumer pull strategies Other relevant points are that: decisions must not be made in isolation from the rest of the marketing mix- must be aligned; marketers need to make the correct choice of the promotional blend to communicate to the target audience; Marketers weigh strengths and weaknesses of tools against promotional objectives Advertising is defined as â€Å"Paid for communication by an identified sponsor with the aim of influencing and informing one or more people†. It is mainly used in the long term and is useful for raising awareness or influencing consumer’s attitudes about brands. Advantages are that it can communicate amplified and expressive messages through the use of sight, sound, music, experience etc. Disadvantages are that is is one directional, impersonal, expensive and can be seen as pervasive. Direct marketing is defined as â€Å"The recording, analysis and tracking of customers’ direct responses in order to develop loyalty†. It is used in the long term and short term. It is mostly used for retention but can also be used for acquisition of new customers. With improvements in databases, direct marketing can increasingly be customised and up to date. It is also interactive i.e. generates responses from customers and builds relationships. Disadvantages can be cost, and that telemarketing and direct  mail etc. are often seen as a nuisance by consumers. Public Relations is defined as the â€Å"Formulation, execution and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding and reciprocal goodwill between an organisation and its stakeholders†. It is used in the short and long term and is particularly useful for building reputation. It has the advantages of low media costs, credibility, visibility, and dramatisation- can catch consumers off guard. Major disadvantage is that it is difficult to control. Sales promotion is â€Å"An incentive for the customer, salesforce or distributor to make an immediate purchase†. It is mainly used in the short term. When used strategically, it can be useful for encouraging trial, re-trial, extended trial, building databases and getting rid of old stock. From a trade perspective it can be useful for increasing distribution, increasing inventory, and improving shelving space/position. Disadvantages are that it does not build brand loyalty and is mainly tactical in its horizons. 2) Explain the concept and purpose of analysing industry competition using Porter’s Five Forces model. Use illustrative examples to support your answer. The reason the Five Forces are important is that whilst industry structure has a strong influence in determining the competitive rules of the game as well as the strategies potentially available to the firm. Forces outside the firm are significant primarily in a relative sense; since outside forces usually affect all firms in the industry, the key is found in the differing ability of the firms to deal with them. The purpose of analysing industry competition is that it: Determines sectoral structural attractiveness Collective strength determines the ultimate profit potential of the industry and the ability of firms to earn rates of ROI in excess of the cost of capital Links with strategy development- goal of business is to find a position in the industry where it can defend itself Strategists should evaluate and rate these forces (high/medium/low threat or power) Accounts  for most of the micro-environment by acknowledging that competitive structure is not just determined by direct industry competitors Answers may outline the different Forces and raise some or all of the following points: Rivalry determinants: Industry growth; exit barriers; brand identity; switching costs; concentration; corporate stakes; diversity of competitors; informational complexity; intermittent overcapacity; fixed costs/value added; product/service differences Buyer power : Bargaining leverage e.g. Buyer information, Buyer switching costs Buyer volume Price sensitivity Brand identity, Product/service differences, Impact on quality performance Supplier power e.g. Switching costs; substitute inputs; impact of inputs on differentation; threat of forward integration; importance of volume to supplier Substitute threats e.g. Relative price performance of substitutes; switching costs; buyer propensity to substitute Entry Barriers e.g. Economies of scale; brand identity; switching costs; capital requirements; access to distribution; expected retaliation 3) Discuss the role that segmentation, targeting and positioning each play in developing a successful marketing strategy including managing the marketing mix. STP is central to development a marketing strategy. The marketing concept assumes different preferences amongst consumers, and STP is how consumers are grouped into clusters with similar characteristics or needs, so that products and services can be targeted to satisfy them. Segmentation is dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs, characteristics or behaviours, who might require separate products or marketing mixes. The reason companies use STP is that: * It is profitable business. * May discover unfulfilled consumer needs. * Strengthens management capabilities. * Allocates marketing resources. * Sets market objectives. There are 6 stages to STP, which are: When considering which segments to target, marketers consider a mixture of managerial concerns and customer needs which include: * Is servicing the segment consistent with corporate goals? * What is the strength of competition targeting the segment? * Is it desirable in terms of size, future growth and saturation? * Selecting segments whose needs match the companies ability to deliver. * Profitability and strategic fit- SWOT * Ultimately the decision is conceptual- who we are as a company, and where we want to be The strategic role that STP plays is in allocating resources to the potentially most profitable segment of the market. Product lines are then designed to match demand in the market place or match resources. STP means companies can catch the first sign of change to give time to prepare and take advantage of it, and consider best competitive position to adopt for each segment. With marketing management STP allows firms to determine the right style of comms campaign; choose the most cost effective advertising media; apply demographic data effectively; price for maximum effectiveness; and develop the right channel strategy. Ultimately STP results in positioning which is possibly the most important aspect of marketing- it results in changing and forming perceptions about brands, creating brand identity and is about designing, communicating and delivering value (crafting the marketing mix to the needs of the target market is the foundation upon which customer relationships and brands are built). A  product’s position is the way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes, it is the place the product occupies in the consumer’s mind relative to competing products. Positioning is based on unique selling proposition (USP) (what is unique/what are you selling); a Brand’s competitive advantage- with whom are you competing and how are you better? And who will use the product? 4) What personal, social and cultural factors influence buyer behaviour? (50%) Choose an example of a high involvement purchase, such as a car, and describe how these factors influence the consumer’s choice.(50%) Cultural Influences have the broadest and deepest influence. Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behaviors acquired through socialization processes with family and other key institutions. Your values are formed on achievement and success, individuality, freedom, humanitarianism etc. (or Hofstede’s model). Subcultures- more specific identification and socialisation for members on the basis of nationalities, religion, geographical location, political perspectives. Social classes: show distinct preferences in terms of product choice, brands, media choice and languages. Social influences. Relevant factors include: Reference groups: have a direct or indirect effect on attitudes or behaviours; consist of primary and secondary; aspirational and dissociative; they introduce ideas and behaviours, influence attitudes and self concept; they create pressures for conformity which may affect brand choice. Opinion formers (e.g. designers), opinion leaders (offers information and usage advice), confident social and involved with category; and opinion followers. Companies try to reach leaders to disseminate messages. Family- the most important consumer buying organisation and the primary reference group, different priorities and decision-making influences. Personal Influences: Relevant factors include: Age and stage in life cycle- family/ psychological/ transitions. Occupation and economic circumstances- occupation may affect products and services required and what you can  afford. Personality: a set of distinguishing human psychological traits that lead to relatively consistent and enduring responses to environmental stimuli. Often consumers try to buy brands that reflect their own personality (Aaker’s brand personality typologies: sincerity/ excitement/ competence/ sophistication/ ruggedness). Self-concept: actual/ ideal/ others’ self-concept/ multiple selves. Lifestyle: pattern of living as expressed in activities, interests and opinions and values; influences such as time constrained, multi-tasking. Core values: the belief systems that underlie attitudes and behaviours. 5) Discuss THREE different approaches to pricing, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of each approach. The three approaches are: Cost-based pricing : strong internal orientation and based on costs Competitor-orientated pricing : major emphasis on levels set by competitors Market-led pricing: focuses on the value that customers place on a product in the market place and the nature of the marketing strategy used to support the product. Cost-based pricing involves setting prices based on the costs of producing, distributing and selling the product plus a fair rate of return for the company’s effort and risk. Methods include: Cost-plus pricing- simplest method of pricing- involves adding a standard mark-up to the product; break-even- what’s the minimum price we can charge to match the cost of making and marketing a product (BE= (fixed costs)/[(price-variable costs)]. Marginal cost- setting prices below full cost. Often used by service companies like hotels and airlines to make a contribution to direct costs. More complicated for services- variable costs move faster with an increase in demand. Advantages: simple; ensure you stay in business by setting minimum floor on pricing; and helps to set objectives in terms of the minimum number of units that need to be sold Disadvantages: In reality many business use cost-based approaches but they can have huge disadvantages: illogical: raised prices when sales fall; sales estimates are made before a price is set; ignores elasticity of demand; ignores competitor’s pricing; no incentive to reduce costs; ignore the impact of consumer perception and psychology; estimates overheads against individual products in an arbitrary way Competitor-based pricing- Can take three forms: 1) Firms follow the prices set by leading competitors Benchmark then set either above, below or the same as competitor Popular in financial services Can be risky, especially if cost position is not as good as a competitor Could start price war 2) Going Rate- all competitors receive the same because it is the going rate Undifferentiated commodities like coffee beans Challenge for marketer is to find creative ways of differentiating to charge higher price e.g. fair trade coffee beans, premium quality coffee beans 3) Competitive bidding process- contract goes out to tender sealed bids or competitive auction usually lowest price accepted increasing price pressures, European competition legislation and growing use of technology has increased the use of competitive bidding Very common in government and public sector markets Market-led pricing- favourable as it takes into account value rather than price. Main methods: 1) Trade-off analysis- also known as conjoint analysis, determines the trade-off between price and other features different combinations of variables such as brand, packaging, product features and price are tested can measure the impact on preferences of increasing price and determine the price level customers are willing to pay 2) Experimentation- places products on sale in various locations at different prices 3) Economic Value to the Customer (EVC) reducing costs and increasing revenue are primary concerns of companies Therefore in industrial markets, EVC is calculated- can charge more for a product if it will help your customer increase their revenue more than the competition e.g. new technology. Market led pricing is favourable as it takes into account the psychology of  prices and not simply economics; the price is used to say something about the product, and other factors such as stage in the product life cycle. Price often indicates quality especially in services. However, organisational considerations such as costs and the nature and structure of competition must also be considered. 6) Outline how you would construct a SWOT analysis. (50%) Explain the purpose of a SWOT analysis in the marketing planning process. (50) Answers should explain how the marketing environment is analysed- Macro environmental analysis conducing a PESTEL analysis, Micro-environment- examining Five Forces and other factors such as consumer behaviour. These result in identifying opportunities and threats. An internal analysis using e.g. value chain, identifies an organisations strengths and weaknesses. The purpose of conducting a SWOT is to identify strategic choices available to a company. It’s the internal communication of external information about emerging issues, situations and potential threats that potentially influence an organisation’s decision making (Albright 2004). SWOT is essential for firms growing in size and complexity and is an important component of a company’s approach to developing a market orientation. Market orientated companies are more profitable. SWOT is essential in markets where the pace of change and uncertainty is increasingly high- companies need to take a proactive direction. It identifies fads, trends, and megatrends. Scanning customer trends helps you create, communicate and deliver value and beat the competition. SWOT/TOWS is the basis for making strategic decisions about growth, what products, what markets, and whether to convert weaknesses or capitalise on strengths etc. Decisions are then made about STP and how the marketing mix will be managed in order to achieve marketing objectives. SWOT is the result of the strategic analysis which is followed by strategic choice, strategic implementation, and strategic control.

The Mask Of Apollo - Review Essay -- essays research papers

"The Mask of Apollo" revolves around the adventures of Nikeratos, a young actor who travels the countryside of ancient Greece and Sicily while performing in various plays. In one play, Kadmos by Sophokles the Younger, Nikeratos is required to wear an old mask of Apollo as part of his costume. The mask is fifty years old and is rumored to bring good luck. Nikeratos is impressed with the mask and comes to believe that it possesses special powers. He begins to make reverent gestures toward it as when he places a bay-sprig above it and sprinkles drops of wine on the floor in front of it. During one performance of the play a battle breaks out with a neighboring town. As the actors continue performing, Nikeratos touches the mask for luck and promises to make an offering to Apollo if the god helps him get through the scene. The superstitious townspeople spotting Nikeratos in the mask begin calling on Apollo to help them win the battle. In the end they are successful in their fight. From this point forward Nikeratos carries the mask with him and defers to it when he needs guidance. Accounts of Greek history are dispersed throughout the book with the politics of the ancient Greek world of Syracuse playing a major role in the story. Nikeratos attempts to ignore politics as he sees himself as an actor who is separate from the government scene. Through his travels in various plays however, he finds himself being pulled into the civil turmoil by his relationships with the p...

The purpose and activities of each functional area and internal and external communications at coca cola

The main functional areas are Human Resources, Production, and Administration, Finance, Marketing, R&D. the main functional areas in the coca cola company are HR, Production and Administration. Human Resources The human resources department recruits the best people for the right jobs. For coca cola the human resources department looks for people who have skills and experience in driving Lorries. They should be honest and happy in what they do. They produce a frame work which helps them to identify the right person for the work. They check out the attendance, punctuality of the employees. They check whether the employees are paid on time and whether they are late. They first advertise internally for a job that needs to be replaced before advertising it externally. They make sure that an employee only works over one time once a week. There is a training manager in coca cola who trains employees from ages 16-65. They never stop training and they have to train themselves continuously. Production Production department helps improve the products. Managers help others in their work in the production department and they guide them through their jobs. They tell the employees in that department what to do and they produce new ideas and alternative to the company. Their main target is to only loose about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½10000 a year of yield and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2000 a week. They also help to improve machines. They have a microbiologist in the coca cola company. He inspects the hygiene, in the production line and the raw material. He checks for contamination like moulds, bacteria and coli foam, he checks normal hygiene as well. Costic and parasitic acid removes the debris from inside the vessels and sterilizes it; he makes sure that this is still not in it while making the product. All areas are checked by a swab before production and the documents have to be checked by him. They have around 300 people working in the production department in coca cola and around 47,735 people working in McDonalds. Comparing this to coca cola there is a big difference. This shows that machines have taken over in coca cola but not in McDonalds. This also tells us that coca cola has grown and developed faster than the tertiary sector that is McDonalds. Coca cola make 24,000 drinks per hour. Administration In the administration department they have to do the filing and arrangements to see people. The PA Wendy Savides aim is to make sure that the boss knows where he is to be at a certain time. She also has to manage other people. She has a diary which contains the appointment for the boss and she helps him in any way, with meetings, charities, local donations. Marketing There are four basic aspects of marketing that is used in coca cola called the â€Å"four P's†: *Product: The item or service they sell. *Price: The amount they charge for their product or service. *Promote: The ways they inform the market as to who, what and where they are. *Provide: The channels you use to take the product to the customer. As you can see, marketing encompasses much more than just advertising or selling. For example, a major part of marketing involves researching your customers: What do they want? What can they afford? What do they think? Your understanding and application of the answers to such questions play a major role in the success or failure of your business. Advertising is a good way to inform people what is available to buy and if there where no adverts we wouldn't know what to buy or we would end up buying the same products and not trying anything different. But on the other hand adverts can encourage us to buy things that we don't need because they make the product look or sound really good and a lot of the time the product isn't as good as advertisements make them out to be. Coca cola spent around 569 million into ads in 2002. This shows that they have put a lot of time, money and ideas into the advertisements and they have made their money by the number of drinks they have sold. Coca cola's target audience varies with the different drinks. Fanta is aimed for women and teenagers. Coca-cola classic is aimed for all ages. Diet cola is aimed mostly for women from ages 25-35. This is quite alike with McDonalds because only a certain age people buy a product like women buy salads and a chicken sandwich. Finance HR is the most important functional area to the workers but to the boss its finance. This area controls all money in the business, and they are responsible for all money that goes in and out the business. Every so often the gives the other departments some money and they must stick to that. If they break their budget they must explain why. All money, which is spent, must first go through finance and only a senior worker can give consent for it. They are also responsible for paying every one in the company. They must give as report every week of how their cash flow is going, they must be precise to the last digit or they will be in big trouble. They must also prepare cash flow forecasts and break even charts; these must be shown at each company meeting. If all of these things aren't done correctly then the company could go bankrupt or the financial manager may get done for fraud. This section is very important and is vital for the businesses success. Marketing helps them in the aim of having bottled water. They can advertise their product and help them find out what people really want from their money. HR can help find experienced people for the different work, which will help them achieve improving working relationship. Finance helps them to see how much money they have and how much they need to buy things. Administration helps them to control the communication between the functions. They deal with internal and external communications. It facilitates the successful production of products and efficiency in the business. Production is the heart of the business as it creates profit and is the reason the business is running. This helps them achieve most of their aims like major rise in profit. The human resources department needs to communicate with production manager for several reasons. I asked Andrea Reeves the HR manager and she said, ‘we communicate well to know the attendance, punctuality of the employees so that we can see which workers are good for promotions and stuff like that.' She said that ‘we have to even communicate to the finance department to see that the employees are paid. We do this by Email internally, presentation.' PA needs to communicate with production manager to see whether they are producing enough bottles per hour and if they are going according the plan. They would want to check if they are being environmentally friendly. They communicate by phone or e-mail internally. The production manager would communicate with the microbiologist to see if there are any bacteria or whether they should start producing the drinks. They would want to know the status of the machines and whether they need to through out any drinks that are if the bacteria was in the machines while the drinks were made. This would contaminate the drinks. They communicate face to face or by phone internally. The marketing manager needs to communicate with the finance department to see how much money they have to invest in a making of a product. They communicate by the phone and by fax. The functional areas of coca cola are strong and secure; they help coca cola achieve their aims. They need to communicate with each other for several reasons, whether it's important or just a question about lateness. The advantages of talking, intranet and meetings are that it is efficient and quicker. Using e-mails and phone record involves ICT which can make things complicated and can take time. The business communicates to customers through the website mainly and sometimes through news articles. They sell their products through promotions their latest one is the free music download. If there is a problem then the customers call the customer line. They can complain to the services about the product which then goes to the coca cola administration department. Coca cola is responsible for the product till it reaches the hands of the customer. To do this the company needs to keep in contact with the store or market. They also need to contact about the times they need to deliver new drinks and where the drinks should be kept as well. The company gets their yield ready made so they don't know what it is made of but they put down some basic ingredients like caffeine.

What Is Risk? (Report)

1Introduction 2What is risk? 2. 1Material world and risk 2. 2Case study 1: allotment 2. 3Case study 2: sun exposure 2. 4Risk society and Ulrich Beck (1992) 3Understanding and knowledge 3. 1Geoffrey Rose (1850) 3. 2Epidemiology 3. 3Uncle Norman and last person 5Conclusion 6References Title: Risk and understanding through expert knowledge and lay dispute Introduction This report will look at how modern society is a risk society, how expert knowledge is used to understand risk and how lay people respond. Case studies will be used to show how expert knowledge on understanding and managing risk is communicated.These will show how the lay person disputes risks and make decisions without following the expert knowledge. The work of sociologists of Geoffrey Rose (1850) and Charlie Davison and colleagues (1991) is used to show how the lay person disputes expert knowledge by using their own everyday knowledge and experience. What is risk? 2. 1 Material world and risk In modern society we live i n a material world that now provides us with material goods which previous societies didn’t have. However these new material goods can bring us benefits but also can bring us risks.Putting yourself, or something, at risk is putting yourself in a possible situation which would have a negative outcome. Thompson et al. did a study in 1989 on cyclists who wanted to try to manage the risk of a head injury by wearing a helmet while cycling. The results showed an 85% decrease in the risk of a head injury if a helmet was worn. However, research by Walker (2006) concluded that if a car was to overtake a cyclist wearing a helmet, they would drive closer. Using this expert knowledge some people may chose to not wear a helmet to keep divers at bay even though with a crash the risk of a head injury would be higher. . 2 Case study: allotment In 2003 Tim Jordan and his family had an allotment in Hackney in which they thought the soil was safe. Eighteen months after getting the allotment the ir local authority, sent them a letter telling them the soil was poisoned with arsenic and lead. The test used by the council measured the total amount of poison in the soil using soil plugs. These samples were sent to a laboratory where the level of poison was compared to ‘soil guidance values’ (Exploring Social Lives, 2009 p. 54). This was a well established tests scientists used to develop their expert knowledge about soil and poisons.The soil was then tested in a different way with a PBET (physiologically based extraction test). The basis of this test was to measure the level of poison in the soil that would enter the human body. The test tries to create a situation of the soil passing through the human digestive system of a two year old. This test showed that the level of poison in the soil was less then the earlier test. Both tests gave the public information about the level of poison and therefore the level of risk in gardening on that soil. But each test gave th e lay person different information making it difficult for them to be certain about the risk.This case study shows that expert knowledge if not always consistent. 2. 3 Case study 2: sun exposure The sun exposure case study concentrates on Glaswegians attitude towards sun exposure whilst knowing the risks. Simon Carter conducts research on the attitude towards sun exposure drawn from interviews and focus groups of tourists between ages 20 – 35 who regularly travel abroad. This research found that those involved were aware of health advice on how to protect themselves from the dangers of sun exposure and why. Glaswegians find going on holiday without a pre-holiday tan as embarrassing.The Glaswegian term ‘peely-wally’ is used to describe people who are pale ‘When you’re away and the sunglasses and white legs come out I’m ashamed to be Scottish †¦ it’s like if you see a group of peely-wally people then they are Scottish. ’ (Expl oring Social Lives, 2009 p. 75) Even though these people knew about the risks of sun exposure they decided not to follow the advise to decrease the risk of damaging themselves due to the idea of looking healthy with a tan. This is an example of expert knowledge being disputed by the lay public because getting brown and having a tan was more important than the risk of illness in the future. . 4 Risk Society and Ulrich Beck In 1986 reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear power complex exploded and released radiation causing 28 deaths and left 200 people sick with radiation (Spivak 1992). As radioactive material is invisible to the human eye, it was a challenge for humans to know exactly where had been affected. This meant the public who lived in the ‘fallout’ zone to the radiation became reliant on the expert knowledge of the risk they were faced, ‘open to a social process of definition’ (Beck, 1989, p. 88). Beck defined ‘risk society’ (Expl oring Social Lives, 2009, p. 0) to describe the social impact of risk and showed how the complex risks in society needed expert knowledge to explain them. Understanding and knowledge of risk 3. 1 Epidemiology Epidemiology is a way of understanding how illness and disease is transferred across populations by tracing how the infections move across countries. Epidemiology has also been used in understanding risk when experts have used data to work out the probability (chance) of a risk happening. Doll and Hill (1950) showed that a high percentage of people who smoked had lung cancer and so they argued that smoking was a risk.This expert knowledge is based on understanding a pattern rather than the cause of lung cancer. 3. 2 Geoffrey Rose (1850) Epidemiological research is always carried out on a whole group of people but when the risks are communicated they are aimed at the individual. Prevention paradox was defined by Geoffrey Rose (1850). It describes the situation where the solution to prevent a risk will offer the community benefit that may not apply to each individual. Rose describes it best by saying that the ‘measure that brings large benefits to the community offers little to each participating individual’ (Rose, 1891, p. 850). Rose uses vaccinations to describe prevention paradox. Not every child will suffer from the illnesses prevented by vaccinations however every child will have a vaccination in order to prevent the one child that would need it. ‘599 â€Å"wasted† immunisations for the one that was effective’ (Rose, 1981, p. 1850). 3. 3 Lay dispute of risk Davison et al. found that people in every day life talked about health and illness. They knew people who had followed all the health advice and still became sick and died and other people who had not followed any of the advice and had no negative effects.This results in a type of lay epidemiology through which people dispute the expert knowledge and reinforce the exp erience of individuals in their everyday life. 4. Conclusion As society has become more complex and the public have more choices of consumer goods and services that there are risk as well as benefits in these. Many of these risks are complicated to understand and so need experts to study and explain them. This has led to the risk society where expert knowledge is used to help the lay public understand the risks facing them everyday.There is evidence that the lay public disputes the expert knowledge and makes decisions not to follow advice, such as using sun protection. This is partly because expert knowledge can be contradictory with different studies showing different risks but also because the expert knowledge does not always match the individuals experience. 1295 Words Beck, U. (1989) ‘On the way to the industrial risk-society? Outline of an argument’, Thesis Eleven, vol. 23, pp. 86-103 Bromley, S. Clarke, J. Hinchliffe, S. Taylor, S (2009) ‘Exploring Social Li ves’ Carter, S. and Jordan, T. Chapter 2 Living with risk and risky living’, Open University, Milton Keynes. Carter, S. (1997) ‘Who wants to be a â€Å"peelie wally’’? Glaswegian tourists’ attitudes to sun tans and sun exposure’ in Clift, S. and Grabowski, P. (eds) Tourism and Health: Risks, Responses and Research, London, Pinter. Rose, G. (1981) ‘Strategy of prevention: lessons from cardiovascular disease’, British Medical Journal, vol. 282, pp. 1847-53 Walker, I. (2006) ‘Drivers overtaking bicyclists’ [online], http://drainwalker. com/overtaking/overtakingprobrief. pdf (Accessed 14 April 2009)

Personal Ethics Essay Sample

Personal Ethics Essay Sample Personal Ethics Essay As a person valuing your personal activity is one of the best ways to ensure that you are deciding the best actions that satisfy your interest as a human being. This is because having a correct decision prevents your own self from getting into undesirable actions and scenarios in the future. Personal ethics is one way of becoming a responsible person at all times. This is a process where you are always responsible for your actions and decisions that make you a better person while you value your actions to become functional in the long run. As a person, it is important to ensure that your actions and decisions benefit your interest as well as having the capacity to improve your plans in the future. Personal ethics is important because it shows how a person fully respects their decision and actions that are relevant to their professional and personal practice. Personal ethics represents how a person is always responsible for their decisions in their personal and professional affairs. As a person, the significance of allowing capabilities to become functional enhances the credibility to ensure that there is something positive that can be applied in order to elicit positive attitude and vibes with the involved party. Responsibility comes with an efficient way of delivering an action that is acceptable to other individuals. This comes with an activity that engages in a functional way of delivering thoughts of becoming a disciplined person. Showing a sense of discipline allow a person to prevent committing mistakes in the future because they are aware of the acceptable and unacceptable actions that portray interesting knowledge and skills to satisfy their goals. Personal ethics is usually affected by a person’s personality because it is where the character comes out to any situation and activity. The character of a person reflects their views and interest that conveys an important measure to determine their emotional well-being. Attitude is the main basis to identify a person’s interest by means of allowing an individual to become reliable with their practices. The personality of a person determines their personal gesture, which has been responsible for encouraging their actions to reflect their belief and activities that translate their relationship with their ethical norms and values. If a person shows a strong personality towards others, they are observed to establish a poor interpersonal relationship with other individuals. The reason behind is that their strong personality might not be compatible with other individuals with a weaker personality either at home or at work. The implications brought about by personal ethics are the ability to adjust with other individual’s attitude or character. Reflecting the character of a person reveals that they are able to know the things that are either appropriate or inappropriate. Character reference reveals a person’s personal ethics by means of detailing their attitudes by describing their personality towards other individuals. As they say, your friends act as mirrors of your personality that meticulously describe your behavior towards other individuals or groups in any circumstance. If there are issues that concern other people, they describe your personality as strong and inappropriate for other individuals. However, having a nice personality can be described by other individuals to have positive vibes over other individuals or groups to have similar intuitions and objectives with any belief of activities (Sim, 2015). Reference Sim, May (2015). â€Å"Why Confucius’ Ethics is a Virtue Ethics†, in Besser-Jones and Slote, pp. 63–76.

Classroom Door Decorations - Ideas for All Seasons

Classroom Door Decorations - Ideas for All Seasons Your classroom door is the first thing people see when they walk past your classroom. To make sure your door stands out, take the time to create a unique display that represents your students or your teaching style. Create your classroom door decoration display by yourself, or enlist your students to help. By adding a little color and imagination to your classroom, you will have your students beaming with excitement. Fall Sweet Back to School Display A fun and tasty way to welcome your students back to school is to create a door display titled Off to a SWEET Start. Create giant cupcakes and write each students name on each one using sprinkles and glue. For the background, buy pink wrapping paper or use a colorful plastic table cloth. Mount a few colorful, edible lollipops for the students to eat later, and you have yourself a sweet back to school door display. Winter Happy Holidays To create a fantastic winter door display, have each student trace and cut out a medium sized green star. Then have each student place a photograph of themselves on the center of the star. Next, have students decorate stars with craft supplies such as sequins, glitter, markers, pom-poms, rhinestones, ribbon, etc. Once stars are completed, display them in the shape of a Christmas tree with your star in the center. Use red wrapping paper for the background, and brown paper for the stem of the tree. For an added touch, place Christmas lights around and/or throughout the tree. Spring Look at our Garden Grow After a long winter, spring into the season with a cute door decoration that will have the students and faculty beaming when they walk by. Have each student create a flower out of colored construction paper. On each pedal have them write something they have learned so far throughout the school year. Then place their photo in the middle of the flower and on the stem write their name in glitter. To create the backdrop use blue paper to represent the sky, yellow paper to represent the sun and green paper to use as the grass. Mount the flowers all around the grass in various sizes and title it Look at our Garden Grow. Summer End-of-the-Year Display A fun and unique way to end the school year and lead into summer vacation is to enlist the help of your students to create a picnic display. To begin have each student decorate a paper plate with a photo of their self and a favorite memory they have from the school year. Mount the paper plates on a checkered table cloth background and title it _____ Grade Was †¦ A Picnic! For a fun (and gross) touch have students create little ants to place around the classroom door. Additional Ideas Here are a few other ideas I have seen in the classroom, around the internet or made up on my own: Cruising into a New School Year - Create a sea blue backdrop and mount boating and sea items.We are a Class to Tweet About - Mount birds or write Twitter phrases about your students.You Make our School Pop - Create a HUGE popcorn bag and write students names on the kernel.Welcome to the Best Place to Bee - Create a bee hive and place students names on each bee.Mrs._____ Class is Souring to New Heights - Create a HUGE hot air balloon and place students names on each balloon.Hopping into ______ Grade. - Create paper frogs and place each students name on one. Looking for more ideas? Here a few creative bulletin board ideas to try in your classroom.

How exercise can boost your performance at work

How exercise can boost your performance at work We’re all familiar with the obvious benefits of exercise- regular physical activity can keep us looking and feeling fit and healthy, increase our energy levels and confidence, and help us maintain high levels of self-esteem. Staying active can also help us fight off a wealth of potentially life-threatening illnesses, including strokes, diabetes, and heart disease. What’s more, conquering the often overwhelming â€Å"exercise obstacle† and overcoming excuses, apathy, and laziness can remind us that we’re capable of bravely facing any challenge that life throws our way. In contrast, avoiding exercise and all forms of physical activity like the plague can have the reverse effect. Embracing laziness and inactivity can leave us feeling unhealthy and unfit, send our confidence and energy levels plummeting to the basement, and eat away at our self-esteem. Letting the â€Å"exercise obstacle† win the day will surely not inspire and motivate you to set and g o after major life goals.It may seem clear by now that exercising on a regular basis is in your best interest. However, if you’re still not sold, perhaps this will help seal the deal- not only does exercise help fuel and maintain a healthy body, it can actually improve your ability to think and retain information. It’s true- your mind and body are interconnected in amazing ways, and nurturing one will benefit the other.According to a recent article in The New York Times, â€Å"many scientists suspect that exercise alters the biology of the brain in ways that make it more malleable and receptive to new information, a process that scientists refer to as plasticity,† and that â€Å"†¦many past studies have shown that exercise prompts the release of multiple neurochemicals in the brain that increase the number of new brain cells and the connections between neurons†¦these effects improve the brain’s plasticity and augment the ability to learn.†What exercise doesAlthough research regarding how exercise and brainpower work together is continual and ongoing, recent studies have shown the following exciting cognitive benefits.Boosts brainpower: If you’re looking to take your brain’s ability to the next level, you can’t do much better than regular exercise. Studies have shown that exercise can actually increase the volume of key areas in your brain- how’s that for a real boost?Enhances thinking ability: Regular workouts will help kick away the dreaded â€Å"brain fog† that keeps you from thinking clearly and keep your mind and thoughts razor sharp all day long.Helps you process and remember new information more effectively: If you’re trying to acquire a new skill or task, like learning a new language or tackling a new job responsibility, combining it with regular exercise can be an unbeatable combo. New research suggests that physical activity can increase the size of the medial tempo ral and prefrontal cortex of your brain, key areas that regulate and control thinking and memory- so you’ll be able to master that new skill faster than ever before.Improves ability on cognitive tasks: Do you have an important test for work or school coming up? Or maybe you just want to perform better on puzzles and board games? Whatever your mental goals are, you better believe that exercise will help you succeed on all sorts of cognitive tasks that test your intelligence and brainpower.Keeps away the negatives: Yes, it’s true- regular exercise will help keep your mood positive and upbeat, help you achieve more restful sleep at night, and help reduce anxiety and stress- all things that can help your brain work at its absolute best.When, what, and how much?So†¦now that you know it does work, let’s explore how you can make it work for you.  This includes the when, what, and how much regarding exercise and brainpower.Although there’s some debate rega rding the type of exercise that best serves to promote brain function, according to a recent article by Harvard Medical School, â€Å"researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results.†Research also suggests that although you’ll receive a brain benefit regardless of when you decide to exercise, the most promising results typically occur when you do your workout before or even during a cognitive task. This suggests that we all might learn best while we’re being active, and it may have interesting consequences on how our institutions of learning are set up. Perhaps classes on treadmills or exercise bikes aren’t too far off in the future?Another big question you might be wondering about is how much exercise you sho uld do in order to receive a cognitive benefit. The same Harvard Medical School report suggests that â€Å"standard recommendations advise half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week.†So how can you incorporate exercise into your life? If you’re worried that you’re simply too busy to exercise or find the very idea of exercise daunting, a great way to take a step forward towards a regular active lifestyle is to start small. Try taking a brief yet brisk walk for 10–15 minutes each day, and gradually increase your workout in both length and intensity as time passes.Listen to your body, it will tell you when you’re ready to take on more and bigger physical challenges. Remember, every journey- no matter how long or arduous- starts with a single step, and the best way to go nowhere is to stand still and do nothing.Now that you know all about the many benefits, both physical and mental, that exercise will bring to your life, put the excuses aside and get up and get moving towards your successful future!

Frankenstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Frankenstein - Essay Example As Victor is seen joining the university at Ingolstadt, he creates a monster, a grotesque act committed by him, which removes him far from the victory of committing a scientific triumph. He attempts to go beyond accepted human limits of knowledge in order to create secrets not known to mankind. The story behind Frankenstein thus may be viewed as a lesson about the search for knowledge as well as the dangerousness that accompanies the pursuit. The 1931 make the film based on this sci-fi thriller talks about how scientists at the time were not satisfied with what human life had to offer. Victor was devastated and bereaved the death of his mother and soon began to create a human life in order to bring back those memories that he shared. However, his emotions got warped up within the scientific aspects of life and gave birth to destruction instead. He questions his friend, Robert Walton, "Are you mad, my friend? Or whither does your senseless curiosity lead you? Would you also create for yourself and the world a demoniacal enemy? Peace, peace! Learn my miseries and do not seek to increase your own." Scientists have never given up on understanding the working of the human body, and just like most of them, Victor challenged himself to move his thoughts and ideas on to a more productive work sphere so as to not think about his past and family life. However, the film has a very tragedian note as it helps the audience understand the protagonist’s regret upon formulating a monster which ends up killing his loved ones.

Standardized STATE testing and stress and anxiety in elementary school Research Paper

Standardized STATE testing and stress and anxiety in elementary school children in 3rd-5th grades - Research Paper Example This paper is going to give an in-depth analysis of test anxiety and how it can be controlled. The use of standardized testing in the education sector has become ever-present (Cassady, 2010). As significant as examinations are in the life of students, test anxiety among elementary students seems to have been disregarded. The demands for students to perform well in examinations are a reality. The TAKS test produce stress and anxiety on many children resulting to emotional tension. Pressure and demand is placed on students to perform and achieve higher scores in their examinations. This calls for the need of counselors to implement interventions to help reduce stress and anxiety (Putwain and William, 2008). Researchers in the fields of education and psychology have described test anxiety as a relatively stable personality trait. In advanced and critical cases it generates devastating psychological and behavioral responses. Cassady (2010) and Putwain and William (2008) agree that elementary students show signs and symptoms of test anxiety. Test anxiety has many effects on the cognitive abilities, behavior, emotions and health of the child as explained by BNET (2010), Carter et al. (2008) and Cassady (2010). The elementary students can be equipped with tools to enable them to deal with test anxiety as cited by Cassidy et al. (2002), Walsh and Murphy (2003) and Putwain and William (2008). Carter et al. (2008), BNET, (2010) and Cassidy et al. (2010), state that the test anxiety affects the performance of the students. Cassidy et al. (2002) and Lohaus and Klein- Hessling (2003) concur that the children at the elementary level can be taught relaxation tools to handle test anxiety. Students in the elementary level experience tension and apprehension before and during an examination (Cassady, 2010). This state can be described as anxiety which

Sale and purchase agreement, contract Assignment

Sale and purchase agreement, contract - Assignment Example ivers the Goods to Carrier or Bill of Sale to Purchaser: The seller allows the allocation of his land to the buyer, which in this cases the good, is land upon the completion of the remaining amount of money, which is SR 500.000. Any Risk of Loss or Damage is transferred to the Purchaser when: land sales and purchase agreement involves a lot of risk bearing. If the land on sales is by law owned by the government for instance, the purchaser will bear the risk of losing his money to the seller. A comprehensive agreement should henceforth be arrived at after the land search process as per the legal requirements by land laws have been constitutionally verified. Purchaser Receives the Goods or a Bill of Sale: Land sales is instant upon the payment of full amounts of money by the buyers. In Ahmed and Saleh’s case, there would be need to wait until the last payments are made an title issued in the name of the buyer then the transfer of ownership would be legally made. Seller delivers the Goods to a Carrier or a Bill of Sale is given to the Purchaser: The bill of sale must be issued to the purchaser of the land as there is some monetary value already attached to this sales. Mr. Saleh has paid in deposit SR 1.5 hence he is allowed to acquire a bill of sale to warrant him the unconditional ownership of this land in case of any mischief by the seller. Whether Assignment of this Agreement is allowed: the assignment of this agreement would be finally sealed as both Ahmed and Saleh are in a business agreement wherein there must be a willing seller and willing buyer. Warranty (what I am promising about the Goods): The seller must promise on the legitimacy of his land whereas the purchaser must pledge the payment of the remaining sum of money that is SR 0.5 million in this sale and purchase agreement. Additional Clauses: Additional clauses may include the validity of the land ownership. In this case the land is purchased by a foreigner thus the time frame for ownership of

Rules, Rights and Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Rules, Rights and Justice - Essay Example Parliament is normally influenced by public opinion and social changes into making laws through Acts of parliament. There are various origins of Acts of parliament, which are caused by the variations in public and social opinions. Consequently various Acts of parliament are enacted, laws established to ensure a peaceful cohabitation of the people with its environs. Most of these will be addressed in this paper to find out the numerous ways the public can affect establishment of laws. Origin of Acts of Parliament There are different origins of Acts of parliament in England and Wales. Some of these include; national emergency crisis, manifestos of parties, the law commission, royal commission and the private members bills. The party manifestos refer to those lists of reforms promised by political parties when there is a general election. They do guarantee they would implement if they are elected into parliament. In other terms, party manifestos are simply pre-election promises. The Act s of parliament may be obtained from the pre-election promises on which the elected government made to the public (Block 2, 2012; p. 93). Nationwide emergency, crisis or fresh developments which arise during the reign of a government might force the parliament to establish an Act to deal with the crisis. For instance, the Anti-Terrorism, crime and Security Act 2001 was brought up to respond to the latest circumstances concerning the terror attack on September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington. The main objective of the 2001 Act was to cut down on financing for the terror groups, ensuring the departments and agencies in the government had authority to gather and share important information needed to deal with terror threats. In addition, the 2001 Act had the aim of expanding police jurisdiction and accessibility to appropriate forces and pass on to UK’s anti-terror authority (Block 2, 2012; p. 95). The royal commissions at times submit their report to the parliament with rec ommendations for laws which may be assumed as part of the government lawmaking process. Royal Commissions are recommended committees enacted by the State even though officially selected by the Crown. The commission conducts an investigation for any subject the government might see fit to refer to. These are normally used for political issues that are not related to any party or for matters the government deems to be perceived as addressing in a non-party political manner (Block 2, 2012; p. 101). A recommendation from the law commission is also another source of Parliamentary Acts. The main aim of creating the law commission was to establish recommendations concerning any subject of the law that the commission might feel necessary to have reforms. Thus the commission is mandated with the accountability of keeping all the regulations under the review with the objective of reform and development. The work of the commission is wide-ranging in the sense that it proposes the changes to th e law inclusive of the necessary reforms. The private member bills are also another source of the Acts of parliament. This is a situation where the individual members of parliament are able to initiate their own laws otherwise known as the Private Member’s Bill. One good example of the successful private member’s Bill which was signed into legislation is the Marriage Act 1994. This was initiated by Gyles Brandreth, Chester’

Classroom Management Competency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Classroom Management Competency - Essay Example By doing this, the needs of the students were put first because alternatively, I could have chosen to teach the whole class together by applying a single teaching style, which would have been more convenient from the perspective of teaching. A class I recently taught in which I also developed a skill together with my students was during a lesson on how to improve listening ability in order to get a higher score on the listening section of the IELTS. Students were taught to re-read the questions and the answers before the listening passage started. From this, they could then narrow their focus and concentrate on the nature of the answer, be it a telephone number, a name, a street address etc. I conducted a thorough research for this in the area of pre-listening and on how to develop the appropriate listening ability for taking standardized tests, and then applied the knowledge I gained to practical use for the guidance and benefit of the students. I believe that when teaching a class of mixed ability students, it is necessary to adapt the material to suit the needs of a particular group of those students within the class itself. Therefore, I have often divided students into different groups, usually into lower, intermediate and advanced. By using the same material, I normally differentiate instructions for each group. This is achieved by using the same material in the class, but varying the assignment for each group according to their ability. The course materials are thus adapted by simplifying them for struggling students and using them in a challenging way for students that are abler.

Legal Aspects of Business - Law of Contract Assignment

Legal Aspects of Business - Law of Contract - Assignment Example The first and foremost thing essential for the formation of an agreement and then a contract is an offer. Offer indicates one’s willingness to do something or abstain from doing something with an intention to obtain the assent of the other. This proposal is meant for entering into a legally binding agreement. Acceptance means the approval of the other party to whom the offer has been made. In the given assignment, John is the ‘offeror’ and Kathryn is the acceptor. The offer of John to sell a brand I-Mobile for â‚ ¬300 was accepted by Kathryn though with certain changes in the actual offer. Another essential element of a valid agreement and contract is the proper communication regarding offer and acceptance. As Miller and Gentz (2010, 208) point out, two parties can enter into an agreement only through the communication of the proposal or offer and its acceptance. Such a proposal made by one party to the other is called an offer. Once the other party to whom the offer is given accepts it, it becomes a promise. Acceptance is the consent of the other party to the invitation of the first party to do something or abstain from doing something (ibid). An assent or consent to the offer is termed as an acceptance. To make the communication of offer and acceptance more meaningful, the parties in a contract must have agreed upon the subject matter of the contract in the same sense and in the same manner (ibid). A mere mental resolve on the part of the offeree to accept the offer does not amount to acceptance due to lack of manifestation of the intension to do so. There should be an oral or written communication between the offeror and the acceptor regarding the acceptance or denial of the same. Here, no such offer has been made by John to Kathryn. What John has made is just a statement that he is ready to sell his last year model mobile phone

Classroom Management Competency Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Classroom Management Competency - Essay Example By doing this, the needs of the students were put first because alternatively, I could have chosen to teach the whole class together by applying a single teaching style, which would have been more convenient from the perspective of teaching. A class I recently taught in which I also developed a skill together with my students was during a lesson on how to improve listening ability in order to get a higher score on the listening section of the IELTS. Students were taught to re-read the questions and the answers before the listening passage started. From this, they could then narrow their focus and concentrate on the nature of the answer, be it a telephone number, a name, a street address etc. I conducted a thorough research for this in the area of pre-listening and on how to develop the appropriate listening ability for taking standardized tests, and then applied the knowledge I gained to practical use for the guidance and benefit of the students. I believe that when teaching a class of mixed ability students, it is necessary to adapt the material to suit the needs of a particular group of those students within the class itself. Therefore, I have often divided students into different groups, usually into lower, intermediate and advanced. By using the same material, I normally differentiate instructions for each group. This is achieved by using the same material in the class, but varying the assignment for each group according to their ability. The course materials are thus adapted by simplifying them for struggling students and using them in a challenging way for students that are abler.

ELT1 Task 10 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ELT1 Task 10 - Essay Example The assessment tools define the desired outcomes, measure achievement of outcomes, and use the results to improve performance. The tools state its role within an institutions overall mission. It then identifies the outcomes that it needs to meet and evaluates whether the outcomes are achieved. These tools define the technique that will assess if the criteria are met. The tool analyses and evaluates the data collected by specific method. Assessment tool creates and put into action improvement plans about the information gathered to assess the outcome. The tools also outline the effect its improvements have achieved in the quality of their goal. A tool such as running record and Rubric documents the outcome assessment. Therefore, assessment tools work best when attention is on outcomes as well as experiences that result in those outcomes. Therefore, the assessment tools are appropriate for providing outcome data. Informal Reading Inventory (IRI) is an appropriate assessment tool for monitoring progress, diagnosing reading skills of students and providing outcome data. This is because IRI assists in determining the reading weaknesses and strength of a student. Also, IRI enable teachers to know whether their students can read the texts in class or if the students require assistance or additional monitoring. Additionally, IRI helps the teacher to identify students struggling with decoding and comprehension with certain text materials. The IRI assessment tool will be better used by an individual student and in group assessment. This is because it builds teamwork among the students in class by using other tools of assessment. The retelling assessment tool is appropriate because it demonstrates what the student remembers and comprehends about any story. It reveals what the student sees as crucial about a story. Retelling also helps in indicating what the student knows about the literary language a nd structure of a text. Consequently,

The effect of education in our socicety Essay Example for Free

The effect of education in our socicety Essay Education is the most important achievement of a persons lifetime. The possibilities and accomplishments become virtually endless once you have achieved a college education. One can tailor their education toward specific areas of learning to become anything they want in American society. Having an education not only gives you the promise of a decent life, but produces self confidence and self esteem. Knowledge is the most important tool that America bestows upon her citizens. Anyone who lives here, without prejudice, has the right to pursue an education in any field and to any level they wish. A solid, basic education, followed by a specific, career orientated, college education, is the cornerstone of the American way of life; the first major step toward achieving the American dream. An example of this is the way technology is advancing in our everyday life. Computers have become as common in every household as a television. This was not the case as little as ten years ago when the Internet, having been in existence since the late sixtys, was barely giving birth to what we now know as Web (World Wide Web). Education, along with creativity, is the driving force that brought the information super-highway to life. Today, the rate of advancement in new technologies is approximately three months. These advancements are due to the men and women who have spent years of training acquiring the education needed in our technology based society. This training has given them the knowledge to expand upon, or even discover new applications in science, business, technology, agriculture, art, or any other educational path one might wish to pursue. These advancements are improving the quality of nearly every aspect of our lives. All of us, without exception, benefit on a daily bas is, from the bounties reaped by normal, everyday people, in the physical application of there education. A further example of the benefits of education in our society is employment. There are more self employed people and private or family owned businesss in America then ever before. People have always had good ideas to make money. Now, thanks to the communicability of the internet and the accessibility of the Web, coupled with an education, these relatively new technologies allow people to apply their ideas in ways never before possible. This is because they now have access to virtually everyone, and,  virtually everyone has access to them. All of these web based businesses require an education in computers as well as business management. These new virtual stores have no shelves to stock and no cashier up front, everything is done electronically. General labor used to be the predominant way to earn money in America, this however, is rapidly changing. As the level of our technology grows, the need for a highly educated workforce grows with it. With a proper education, ones choices and opportunities are increased dramatically, as does the earned wage. A third example of the benefit of an education is personal accomplishment. One has the tools to set higher personal standards and achieve higher goals. Everyone feels good about a job well done. Doing exceptionally well at a given task builds self confidence that carries over to all other aspects of life, building character and self esteem. An education brings out the creativity in a person. The ability to come up with an original idea, based on known ideas, is how all invention comes about. An education is the basis through which all known ideas were conceived. I believe that education is the foundation for the future, the building block through which we will create a totally new world. Obtaining an education is not a simple matter; it takes commitment, dedication, and a lot of effort. The rewards of having and using an education far outweigh any hardships dealt with in acquiring it. Not only are there personal benefits, there are benefits to society in helping to shape a new tomorrow. I believe that the American dream is to use acquired knowledge to make money doing something you enjoy, to get paid for doing something you would do for free. Education is the way to that dream.