Is Patriarchy the Main Cause of Gender Inequality?

This view is held by Radical feminists, they believe that patriarchy is society is the reason that women are oppressed and exploited by men, and Marxists for example hold the view that the capitalist system is the reason for the gender inequality. Feminists believe that women are unequal to men, and as a result society benefits men whilst exploiting men. Feminist investigate the effects that this inequality has on women’s power, status, roles and life chances.They believe that gender inequality is socially constructed an example is gender roles; these are taught to children at very young ages and encourage these gender inequalities to become part of society’s norms. The different type of feminists believe different reasons for gender inequality, there are liberal, radical Marxist and postmodern feminists, radical are arguably the most extreme and controversial feminist group. Radical feminist believe patriarchy has been socialised into society making it accepted, this r esults in the unequal gender inequality for women.People in society are taught male patriarchy through education, male dominance is enforced and a masculine view of the world is presented to children, this is shown through the gendered subjects and the teacher treatment of male and female students. They argue that male dominance has become accepted in society so much so that this leads to violence towards women being accepted in the home and on the streets. Radical feminists believe that men exploit and oppress women. They believe that the family plays a significant role in aiding this oppression, as women can be exploited by their male partners through abuse and the additional work they do.However, Marxist criticise radicals for generalising women’s experiences, women’s experiences vary greatly depending on their class, ethnicity and household type. If a women was from a middle class background she is more likely to suffer in the family, as it’s accepted that o nly the man works, bringing greater equality than if they both worked. Radical feminist are critics by liberals for failing to acknowledge any change to gender becoming more equal, for example car insurance since 2012 is now the same amount for both men and women, Radicals are often critiqued for having an ‘outdated’ look on gender inequality.Marxist feminists fundamentally believe unlike Radicals that women’s oppression is strongly linked to the capitalist system. They believe that women are exploited mainly at home and in the workforce, in the home they reproduce the next generation of workers whilst ensuring the stability of the current generation. This is illustrated through Ansleys study, which concluded that women are disadvantaged as they absorb the frustration and anger from husbands who are in turn exploited at work. The Patriarchy ideology present in society enables women to accept the inequality that’s present.Marxist acknowledge that there has been a shift in the male aspect of domestic and child care, however its women who still have to do the majority and are therefore the most disadvantaged. Women are more disadvantaged than men as they form the ‘ reserve labour army’ this means they work at cheaper rates and can be hired and fired much more freely than men, this also leads to women being more likely to partake in part time and shorter hour jobs, this encourages the dependency that women have upon men.However the reserve army of labour fails to acknowledge the gendered nature of jobs, it doesn’t explain why women are the reserve army. Radical feminist argue that Marxist feminists pay too little attention to patriarchy, the main cause of women’s oppression instead focus greatly on the capitalist system which could be seen as completely irrelevant ion terms of women’s inequality. Black feminists highlight that they ignore ethnic minority groups, and like Radicals categorise women’ s experiences into a common group.Postmodern feminists hold the view that there are a wide range of masculinities and felinities to pick and choose from in today’s society, therefore allowing women to choose the lifestyle they lead, this suggest that women don’t suffer they only chose to be unequal if they desire. This also suggests that patriarchal views aren’t necessarily held anymore, and if they are they have subsequently less impact as people can have more choice in society. They also believe that women’s oppression can’t be summed up into one common ground, every circumstance is greatly different.And they acknowledge that there are fundamental differences between women which will inevitably affect the choices they make. They believe that other forms of feminism are outdated and in some cases have a negative effect as they are making women unhappy with their lifestyles, instead of correcting the problems present in society they feel that femin ists particularly Radicals just highlight the problems. They hold the same opinions as Hakim in regards to feminism having a negative rather than positive effect on women.Hakim however believes that feminism has created myths about womens life, and argues like Postmodern feminism that feminism its having a negative effect on women, she believes that patriarchy isn’t the reason for gender inequality and in actual fact gender inequality is less prominent than feminist make it out to be. Hakim accuses feminist of inventing their own myths about women’s work attitudes and behaviour. She found there were five main myths about feminism. Some examples are women employment has been rising, and childcare is the main barrier preventing women competing fully with men, these myths clearly contradict feminist views.She also found that men and women do have different work orientation, and that it shouldn’t necessarily be seen as a negative thing, they just happen to be differ ent. She also believed another myth was that the gender turnover was different, she believes that men and women get paid the same regardless of sex, Marxist would strongly disagree as the women are only the reserve army of labour so therefore don’t earn as much as the breadwinning males. Half of two thirds of women hold traditional gender views, suggesting that overall women’s attitudes to work are weaker than men’s.However Ginn argues Hakims claims are oversimplified, and there are considerable gaps between groups. Women’s attitudes fluctuate and change over time and so the divisions can’t be fixed. Ginn also argues that Hakim also has no convincing explanation, she has just stated the problems not why they occur. Other reasons for women’s attitudes could be shaped by the wider social context; this could be influenced by the patriarchal system. Hakim suggests that women’s attitudes are changing but much slower than feminists think. D elamount also found weakness in Hakims argument, as she based her evidence on only one large scale survey.This presents numerous flaws as it wasn’t over a long period time span and the methods themselves could be incorrect, so the findings were very unlikely to represent the population as a whole. In conclusion, radical feminist believe patriarchy is the main reason for gender inequality. Marxist feminist however see the capitalist system as the reason for gender inequality. Hakim strongly disagrees that patriarchy is the reason for gender inequality and instead argues that childcare prevents women competing with men, particularly in the workplace.

Marketing Myopia Essay

Industries growth has stopped due to the failure of management the top executives, railroad business because they focus on sciences not on the customers. To keep growing industries must focus on customers’ needs and wants then solely on their products. Many companies are endangering their business due to improper defining of their purposes. DuPont, corning and aluminum industry flourished because they were customer oriented. Taking example of Dry cleaning; has reduced in a remarkable way and may sooner be diminished. Grocery stores have been replaced by super markets. There is nothing like a growth industry but there is an expansion that is because the companies organize themselves to create growth opportunities. Self-deceiving cycle has four conditions. 1. Growth is due to increase in population. 2. Believing that there will be no substituent for any major product. 3. Mass production and declining unit cost for output increase. 4. Preoccupation with a product. The belief that increasing customers will increase your business have a negative impact as you will yourself not bother to expand your business. The petroleum industry thinks that there is no competitor as there is no substitute of oil but many refineries have such huge stock of oil that they can be a threat. Firstly the crude oil was greatly demanded as kerosene was used for lamps until the bulb was invented and the heaters were started with coal burns. If the company would have been product oriented the business would be ended but they started refining the crude oil and made uses out of each product of crude oil. Oil has proved to be the strongest growth and millions of barrels is consumed daily. Production pressure to some companies such as advertisement and commercials are sometimes this much great that they try to get aid of it. But in all this we forget marketing and focus on the needs of seller and marketing fulfill the customer need. Industries now spend billions of rupees in consumer preference and fulfilling their ideas out of Chevrolet’s 7000 dealers only 57 provide night maintenance service. Ford invented the assembly line and reduced the cost of production and sold millions of $500 cars. Survival needs a change. Consumer needs change and if a company does not provide it they lose. With the wider perspective the CEOs have to recheck on their vision and the selection of the proper targeted market. This was seems to be successful as the organization was able to find out some opportunities that were initially unseen. This is also helpful in predicting the future progress with the help of business prediction techniques that are currently available. To rise above the myopia one should have his main focus on the strategies and predictive techniques that are used to gain hold on the opportunities. And mainly focus on the customer’s lifetime value. This will maintain the long term profit objectives.

Research and critically discuss the impact of Taylorism and Fordism on Essay

Research and critically discuss the impact of Taylorism and Fordism on contemporary management approaches and practices - Essay Example For instance, one of the limitations of Taylorism is the absence of autonomy and â€Å"lack of flexibility† (Fruijt, 2003, p. 4) which can make jobs become â€Å"repetitive† and â€Å"boring† (Lucey, 2005, p. 65). On the other hand, Fordism is being criticized for being ineffective when managing business organizations during slow economic growth (Amin, 2003). Even though a lot of modern companies have decided to move away from the use of Taylorism and Fordism when managing people, it is assumed that some forms of management practices and approaches that were introduced under the models of Taylorism and Fordism are still very much applicable in today’s management approaches and practices. To help the readers gain a better understanding of the subject matter, the similarities and differences between Taylorism and Fordism will first be tackled followed by critically analyzing the effects of Taylorism and Fordism on the present-day management approaches and practices. The models of Taylorism and Fordism were very much applicable in managing large-scale manufacturing firms back in 1980s (Henderson, 2011, p. 8). Furthermore, both models of Taylorism and Fordism focused on how to increase mass production efficiency (Tatli, 2008; Amin, 2003, p. 6; Fruijt, 2003). Considered as a traditional strategy used in management planning, Fordism introduced the concept of â€Å"just in case† approach (Alfasi & Portugali, 2004; Amin & Tomaney, 1995, p. 206). In line with this, Fordists’ â€Å"just in case† approach is all about stockpiling either parts or finished goods (Waters, 2013, pp. 80 – 81). Likewise, to reduce employees’ turnover rate and work resistance, Henry Ford decided to introduce the need to pay employees a higher wage for their services (i.e. â€Å"five dollar day†) (Vidal, 2011). Fordism also requires the need to separate business ownership with management control, decentralization, acknowledgement of lab our unions, collective bargaining, and the

Sociocultural Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Sociocultural Theory - Essay Example 101). The debate about the definition of term 'collaborative' as well as ongoing attempts to identify relevant criteria to determine whether learning is collaborative or not does not seem to have any major implications for the basics of collaborative learning. Almost every research study exploring collaborative learning environment comes to positive conclusions (Johnson, Johnson, and Stanne, 1986; Natasi and Clements, 1991). Natasi and Clements (1991) summarize these conclusions in the following way: "Cognitive-academic and social-emotional benefits have been reported for students from early elementary through college level, from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and having a wide range of ability levels Furthermore, cooperative learning has been used effectively across a wide range of content areas, including mathematics, reading, language arts, social studies and science" (p. 111). Initially, research in the realm of collaborative learning focused on functioning of an individual learner in a group: the theories which dominated cognitive psychology over the 1970s tended to emphasise the role of individual information processors in the process of cognition. The social context of this process was viewed as secondary to individual activity (Dillenbourg et al, 1996: 189). The last decades of the 20th century were marked by increased attention to the social context, and, consequently, improved understanding of the process of cognition. Much of the shift was due to growing influence of sociocultural theory in pedagogical practice. This theory is very helpful in predicting, explaining and justifying the above listed cognitive, psychological and social benefits of engaging students in collaborative learning activities MAIN DISCUSSION The theoretical background underlying contemporary models of collaborative learning relies heavily upon three major theories of learning: socio-constructivist theory, socio-cultural theory, and shared cognition theory (Dillenbourg et al, 1996). These three perspectives share the basic features of cognitive stance, including the focus on the interactive aspect of human development and learning, but the socio-cultural theory has been recently gaining momentum as the most influential among the three in the realm of language education (Lantolf, 2000; Wells, 1999). L. S. Vygotsky formulated the basics of socio-cultural theory in the 1920s and 1930s, though current conceptualisations of this approach also draw on works and ideas of other theorists (Luria, 1979; Wertsch, 1991, 1998; Newman and Holzman, 1993; Cole, 1996). The essence of socio-cultural theory is exploring the causal relationship between the social interactions and cognitive

2. How did global trade patterns and relations Essay

2. How did global trade patterns and relations - Essay Example Trade patterns started changing from 1450. At this time, the trade routes were mainly internationally focused. The exchange was mainly among Europe, Africa and Asia. The trade was mainly across some overland ways in addition to sea routes across the pacific, the Indian and meticulously the Atlantic ocean. These seaways were particularly very important mostly for the slave trade (Riad et al. 6). However, as time passed by the Americans also started to involve themselves in trade. This was by 1750. Soon the Pacific Ocean also became a sea full of trading activities. The world’s geographical position changed fundamentally; however, the trade routes remained the same. Many visitors came to Africa in 19th century, and they settled along the coastline. The visitors came from Portugal, china, and Europe. They brought goods such as porcelain, corn, glassware and clothes. When the visitors came and realized that the blacks country had raw materials, they began shipping cotton, silver, gold, oil back to their countries. They also manufactured goods with the materials and sold the finished products to the Africans Additionally, the relations between different countries also changed. The Europeans particularly came in the eighteenth century and started colonizing African states. The Africans started viewing the white man as a conquer, superior to them. Language barriers were also broken. This is because the explorers such as Dr. Livingstone learned the local languages and started communicating with the locals. The local’s also learned French, English as well as Portuguese. This improved on the relations of the Africa and the white men. The Blackman also became very dependent on the white man (Held and Mc Grew 16). The major triggers of these changes in trade routes, as well as the improvement of relations, were missionary work. Missionaries traveled to many places in a bid of spreading the gospel. They were able to discover new places, as well as trading

Nuclear plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Nuclear plan - Essay Example Instead, the United States was uniquely interested in maintaining a level of hegemony during the period in question. Even though the Cold War has subsequently ended and the division between East and West as partially healed, the United States is still insecure with respect to its overall projection of force throughout the world and the question of whether or not we can continue to be a global hegemony in a uni-polar system. As a function of this, it is the understanding of this particular analyst that it is incumbent upon the United States to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty as a function of not only preserving the peace of ensuring that more destruction to the global environment is not affected. Ultimately, the desire not to sign the treaty is based upon the understanding that the United States can withhold this action as potential leverage within the face of an international crisis. What is meant by this is that during the time in which great powers might be in conflict, the United States might very well choose this particular period of time to test a particular new and devastating nuclear weapons. This would likely be done as a means of sending a signal and not necessarily with respect to seeking to understand the scientific properties behind the physics which allows the weapon to work. Another rationale for why the United States should sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has to do with the fact that physical path of nuclear weapons are no longer required in an era in which supercomputers can provide extraordinarily salient and effective projections for the healed and megaton power they nuclear weapon is able to deliver. Whereas a fledgling nation that has only recently developed nuclear weapons might wish not to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the United States should; due to the fact that every nation on earth is fully cognizant of the United States

Theoretical Foundation in instructional technology Research Paper

Theoretical Foundation in instructional technology - Research Paper Example This suggests technology materials are of the essence in order to instructional technology method a feasible project. Alternatively, the design and processes should not make it hard for facilitators to dispense knowledge to their students because it leads to wastage of both time and resources. In other words, the technology should have efficiency during use without incurring extra costs during learning. There are different ways in which the quote by James Gee & Elizabeth Hayes applies to the context constructivism learning theory, behaviorism learning theory and inquiry learning theory. Therefore, in constructivism learning theory in adult online learners, they use different methodologies to meet its goals. For example, adult learners are expected to interact more with their environment in order to acquire knowledge on different aspects of online learning. This is because the methodology improves on both critical and analytical skills of the student. In the same aspect, in the constr uctivism learning theory, there is an application of computer games instead of the conventional materials in traditional education (Wagner & Ip, 2008). However, the utilization of such technology requires competent teachers who are can impart knowledge to both adult and young learners. Another fundamental prospect of integrating the theory into online learning is the ability to attain, high realistic enactment, which is made live by computers. On the other hand, there is the John B Watson/ Behaviorism learning theory whereby behavior has an attachment to an external influence such as an environment. This may be through association or some of form of reinforcement. Therefore, in terms of online learning, adult learners may not adjust effectively to computer based education. There are several reasons to explain the scenario in the context of both comprehension and retention. For instance, adult learners were formally used to the traditional mode of education hence the transition to on line learning may prove hard (Chow, et al 2010). They also lack a consistent will to adapt to a new environment that has its influence from an association from other students. This suggests that while adults may have the inner desire to use the online platforms, the conventional background prevents them from faster adaptation. Additionally, adult learners also have special needs and requirements that may prove hard for most incompetent teachers without proper training. It is noteworthy, therefore, to introduce other learning methods in the form of stimulating activities and environments to spur the learners to critical and analytical thinking. These also entail exercises, computer games and simulations in order to trigger the interest of the student in educational matters. Furthermore, through the behaviorism learning theory, teachers will help students in the transfer of knowledge in order to boost retention. Apart from the above theories, there is also the inquiry learning theory founded by Jerome Bruner in 1961. Therefore, here the student uses the available materials to develop analytical and experimental skills instead of the knowledge possessed from school. On that perspective, when learners use online methods they are expected to use their external and internal environments to integrate knowledge. Alternatively, to make such form of knowledge acquisition applicable for students, it is

Suicidal Risk Factors for Older Adults Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Suicidal Risk Factors for Older Adults - Essay Example 72). Even though variables within psychological, physical, and public domains have been related to completed suicide in older adults, â€Å"controlled studies are necessary to test hypothesized risk factors† (Stimming & Stimming, 1999, p. 98). Poor health as well as functional impairment raises risk, but their control seems to be mediated by dejection. Older adults who take their own lives are hardly ever stimulated by irritation or vengeance; rather, they usually just try to find the release in the form of death as an â€Å"escape from emotional and physical pain† (Ford, 2010, p. 22). Suicide in later life seldom seems to be a result of ambivalence or transmitted anger. It is argued that older adults are â€Å"less conflicted, more direct, and more aware of the reasons for ending their lives† (Ford, 2010, p. 23). Feelings of deficiency, insignificance and guiltiness, depression and misery are a few of the reasons why individuals with dejection come to believe that suicide is a practical solution. In addition, there are a number of factors that raise the risk for dejection among older adults, for instance, persistent disease, physical disability, loss, social seclusion, and failure of social functions and ties (Marcovitz, 2010). Recklessness and self-damage are both thought to be prognostic of suicide though this link has been more strongly developed with younger adults and adolescents. For example, one study, investigated attempted suicide between 17 and 65 year old members and found that â€Å"half had thought about it for 10 minutes or less before engaging in suicide-related behavior† (Leo, 2001, p. 32). Official suicide figures recognize older adults as a high-threat group. In 2010, it was noted that older adults consisted of 15 percent of the U.S. population, yet constitute 22 percent of its suicides. Among older people, there are between two

Effects of Rover Sell Off on the Financial Performance of BMW Case Study

Effects of Rover Sell Off on the Financial Performance of BMW - Case Study Example This is amidst the rising gross profit margin (16.04 to 16.28) from 1998 to 199 indicating that the company is trying to make higher profit by charging a higher mark-up. Asset turnover have also significantly declined from 1997 to 1999 reflecting the company's inability to manage assets as efficient as the previous years. In 1999, a dollar of the company's asset yields only $0.91 in total sales compared to the $1.11 in 1997. In terms of leverage, the three year span under consideration also sees the increasing dependence on debt as a major source of financing. Total debt as a percentage of total assets is 40.92% in 1999 which is significantly higher than the 34.34% and 36.75% reported in 1997 and 1998, respectively. BMW appeared satisfactory in terms of liquidity as its current assets can more than pay-off its immediate obligations. It current ratios are 1.33 in 1999, 1.09 in 1998, and 1.27 in 1997. However, the ballooning of accounts receivable is evidenced by the increasing percent age of receivables to current assets which peaked to 57.36% in 1999. Three years after the sell-off of Rover, BMW seem to fail in improving its financial position except its profitability. In fact, its computed financial ratios indicate further deterioration in terms of leverage, asset utilization, and liquidity.

SWOT Analysis Essay Example for Free

SWOT Analysis Essay The strength of the company mainly lay on its popularity and its wide range of network. Blockbuster had realized these strengths and has taken advantage of them to the full extent. Advertising and in-house promotion have been performed quite successfully in maintaining the image and popularity of Blockbuster, particularly in the eyes of US consumers. Today, the company has also developed a popular presence on the internet and it has help to increase Blockbuster’s competitive advantage against its competitors (Lieberman, 2004). Blockbuster’s weaknesses include its high cost of operations and maintenance, limited stocks of popular movies and insensitiveness toward recent developments in the industry. Financially, the company needs to reduce operational costs of its stores, because it decreases operating profit into minimum profit or even losses. Strategically, blockbuster needs to maintain awareness of what competitors are doing and develop new programs to attract customers. Within the stagnant market, the company could not afford to miss-out on new development in video rental marketing and sales. Opportunities Opportunities for blockbuster come in several packages. The first is in foreign investments. The company which already has a significant presence and popularity in United States could easily gain market share in Europe or even developing countries that crave American products. Another opportunity is increasing customer service by recording customer preferences in corporate data. †¢ Threats One of the apparent problems in the video-rental industry is related to copyright issues and legal aspect of the business. Players within the industry are threatened by the presence of many illegal download centers on the internet. Sales have already been reported decreasing due to the prevalent of illegal downloading activities. On the other hand, video rentals have the obligation to pay legal fees for every title it possess which prevent them from competing with the decreasing costs of downloading movies through the internet. II. Conclusions This paper has elaborated the performance of Blockbuster Inc by using the environmental and SWOT analysis. From the financial perspectives, the company shows the declining performance due to cost of rental revenue was recorded to increase while sales were decreasing. The companies also experience the hardest force from industry that faces several technology alternatives for seeing movies. The situation causes the company to experience declining revenue into $5. 7 billion in 2006. In terms of sales, 2006 actually revealed a declining performance, but it is still much better compare to 2002. Vertical analysis on the other hand, described a tendency of financial development. Blockbuster records more than $5 billion in 2006. In terms of sales, 2006 actually revealed a declining performance, but it is still much better compare to 2002 sales (Blockbuster Inc, 2006). The undulating Blockbuster performance has caused the undulating performance as well. Furthermore, from the environmental analysis, we find that movie rental industry has a stagnant market condition since the substitutes of products are vastly available from the video download via iPod and the free sample of video at www. youtube. com, for instances. Although the company faces threat for their future business, still, they have the strong brand when expanding into foreign market especially the Europe. III. Recommendations Following professional guidance along with taking advantage of the internal and external analysis previously performed, we will then formulate several of the foreseeable solutions and suggestions. These general suggestions to increase Blockbuster’s operational efficiency are ones that might already exist within the corporate strategy, but requires further attention and development: †¢ Providing Employee with Access to Required Information Employers always suggested that employees should do their best to satisfy customers and generate a rebuy or revisit. Ironically, some employers are doing this without equipping their employees with the proper tools to provide customers with satisfactory services. Those tools could be sufficient training, guidance in the workplace or access to sufficient information. Block buster should pay attention particularly to the latter tool. By developing a customer preference list, employees could help customer pick-out movies that they would like. This would not only increase customer retention but increase employee working satisfaction.   Improve Employee Satisfaction and retention People that have the best knowledge on how to enhance the operational efficiency of a rental operation are the employees. Employers should spend time and effort ensuring that employees are performing their functions with sufficient motivation to recognize efficiency opportunities if they see one. Most workplaces are trapped with poor efficiency performance because they never let employees provide them with suggestions and insights. Develop Long-term Technology Plan. One of the recorded mistakes of Blockbuster is not to create their presence in the internet when they should have. An untimely entrance to an extremely competitive market could well mean no entrance at all. To prevent similar occurrences, Blockbuster should develop a long term technology plans where managers of the company formulate long term objectives of the company and then revise a technological plan based on the formulated goals. †¢ Reducing Rental Centers For a more radical solution, the company could simply reduce the amount of retail locations to reduce operational cost. Instead of building and maintaining stores every 5 blocks, the company could otherwise increase the technology investments in remaining stores and provide customers with state of the art customer services. †¢ Rent-out Spaces Furthermore, in locations which are not contributing sufficient profit, Blockbuster could rent the space for external businesses. This has been a normal practice for many gas stations or other business settings when they have unproductive space within their facilities. Other opportunities could be gained from partnering with other video-rent retailers. Partnering with other Retailers Instead of building new stores and increasing operational costs, Blockbuster could otherwise try to create alliances with other existing resources retailers. An example of those retailers could be the grocery chains. Blockbuster could sign a leasing agreement with the grocery store and perform operations within the grocery store. There are two main advantages of this plan, first, Blockbuster will only need to pay for the lease instead of building and maintaining another building, and second, Blockbuster could benefit from gaining access to customers of the grocery store. If the first implementation of this strategy is successful, Blockbuster should begin to consider the benefits of moving all of Blockbuster’s retail locations into grocery stores. Bibliography About Blockbuster. com. 2006. 08 Mar. 2006 http://www. blockbuster. com BBI: Profile for BLOCKBUSTER INC. 2006. Retrived February 20, 2008 from http://www. finance. yahoo. com/q/pr? s=BBI Blockbuster Inc; Investor Relations – Various Press Releases; 2005-2006 http://www. blockbuster. com Brem, Lisa and Narayanan, V. G.2002; That’s a Wrap: The Dynamics of the Video Rental Industry; Harvard Business School Case 9-102-051. Lieberman, David. 2004. â€Å" Blockbuster jabs back at rivals†. USA Today. â€Å"Videotape Rental. † 2004. Encyclopedia of American Industries. U of Florida Business Lib. , Gainesville, 20 July 2004 http://www. galenet. galegroup. com/servlet/BCRC. Wagner, Holly J. â€Å"2003: a breakout year for previously viewed: top previously viewed retailers. † Business Company Resource Center (2004). U of Florida Business Lib. , Gainesville, 20 July 2004 http://galenet. galegroup. com/servlet/BCRC.

Central Symbol In John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums

Central Symbol In John Steinbecks The Chrysanthemums In the short story The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck uses the chrysanthemums as the central symbol to help the reader understand the storys plot and recognize the emotions and thoughts of the main character. Elisa Allen is an intelligent hard working woman who is unhappy and unfulfilled with her life. Her frustration arises from her husband who does not admire her as a woman and from not having mothered a child. She has a flower garden where she grows and takes care of beautiful chrysanthemums which are the only outlet for her frustration and her emptiness. The chrysanthemums in this story illustrate plenty to the reader about Elisas struggle to finding herself and fulfilling herself as a woman. Steinbeck uses the flower throughout his story to symbolize his main characters thoughts and ideas. Elisa relates herself to these chrysanthemums and her frustration is evident when she is first introduced in this story. She is a lonely, discontented woman. Her husband is always busy working in their farm, he does not pay any attention to her or her needs as a woman. She discovers an outlet for her dissatisfaction in a garden where she cultivates beautiful chrysanthemums. She takes refuge in her chrysanthemums, which symbolize herself. Steinbeck uses these lovely yet hardy flowers as a symbol to represent the soft spirit of Elisa. The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisa as well as the limitations and restrictions of her life. One can clearly see the hostility in their relationship yet she comes out as an emotionally strong woman. Elisa stiffened and her face grew tight. Henry stopped short and looked at her. Why-why, Elisa .You look so nice! Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by nice? Henry blundered on I dont know. I mean you look different strong and happy. I am strong? Yes, strong. (Steinbeck 218). It clearly shows her strength of mind here. Elisa took great care of their flowerbed and like her house, it was neat and carefully ordered. Elisa relates herself to the flowers and as a reader we can see that she becomes one with the plants when she tends to them. She does not feel appreciated and is neglected, but still has enough to give herself to the care of her chrysanthemums. These flowers symbol how beautiful she really is and how she wants to be seen. Steinbeck lets the reader discover that the chrysanthemums are a part of Elisa. Elisas chrysanthemums also represent children that she does not have. Nurturing and taking care of these flowers satisfies her barren maternal instincts. The care she tends her garden with symbolizes her desire to look after children. The reader gets the feeling that they are her children and she looks after them like a mother. The chrysanthemums symbolize Elisas desire to be a mother and her children as well. She takes care of her garden and handles the chrysanthemums with a lot of love and attention just as she would tend to her own children. Elisa is very protective of her flowers and yet very proud to show them off like any mother would have been. She spread the leaves and looked down among the close-growing stems. No aphids were there, no sow bugs or snails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started (Steinbeck 212). She feels these insects will harm her flowers so she removes them before they can do any damage. Just as any good mother she does not want to see her children get hurt and she is happy and pleased to nurture these beautiful flowers. Elisas pride to grow such beautiful chrysanthemums show that the flowers in some ways replace for the fact that she has no children. The reader also sees that when the tinker praises her garden she swells with pride, almost feeling like she herself, and her children are being admired. The blossoming of these flowers to Elisa is like her own children shinning. These flowers clearly symbolise her needs as a woman, her need to be a mother and how she feels. In conclusion, we can understand that John Steinbeck uses many symbols in The Chrysanthemums. Elisas garden and the chrysanthemums all symbolize different phases of her life. The use of symbols in this story plays an important role in the readers understanding of the plot. Imagery and symbolism are well placed throughout the story to help explain Elisas feelings, her deepest fears and desires. They also establish the chrysanthemums as a direct extension of herself. After reading this short story one must wonder if Elisa will continue to live this discontented and unhappy lifestyle or will she finally blossom like one of her chrysanthemums?

The Internet Essay -- Communications, Media

This proposal will assess how the present of new media, particularly internet, influence the agribusiness community in Indonesia in term of the way they communicate and make transaction. This media is not only useful to diffuse and exchange information quickly in wider geographical areas, but also to get the up to date agricultural information and develop network beyond conventional boundaries, conditions which are necessary for the survival of their business. For developing country like Indonesia and particularly in agribusiness sector, in general, internet is still considered as innovation. For this reason, it is useful to explore obstacles, potency, and social implications of this new digital technology in this sector. The study will answer question of how various agribusiness actors respond to this new media; why some agribusiness managements adopt it and why some others not. If they adopt it, then what type of information they usually deal with. Furthermore, it is useful to ex amine the agricultural networks, with regard to interrelationship and transaction between agricultural ecologies (like between the sellers and sellers with the buyers). Many factors, such as economic consideration (like scale of business), complexity, and trend could influence the adoption of the technology. Thus, it is necessary to examine the micro and macro factors which have associations with the adoption of the technology. Finally, this study will answer the social impact of this media: whether internet causes special type of communication gap in cyberspace –the digital divide? Combination of survey and in-depth interviews techniques will be applied for this study, which will be conducted in Indonesia. Literature Review (12-15 pages) Today, w... ...internet (considered as â€Å"micro† factor), relative advantage (macro factor), and social compatibility (meso and macro factor) (Rogers, 2003). Then, several relevant demographic variables will also be postulated. As the consequences, there are three variables/questions that will be explored (see the diagram below). I will state each hypothesis, and then followed by the rationalization of the hypotheses and questions. Perceived compatibility with organizational characteristic Perceived difficulties Perceived relative advantage Perceived compatibility with social environment Demographic factors (Antecedents) Adoption or not adoption of internet Type of information and purpose of using internet Segments of person to be in contact Geographic location of stakeholders (Consequences)

Personal Statement :: College Admissions Essays

Personal Statement Two weeks had already passed and I began to realize the strike would most likely continue on into the next week as well. I was anxious for the only strike in the ninety-year history of UPS to be over. The first week was almost a novelty, a rather large social event with my fellow workers. As the days passed and the second week came to a close, the novelty had worn off. My fellow Teamster members and I had stood on the picket line for two weeks now, eagerly awaiting word of a contract agreement between the union and the company. As the television cameras rolled on an early Thursday morning in the summer of 1997, a local Dallas news reporter asked me what I thought about the word of a contract agreement, which had been reached just a few hours earlier. I replied with what I felt was the proper and correct response at the time, â€Å"If it is true, then I am very excited about it and I can’t wait to get back to work†. We often did not know what to believe on the picket line, even when it came from the media, who were usually better informed than we were. It was hard to rely on information received from the company or the union, as it usually turned out to be only marginally truthful. I often wondered about the real purpose of the strike, knowing what both sides were claiming, but questioning what was fact and what was propaganda. One thing I knew beyond doubt was that I never wanted to be placed in this situation again. By the time that word of a final agreement reached us, I had already made up my mind that I would never again be involved in another UPS strike as a labor worker. The only way I ever want to be involved in another labor strike is in the role of a lawyer, with an integral part in the contract negotiations. The one good thing that did come out of the strike was my own decision of what I wanted to do with my future. While watching the evening news every night of the strike, looking for any new developments, I became captivated with negotiations between the Teamster and UPS lawyers.

Dialectics of Internal and External :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Dialectics of Internal and External ABSTRACT: The central topic of this paper is the analysis of the dialectical interdependency of internal and external in the theory of language as a symbolic system. Referring to and analyzing the philosophic legacy of W. von Humboldt, B. Russell, L. Wittgenstein, F. de Saussure and G. Spet, the author concludes that the dialectics of internal and external is not an accidental and episodic phenomenon of language. It rather is an intrinsic, ontological trait apart from which an adequate cognition of the essence of language is impossible. Taking the internal form as a logical structure, it is possible to view it as something "higher and fundamental" in language, something that is attainable more by intuition than by research. The internal intellectual base of this grammatical stability lies in the sphere of purely logical forms. If internal word formulations are related to and governed by the spirit, then the external forms in fact conceal an inner grammatical and syntactic edifice. Th e laws of external speech functioning are manifested, for example, in bilingualism, which may be viewed either as a social phenomenon related to individual thinking and classificatory abilities or as an evidence of the existence of common verbal structures in human consciousness. The author proposes to transfer such linguistic terms as "bilingualism" and "contamination" into a different context as a way of seeking new topical domains within the linguistic philosophy and the philosophy of language. The empiricism of specific language functioning in the form of bilingual language contamination brings us back to the assumption of the existence of uniform internal metalanguage structures of verbal thinking. The Internal Form as a Language Structure Ever since Bertrand Russell, analytical philosophy has searched for an inner logical form of the sentence that could be true with respect to the world. Obviously, the superficial external grammatical form of sentences that we comprehend is a weak expression of the true form of corresponding facts. "Poor grammar" introduced many errors in traditional metaphysics disallowing distinctions available exclusively in the new logic. There is a need for a "philosophical grammar" — a grammar, because we speak about the form of the sentences, and philosophical because it should address not only the external but also the internal grammatical structures and reflect their interactions and transmutations thus revealing forms and elements that create the reality of true sentences. A new meaning of philosophy began with Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Comparison Essay

Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne were two of America’s finest Romantic writers. These two writers have stood the test of time and are read as much today if not more than they were in their own time. The major reason that both author’s were as popular as they are is because of the fact that they delved into the human mind to create their psychological literature. Edgar Allan Poe’s life spanned from eighteen nine until nineteen forty-nine, the years that were the beginning of the Romantic Movement. Poe was considered an educated man for his time. He attended the University of Virginia and West Point. Since West Point is a military school, he no doubt studied psychology because one who would be a commander in the army would need to know about the way the enemy thinks. Poe did not use this knowledge as a military officer, but used it to create excellent psychological terror in literature. During a time when the arts focused on the supernatural, Poe looked to the character’s own mind to provide terror. The narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart is so terrified by his guilt that he reveals the murder he has committed to the authorities, as does the narrator of The Black Cat. In the famous short story The Cask of Amontillado, the reader experienced the terror of one’s condemnation to be walled up in a small cellar room to die and to have the time to think about what is to happen in total darkness and isolation. The Fall of the House of Usher also leaves the narrator completely terrified, not because of his safety, but because of the information that his mind must process and the knowledge that he may begin to suffer from the same madness that Roderick Usher is doomed to endure. Nathaniel Hawthorne was also an expert in delving into the deepest regions of a character’s mind. The Scarlet Letter, one of Hawthorne’s best works is about a woman who must wear a scarlet A because she is an adulterer. The town minister is the man who is also responsible for the sin. However, because he is a male and cannot get pregnant, the community does not know of his guilt. Instead he punishes himself much more than his female counterpart until the sin takes on a supernatural quality. It does so only through the guilt that he must endure. The Minister’s Black Veil is about another minister who physically punishes himself for a psychological sin that he has committed. This penance has bothered the congregation to the point that they isolate the minister. Again, it is their psychological fear and guilt that is their terror. Hawthorne, in his attempt to prove that all are sinners and that all wrestle with good and evil in their minds, proves his point in Young Goodman Brown. In this short story, a young man must decide whether to sell his soul to become a successful man or to remain free. The resolution of the story is that the horrid scene the young man had witness the night before was only a dream, yet he is not sure that it took place in his mind or if it was real. Reality and what one perceived as reality was something that Hawthorne was a master. Both Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne made use of the human mind as an instrument a person’s demise rather than actions. They understood the power of the human mind even though they did not know what we do today. They are shining examples of psychological literature as an instrument of terror and guilt. Works Cited Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Minister’s Black Veil. 1836 Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Pocket. 2004. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown. 1835 Poe, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat. 1843. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. 1846 Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. 1839 Poe, Edgar Allan. The Tell-Tale Heart. 1843

Measurement of Time Spent Communicating Essay

The amount of time we spend communicating is outstanding. There have been multiple studies to find the actual amount of our waking lives spent communicating, and the percentage of time we spend in each division of communication. The article, â€Å"Measurement of Time Spent Communicating,† is the result of a communication study of employees of a research and development laboratory. The study was based on two techniques: direct observation, and questionnaires. How much time do people spend communicating at work? How much time do people spend using machines at work? This useful information can help to improve the amount of work done in a certain amount of time. If people spend more time communicating to get a job done, then our communication skills possibly need improvement. The talking people do is related with their work output. The same goes for machinery; if we spend more time in person-machine interaction, improving machinery would be the main advance to improving jobs. People were observed at one instance in time in offices of one person to five people, some at supervisory levels, laboratories, hallways, and conference rooms. The observation data was divided into to groups’ time spent communicating, and time spent working with equipment. These categories were subdivided in different types of communication activities, including face-to-face communication, telephone communication, reading, and writing, and different types of equipment uses, including lab equipment, office machinery, and an other category. Pre-tests showed the three trained clerks could classify the behavior of the employees reliably. Sampling moments were random and unbiased, only avoiding break times and everyone’s lunch, and are correspondent to the entire working day. The questionnaires were placed at the desks of all the people in the sampling areas, offices, and laboratories. The questionnaires were pre-tested to make sure the wording was understood, and the ordering of questions didn’t change the results. The employees were to answer seven questions all percentages that should add up to 100% of the working week. The questionnaires that were returned and did not add up to between 90% and 110% were disregarded. 4,000 questionnaires were distributed, and 2626, or 66%, were returned and usable. Overall, the common results of the observations and questionnaires were recognizable. The observation method is more accurate, and unbiased, so the main differences in the two sets of data are explained by people underestimating the time they spend communicating face-to-face, and overestimating the time they spend reading and writing. The questionnaire and observed data representing how much time is spent speaking on the telephone, working with lab equipment and office machinery, and other were relatively the same. Another observation is that the amount of time spent communicating depends on how many people are in the office. The fewer people, the more communication went on. This could be due to the fact that many one or two person offices were supervisory level, and therefore had to communicate to employees more often. All offices engaged in face-to-face communication more than in laboratories. Although, time spent working with equipment is only 13%, even though the research study population is a research and development laboratory. This leads us to the conclusion that communication with people, not equipment, is the center of activity for most professionals, administrators, clerks, secretaries and technicians.

Bis/220 Information Technology Acts

Information Technology Acts Necessity BIS/220 January 28, 2013 Information Technology Acts Necessity Children are our society’s most valuable and fragile resources. It is our responsibility as parents, adults, and caregivers to provide our children with as many safeguards to protect them from physical and virtual dangers. Children are spending more and more time on the internet and without the proper protection and supervision they can be exposed to indecent or harmful material or predators that seek to harm them. What children are encountering on the Internet, particularly in terms of indecent or otherwise unsuitable material or contacts with strangers who intend to do them harm, is an issue of major concern. † (Smith, 2001). The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) of 2000 and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 were put in place as an attempt to protect our children from the harm that could befall them on the internet from h armful materials and predators that target children.Children’s Internet Protection Act, 2000 With children doing so much of their school work and research on the internet it is important to try to maintain a safe, appropriate environment especially when they are using the internet at school or the library. â€Å"The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is a federal law enacted by Congress to address concerns about access to offensive content over the Internet on school and library computers.CIPA imposes certain types of requirements on any school or library that receives funding for Internet access or internal connections from the E-rate program – a program that makes certain communications technology more affordable for eligible schools and libraries. In early 2001, the FCC issued rules implementing CIPA. † (FCC, n. d. ). CIPA was enacted to protect children while they use the internet at school or libraries where they should feel safe from being ex posed to inappropriate material.This act is not one hundred percent effective but it places an additional safeguard that can help in protecting our children from the dangers on the internet while in the safety of their school or library. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), 1998 â€Å"The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) was signed into law in Oct. 21, 1998 and modified effective April 21, 2000.The rule applies to operators of commercial web sites and online services directed to children under 13 that collect personal information from children, and operators of general audience sites with actual knowledge that they are collecting information from children under 13. COPPA prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in connection with the collection, use, or disclosure of personally identifiable information from and about children on the Internet.The law spells out what a Web site operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent and what responsibilities an operator has to protect children's privacy and safety online. † (Information Shield,  2011). This act permits parents to review the information supplied by their children and remove any information the parent deems to be unsafe to disclose or inappropriate. This adds an additional safeguard against predators that could target children under the age of 13.Just like the CIPA, this act is not a one hundred percent guarantee of children’s safety from online predators but it does assist parents in the fight to keep their children safe. Conclusion While the Children’s Internet Protection Act and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act are in place to protect our children from harmful and indecent material on the internet and from online predators, it is our responsibility as parents, adults, and caregivers to go the extra steps to better ensure the safety of our children.With so many children using so cial networking sites, like Facebook, it is even more important to find ways to protect them from predators that target children. There are many software options available for free or to purchase that add extra protection through the use of parental controls that can be downloaded to home computers and laptops that children use.But the strongest and most effective tool available to parents, adults, and caregivers is talking openly to children about the dangers that they may face on the internet. Just like we teach them to look both ways before crossing the road and not talk to strangers, it is just as important to teach them how to be safe while using the internet. References Federal Communications Commission. (n. d. ). Children's Internet Protection Act.Retrieved from http://www. fcc. gov/guides/childrens-internet-protection-act   Information Shield. (2011). Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Retrieved from http://www. informationshield. com/coppaoverview. htm Smit h, M. S. (2001). Internet – Protecting Children from Unsuitable Material and Sexual Predators: Overview and Pending Legislation: RS20036. Congressional Research Service: Report, 1.

Brand Management Summary Essay

Constructs: * Consumer based brand equity: The differential effect of brand knowledge on consumer response to the marketing of the brand. It involves consumers’ reactions to an element of the marketing mix for the brand in comparison with their reactions to the same marketing mix element attributed to a fictitiously named/unnamed version of the product or service. * Brand knowledge: a brand node in memory to which a variety of associations are linked: * Brand image: set of brand associations in a consumers’ memory. It are perceptions about a brand as reflected by the brand associations held in consumer memory. Brand image is defined by: * Type of Brand associations: * Attributes: Non-product related or product related. * Benefits: Functional, experiential or symbolic. * Attitudes * Favorability, Strength and Uniqueness of Brand associations * Brand awareness: recall and recognition by consumers. It is about the strength of the brand node or trace in memory. Findings: * A brand is said to have a positive (negative) customer-based brand equity if consumers react more (less) favorably to the product, price, promotion, or distribution of the brand than they do to the same marketing mix element when it is attributed to a fictitiously named or unnamed version of the product or service. * Favorable CBBE can lead to enhanced revenue, lower costs, greater profits, larger margins, less elasticity, increased marketing communication effectiveness and licensing opportunities. * Pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion strategies stimulate CBBE. * Building CBBE requires creating a familiar brand name and a positive brand image. * Measuring CBBE can be done (1) indirectly by measuring sources of brand knowledge or (2) directly by measuring the effects of brand knowledge on consumer response to elements of the marketing  mix. * Managing CBBE: (1) take a broad and long-term view of marketing a brand (2) specify the desired consumer knowledge structures and core benefits for a brand (3) consider a wide range of traditional and nontraditional advertising, promotion and marketing options (4) coordinate the marketing options that are chosen (5) conducting tracking studies and controlled experiments (6) evaluate potential extension candidates. Implications: * Marketing activity can potentially enhance or maintain consumers’ awareness of the brand or the favorability, strength or uniqueness of certain associations. * This enables making short- and long-term decisions better and more insightful. Article 2: Esch, Franz-Rudolf, Tobias Langer, Bernd H. Schmitt and Patrick Geus (2006), â€Å"Are Brands Forever? How Brand Knowledge and Relationships Affect Current and Future Purchases,† Journal of Product & Brand Management, 15, 2, 98-105 Constructs: * Brand attributes: awareness, image, perceived quality, perceived value, personality, and organizational associations. * Brand knowledge attributes: awareness and image, where awareness is a necessary condition to build brand image. * Brand relationships: * Satisfaction: the exchange aspects of a relationship. It’s about giving vs. receiving. * Trust: the feeling that is the outcome of a communal relationship with a brand. * Attachment: a longer-lasting, commitment-inducing bond between the brand and the consumer. Satisfaction and Trust lead to brand Attachment. * Behavioral outcomes: Current purchase behavior and future purchase behavior. Findings: * Current purchases are affected by brand image directly and by brand awareness indirectly. * Future purchases are not affected by either dimension of brand knowledge directly, but brand knowledge does affect future purchases via a brand relationship path that includes brand satisfaction, brand trust and attachment to the brand. Concluding, brand knowledge is not sufficient to build long-term brand relationships. However,  relationship variables are critical for predicting future purchases as well as current purchases. * Brand awareness does not significantly affect brand satisfaction and brand trust. * Brand awareness affects brand image and both are direct determinants of current consumer purchase behavior. Implications: * Currently, brand managers measure brand awareness and brand image. They should also consider brand relationship measures and develop strategic and tactical initiatives that ensure that consumers are satisfied with the brand, trust it and feel attached to it if they wish to achieve long-term success. Lecture notes (27-08-2012): Introduction to Brand Management Once, products were un-differentiable, often sold loose, the quality varied significantly and many people made the same thing. To make buyers prefer your ‘commodity’, brands were introduced: * A name, sign or symbol intended to identify the goods & services of one (group of) sellers and to differentiate them from those of competition. It creates reputation, awareness and prominence. Organizations perceive brands as physical products, where customers perceive it as psychological products, since they want to buy brands and not simply products. A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a need or want. It consists of 4 levels: Core benefit, tangible product, augmented product and total product. * A brand is a product, but one that adds other dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products designed to satisfy the same need. It makes products different in a rational, tangible, symbolic, emotional and intangible way. In reality, the most valuable assets are intangible ones. A brand is important for * Customers because: it’s an identification of a production source, it assigns responsibility to the maker, it reduces risk, it reduces search cost, it forms a bond / pact with the maker of the product, it is a symbolic device, and a sign of quality. * Manufacturers because: it allows identification to simplify handling or tracing, it allows legal protection of unique features, it’s a signal of quality level, it endows unique associations to products, it’s a source of competitive advantage and a source of financial returns. As long is something is perceived as different, from the product category, it is branded. It should be given a label and provided a meaning. Types of things that can be branded: 1) Physical goods 2) Services 3) Retailers & Distributors 4) Online products and Services 5) People and Organizations 6) Sports, Arts and Entertainment (experience goods like Walt Disney and Pixar) 7) Geographic Locations 8) Ideas and Causes. Brands Fail because market conditions change, where some companies fail to adapt (inertia). Business Challenges & Opportunities: * Savvy customers: More experienced customers demand more than respect. * Brand proliferation: few products are ‘mono’ branded nowadays. Often, complex brand families and portfolios are required. * Media fragmentation: New methods of communication arise (internet) and expenditures appear to shift from advertising to promotion. * Increased costs: Developing new products is costly so team up with other brands. * Increased competition: Differentiation becomes more difficult, markets start to be more mature and low-priced competitors arise. Consider brand extensions. * Greater accountability: Engage short-term performance orientation, make sure you have your figures right. Customer Based Brand Equity: (1) Differential effect that (2) brand knowledge has on (3) consumer response to the marketing of that brand. Marketing a product should make the consumers’ response more favorable compared to not branding the product. Types are: * Consumer brand equity: A positive, strong, active and unique meaning of the brand. * Financial brand equity: enables earning more in  the short and long run. The Strategic Brand Management Process (to build, measure and manage brand equity): 1. Identify and Establish brand positioning and values: It is your attempt to get in the mind of the consumer in a distinct and valued place. This includes mental maps, a competitive frame of reference, points of parity & difference, core brand values and brand mantra. It is also about who is in your market. 2. Plan and implement brand marketing programs: The mixing and matching of brand elements (visual or verbal?), integrating brand marketing activities and leverage of secondary associations that convey meaning to consumers. 3. Measure and interpret brand performance: Use brand value chains (how will our activities influence what customers think, feel and do), audits, tracking, and equity management systems. What is a Business Value Chain: a. Customer brand equity management goal: build, sustain, and leverage a strong, active and unique meaning of the brand. b. Financial brand equity goal: to enable more earnings in the short and long run. 4. Grow & Sustain brand equity (how to improve things): concepts that are used are brand-product matrixes (shows all brands and products sold by one firm), brand portfolios and hierarchies, brand expansion strategies and brand reinforcement and revitalization. The 6 deadly sins of branding: 1. Brand Memory loss: don’t forget what a brand stands for, don’t change identity. 2. Brand Egoism: overestimating your (supplying) capabilities and importance. 3. Brand Deception: Don’t include fictional ingredients that appear healthy or try to cover the reality of your product. 4. Brand fatigue: Companies are bored with their brands, causing a lack of creativity. 5. Brand paranoia: Too much focus on competition instead of product quality. 6. Brand irrelevance: Not staying ahead of the product category’s market. Lecture notes WC week 1 (29-08-012 / Red Bull Case): Sources of brand equity for Red bull: * First mover advantage, premium pricing, and special ingredients  (taurine). * New market creation (energy drink), and an all round occasion product. * Sampling often, source efficacy, cool image, limited availability, and specific associations such as sports and athletes. Their strategy is a global approach. Tactics are always similar, and sports are always important. How does the marketing program contribute to the brand equity: * They have a broad positioning, aiming for high quality and high price, being a premium product and being exclusive. Some terminology: * Disruptive products are those that break the rules, the normal way of doing business. * They do so ‘below the line’ by using exceptional promotion activities. * They do so ‘above the line’ by using out of the box marketing. * Share of voice: Share of expenditures on advertising, as a share of the product category. * Share of belly: Share in all types of drinks consumption. * The most important things for branded products are involvement and interest. * ‘Jump on the bandwagon’ means following the mainstream (Bullit vs. Red Bull). Why are Red bull’s advertisements so successful and how do they maintain their marketing monumentum? * High integration and a consistent program. * Limited availability, which causes buzz marketing. * Their ads use a specific humorous tone of voice, which builds awareness. Findings of the energy drink experiment: * All energy drinks increase blood pressure. Placebos only do so under high motivation. Red bull and brand extensions (the key to success is a ‘fit’ with your brand): * What did they do already? Shots, different tastes, Red Bull cola, Premix with alcoholics, refrigerators, and using different sizes. * Which ones were successful? Different sizes, sports events, magazines, shows, and the flagship store that sells a lot of merchandise. * Which ones were unsuccessful? Different tastes, Cola, and energy shots. Week 2: Branding Objectives: Values, Identity and Positioning Article 1: Brown, Tom J., Peter A. Dacin, Michael G. Pratt and David A. Whetten (2006) â€Å"Identity, Intended Image, Construed Image, and Reputation: An Interdisciplinary Framework and Suggested Terminology,† Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34, 2, 99-106 Constructs according to CED (Central, enduring, and distinctive organizational level of analysis): * Identity: An individual’s self-difinition / who are we as an organization. * Organizational identity: the property of a social group rather than an individual. * Intended Image: mental associations about the organization that organization leaders want important audiences / stakeholders to hold. * Construed image: Mental associations that organization members believe individuals or multiple people outside the organization hold about the organization. * Reputation: mental associations about the organization actually held by others outside the organization. Findings: * Image concerns what an organizational member wants others to know about the organization, while reputation is a perception of the organization actually held by an external stakeholder. * Corporate associations belong with the stakeholder, not to the organization. They may be influenced by a variety of outside sources: competitors, industry analysts, consumer activists and the media in addition to communications from the company. Implications: * Not mentioned Article 2: Coleman, Darren, Leslie de Chernatory and George Christodoulides (2011) â€Å"B2B Service Brand Identity: Scale Development and Validation,† Industrial Marketing Management, 40, 1063-1071 Constructs: * B2B service brand identity: the strategist’s vision of how a B2B service brand should be perceived by its stakeholders. It consists of the following scale dimensions: * Marketing Culture: unwritten policies and guidelines which provide employees with behavioral norms. It’s also about the importance an organization places on the marketing function. * Client relationship management: relationships with customers are the  cornerstone of industrial marketing. Therefore, the quality of CRM is very important. * Corporate Visual identity: logos can simplify the process of communicating brand benefit by being visual metaphors. They also help distinguishing a brand. * Integrated marketing communications: they help an organization’s brand identity manifest. For B2B, communications focus on organization rather than products. * Brand personality: The strength, favorability and uniqueness of the brand personality association. It should be easy to describe by clients, and f avourable. Findings: * After two factor analyses, the paper chose to rename some dimensions: * Employee & client focus: The organization treats employees & clients as an essential part of the organization, will help them in a responsive manner, will discover and respond to their needs, and top management is committed to providing quality service. * Corporate visual identity: Our font and logo is an important part of our visual identity, which makes us recognizable. * Brand personality: Associations are extremely positive and favorable, and clients have no difficulty describing them. * Consistent communications: There’s a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of all communication tools. Furthermore, Advertising, PR and Sales are providing consistent messages. * Human resource initiatives: There are employee-training programs designed to develop skills required for acquiring and deepening client relationships. Moreover, the organization regularly monitors employees’ performance. * The model is now empirical instead of conceptual. In addition, it is a synergistic network since all dimensions are highly correlated. Implications: * When managers want to asses the effectiveness of B2B service brand identity efforts, they should focus on either one or multiple of the above mentioned dimensions and measure them over time. Article 3: Chernev, Alexander, Ryan Hamilton and David Gal (2011) â€Å"Competing for Consumer Identity: Limits to Self-Expression and the Perils of Lifestyle  Branding,† Journal of Marketing, 75, May, 66-82 Constructs: * Self-expression of lifestyle and social identity: this is enabled by a huge degree of customization for certain products and also by social media. Findings (keep in mind that all findings discuss short-term effects): * Consumer brand preferences are a function of the activities they were involved in prior to evaluating a given brand. This finding holds because the need for self-expression is finite and ultimately can be satiated. This means that the need for self-expressive brands decreases as the number of alternative means of self-expression increases. * The extent to which consumers use brands to express their identities is not limited to self-expressive brands in the same category but it is also a function of the availability of alternative means of expressing identity. Satiation is caused by: * Personal brand relevance: how close is the brand related to your identity. Brands evaluated later in a set were more likely to be rated lower or equivalent in terms of personal relevance. * Perceived brand uniqueness: How brands are perceived to be different. * Consumers’ willingness to pay. * Increasing the prominence of self-expressive brands that are already a part of a consumer’s identity is likely to weaken future brand preferences. This holds between and across product categories. This effect is more pronounced for symbolic than functional brands: * Brand associations should be distinguished: Functional and symbolic associations. * Increasing the need for self-expression (e.g. by threatening identity) has the effect of strengthening brand preferences. * Self-expressive behavioral acts such as product customization can lead to identity saturation, weakening consumers’ brand preferences. Implications: * Brands might possibly compete across categories and become a part of a person’s identity. * Lifestyle branding has proven to be successful for many brands. However, managers may be trading fierce within-category  functional competition for fierce across-category symbolic competition when doing so. All self-expressive brands could end up competing with one another, and possibly even non-brand self-expressive items and social media. * More practical: It might be unattractive to have a shop with self-expressive products next to another shop selling such (Apple Store). Article 4: Naresh, Sheena G. (2012) â€Å"Do Brand Personalities Make a Difference to Consumers?,† , Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 37, 31-37 Constructs: * When associated to image, brand uniqueness or identity is the arrangement of words, ideas and associations that structure the total perception of the brand. * Brand personality: the set of human characteristics associated with the brand. It makes brands more interesting, memorable, and it makes people more aware. The Big 5: * Sincerity: Down to earth, honest, wholesome, cheerful (Douwe Egberts). * Excitement: Daring, spirited, imaginative, up to date (Porsche). * Competence: reliable, intelligent, successful (ABN AMRO). * Sophistication: Upper class, Charming (Mercedes). * Ruggedness: Outdoorsy, Tough (Levis, Nike, Marlboro). * Brand personality statement: what personality managers want their consumers to perceive. * Brand personality profile: what the consumers are thinking and feeling about the brand. Findings: * Sentimental brand personalities are common for all fast moving consumer goods. Secondly, most FMCGs are characterized as young, successful and inspiring. Finally, success, friendliness, trendiness, uniqueness, modernization and glamour are often found. Implications: * Marketers should focus on strengthening their strategies by emphasizing personality traits of their brands. This can cause strategic changes in brand positioning or communications. Lecture notes Week 2 (03-09-2012): If your customers don’t know who you are, they won’t buy. You have to show who you are in order to do business. The circle of brand management: * Strategists propose an identity by using a certain strategy marketers and PR build on this strategy by choosing a position and messaging this position (potential) customers generate a brand image based on these messages strategists can again build a strategy to reposition the image of the consumers.  §1: Brand Identity: How strategists want the brand to be perceived: * It explains whether an ad suits the brand, whether new products should be launched inside or outside the brand boundaries, how far can we change our communication style regionally and internationally, or whether sponsorship would ‘fit’ the brand. * Definition: the unique composition of physical, social and psychological components of a brand as far as they are crucial, lasting and remarkable. * What’s the vision & aim of a company, what makes it different, what are its values, what need is the brand fulfilling, what is its permanent nature, and what signs make it recognizable. * Aspects: CED: Central, Enduring (whether it’s consistent over time) & Distinctive. * Components: Physical (external characteristics, logo), Psychological (experiences, character, point of view), Social (spokesperson, category, relationship, users).  §1.1 Heritage, consisting of history, consistency, passion and leadership. Effects are: * (1) Authentic real (2) trustworthy safe (3) intimate warm (4) expert excellence in performance and experience. * Sources are people, the firm itself, and region & nation; human capital, social capital, cultural capital & natural capital. * Country of origin is very important, and countlessly many papers have covered it.  §1.2 Personality & Values: * For the Big Five personality indicators/dimensions, see page 9 article 4. * Prototypical cues help distinguishing things between product categories. It also helps in creating expectance. * Values are stable,  desirable modes of conduct or abstract end-states that direct behavior. Milton R. defined 18 instrumental & 18 terminal values that can be used to find identity. * Core brand values: abstract associations that characterize the 5 to 10 most important aspects or dimensions of a brand. These serve the foundation of a brand strategy, and in particular the POPs and PODs (see page 11). For BMW this would be stylish driving, for Marlboro the cowboy life. * Brand Mantras: the ‘heart and soul’ of a brand: a 3-to-5 word phrase that captures the essence or spirit of the brand positioning and values. Malibu: seriously easy going. Here, campaigns are more about context rather than content; the expression of the brand is more important than the brand itself. Brand mantra’s consist of: * (1) Brand function (Authenticity for NIKE), (2) Descriptive modifier (Athletic for NIKE), (3) Emotional modifier (Performance for NIKE). * Implementing a mantra requires: communication simplification inspiration.  §1.3 Vision: The brand’s dream about the future. It is about shaping the category and improving customers’ welfare. Visions are provocative and can guide short-term behavior by communicating direction. The Brand Identity Prism to the left discusses (1) physique (features, symbols, attributes), (2) Personality, (3) Culture (set of values), (4) Relationship (beliefs and associations), (5) Reflection (consumers’ perception) and (6) Self-image (What the consumer thinks of himself).  §1.4 Brand Image: How the brand is actually perceived: * Identification: Brand awareness & category structure. * Qualification: Brand associations & meaning structure.  §2 Brand Positioning: The part of the brand identity and value proposition to be actively communicated to a target audience. It is the act of designing the company’s offer and image so that it occupies a distinct and valued place in the target customer’s minds. The following paragraphs represent the steps that should be taken when positioning a brand.  §2.1 (step A) Frame of Reference: Who is the target customer and who are the main competitors? Here, we define category membership: * Target markets can be defined by  segmentation. Segmentation can be done on the basis of consumers (descriptive, behavioral, psychographic or geographic) or B2B (nature of the goods, buying conditions, demographics). Combinations are also possible. Criteria: * Identifiability, size, accessibility, responsiveness. * Take into account that there are different types of competition, namely on product type, category or class. In addition, competition may occur at benefit level rather than attribute level (see paper 3 page 8). * When comparing at category level, 1 brand is the reference brand and several others are compared to that. If you’re the reference brand, consider improvements on prices and quality. Be aware that decreases in attributes hurt more than for non-reference brands. When you’re not a reference brand, any POD from the reference brand is a loss. Therefore, reference brand have competitive advantages. * Prospect theory: Extra value diminishes as available gains increase. * When you’re launching a new brand, all ‘usual’ category characteristics will first have to be transferred. ‘Creating’ a category is not advised and very expensive (Subway food). Copying prototypical cues can be used by the follower brand to be accepted in the category (e.g. fast food using Red & Yellow / McDo).  §2.2 (step B) POPs & PODs are chosen after defining the frame of reference: * Points of Parity: How is the brand similar to others in the category, how can they be associated and compared. Moreover, which associations are shared? Category POPs are necessary to be a legitimate and credible product offering within a category. Competitive POPs negate PODs of competitors. * Points of Difference: How is the brand different to others in the category? It’s about brand associations that are unique to the brand and favorably evaluated by consumers. They can be functional (performance related) or abstract (imagery-related). They’re also closely related to unique selling propositions, competitive advantages and distinctive competences. They’re more difficult to obtain than POPs. PODs and POPs can be defined using the following typology: Intrinsic product differentiation, Design/Style differentiation, Symbolic Differentiation, Channel Differentiation, Price Differentiation, Customer Service differentiation, Customer intimacy differentiation. Choosing PODS and POPs  is based on: * Desirability: Relevance, distinctiveness and believability. * Deliverability: Feasibility, communicability and sustainability.  §2.3 (Step C) Establishing POPs and PODs: This can be difficult since many POPs and PODs are negatively correlated (e.g. High quality and low price). Methods that can solve this problem are (1) separation of attributes (2) Leveraging equity of another entity (3) redefining the relationship.  §2.4 Use and usage situation: What is the brand promise and consumer benefit? And what is the occasion when the product will be consumed? The best moment to confront customers with product (advertisements) is when they really need it (e.g. In India, detergent ads are place on top of buses, since everyone does their laundry on the balcony where they see these tops).  §2.5 Statement and tags Are the current looks and ingredients compatible with its positioning? There are multiple elements that will evaluate and choose a brand positioning: 1. The Target audience 2. The compelling benefit 3. The reason why customers should believe the PODs 4. Product Name 5. Product Category Week 3: Special Branding Strategies Article 1: Keller, Kevin Lane and Philip Kotler (2012) â€Å"Branding in B2B firms† in: Handbook of Business-to-Business Marketing, edited by Gary l. Lilien and Rajdeep Grewal, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK. Constructs: * B2B branding: might not be needed because buyers are experienced and fully informed, it’s more about the buying experience, it involves  unnecessary costs, effects are only short-term, calculating ROI is difficult, brand building is complex and because it doesn’t significantly influence the buyers’ final decision. Findings: * The Brand Management Scorecard: a. Managers understand what the brand means to customers. b. The brand is properly positioned.  c. Customers receive superior delivery of the benefits they value most. d. The brand takes advantage of the full repertoire of branding and marketing activities available to build brand equity. e. Marketing and communications efforts are seamlessly integrated. The brand communicates with one voice. f. The brand’s pricing strategy is based on customer perceptions of value. g. The brand uses appropriate imagery to support its personality. h. The brand is innovative and relevant. i. For a multiproduct, multi-brand firm, the brand hierarchy and brand portfolio are strategically sound. j. The firm has in place a system to monitor brand equity and performance. * Steps to build and manage a strong brand: a. Ensure the organization understands and supports branding and the role of brand management. Moreover, internal branding is important (next two steps): b. Horizontal and vertical alignment: branding efforts should be understood by all. c. Brand mantras: (see p10  §1.2) will consistently reinforce and support the brand. a. A General Electric application: for this firm, more then a brand mantra was integrated successfully through 11 different businesses. d. Adopt a corporate brand strategy if possibly and create a well-defined brand hierarchy: (Carefully) decide on brand architecture (distinctive brand elements applied to the different products sold by the firm). Corporate branding is preferred. e. Corporate credibility: competence in delivery and satisfaction for the client. It depends on expertise, trustworthiness and likability. f. Brand hierarchy: Significantly different sub-businesses require sub-brands. g. Frame Value Perceptions: Strive for differentiation and value rather than  commoditization. Framing is about how clients currently think and choose among products and services, and then determining how this ideally should be. h. Link non-product-related imagery associations: Apple is perceived as an innovative brand, where Microsoft is more of an aggressive firm. Consider how dimensions of corporate credibility affect decisions of the B2B customer. i. Uncover relevant emotional associations for the brand: Security, social approval and self-respect definitely play a role. In addition, how do risk and feelings influence a customers decision making? j. Emotions and decision-making: Ultimately, individuals rather than organizations make purchasing decisions. These people are influenced by emotions & ratio. k. Segment Customers carefully and develop tailored branding and marketing programs. Should there be a uniform image within and across firms? l. Segmentation within organizations: the ‘buying center’ brings together initiators, users, influencers, deciders, approvers, buyers and gatekeepers. People fulfill multiple of these tasks, but all should be approached with identical messages. m. Segmentation across organizations: careful customer analysis is required for successful segmentation. Implications: Not mentioned. Article 2: Desai, Kalpesh Kaushik and Kevin Lane Keller (2002) â€Å"The Effects of Ingredient branding Strategies on Host Brand Extendibility,† Journal of Marketing, vol. 66, (January), 73- 93. Constructs: * Line extensions: minor product changes in the host brand, possibly already introduced by others in the category. When these changes are branded, they’re further defined as: * Slot-filler brand expansions: the level of one existing product attribute changes. * New attribute expansion: an entirely new attribute or characteristic is added to the product. * Self-branded ingredient: the host brand includes and creates a new self-brand. * Co-branded ingredient branding: using associated brands as ingredients (Dell & Intel) that are supplied by another firm. Findings: * For Slot-filler expansions, a cobranded ingredient facilitates initial expansion acceptance, but a self-branded ingredient leads to more favorable subsequent category extension evaluations. Subjects appeared not to credit the host brand for the cobrand association in evaluating subsequent extensions, and if anything, they held it against the host brand. * For new attribute expansions, a co-branded ingredient leads to more favorable evaluations of both the initial expansion and the subsequent category extension. Because a self-branded ingredient did not help ‘broaden’ the equity of the host brand, and because the host brand may have lacked credibility, an extension involving a self-branded ingredient was less favorably evaluated. * Should ingredients be branded? Yes, it improves the competitiveness of the host brand and it’s a signal of quality when combining high quality brands. Implications: * Besides helping improve the competitiveness of the host brand, the new attribute can, in some cases, expand the usage of the host brand. * Co-branding might enhance short-term equity of a host and its value, even under low fit. However, in the long-term co-branding will require more fit to the category. After all, they’re borrowing and not generating equity themselves. * Evaluations of slot-filler extensions suffer after the cobrand that was originally used in the expansion is dropped from the extension. Article 3: Gussoni, Manuela and Andrea Mangani (2012) â€Å"Corporate branding strategies in mergers and acquisitions,† Journal of Brand Management, I 350-213IX, 1-16 Constructs: * Corporate name is a strategic marketing asset and carries the corporation’s reputation. * Mergers & Acquisitions: can be classified as: * Conservative: the new entity adopts the acquirer’s or the target’s corporate name. * Innovative: the new entity uses a mixed or new name. * Horizontal: if the combining entities are active in the same  industry and produce similar goods & services. * Vertical: if the combining entities are active in the same industry but at separate production stages (buying buyers or suppliers). * Divisional acquisition: acquiring /merging only some divisions of companies. * Diversification: if the combining entities are active in separate industries * Financial investments: if a financial investor, typically a private equity investment firm, acquires a manufacturing or service company. Findings: * Divisional acquisition, vertical integrations, diversifications and the sectors involved do not affect the probability of the strategy being innovative. * Inventing a new name for a target is unusual. * Innovative brand strategies are more probably in the case of mergers (as opposed to acquisitions), horizontal M&As and financial investments. More specifically, a mixed name is the preferred option since value and reputation of both names will be involved. * When doing a financial investment, the acquirer doesn’t transfer it’s name, but chooses between keeping the acquired name or changing it in case of bad reputation. * Horizontal M&As tend to extend the name of the acquirer to the target. Implications: * Management and chanting of brands and corporate names may have a profound impact within organizations. Therefore we recommend carefully interpreting our and other studies regarding naming strategies. * Marketing during a M&A process is often underestimated. Article 4: Ilicic, Jasmina and Cynthia M. Webster (2012) â€Å"Celebrity co-branding partners as irrelevant brand information in advertisements,† Journal of Business Research Constructs: * Celebrities are identified as co-branding partners, where two brands (one being the celebrity) are paired with one another in a marketing context such as an advertisement. * Their should be a match between the  celebrity and brand image to achieve positive effects on consumer attitudes. * A celebrity not only provides consumers with relevant brand information when they convey characteristics pertinent to the brand but also when they mention information relevant to the endorsed brand. * Irrelevant information provided by a celebrity endorser also aids in making a judgment about whether the brand is able to deliver the benefit according to the consumer. This holds regardless of whether relevant brand information is also present. * Dilution effect in marketing: Dilution of consumers’ beliefs might occur when a celebrity provides both irrelevant and relevant brand information. This effect is present regardless of whether consumers perceive the celebrity to match or mismatch th e brand. Findings: * When a celebrity co-branding partner does not provide information about the partner brand nor brand benefits but plays a peripheral role, consumer judgments in the ability of the partner brand to deliver benefits, their purchase intent and their match-up perceptions become less positive. * Consumer brand benefit beliefs and purchase intentions show evidence of a dilution effect only when consumers perceive a mismatch between the celebrity and brand and when presented with irrelevant information supplied by a celebrity in addition to relevant brand information. When purely relevant information is presented, dilution does not occur. * Dilution occurs on perceived brand benefits, purchase intentions and match-up perception between the celebrity and the brand. Implications: * Ensure that a celebrity co-partner does not provide irrelevant brand information within advertisements to avoid brand benefit belief, purchase intent and match-up dilution. * Advertisements should feature an irrelevant and incongruent celebrity in combination with relevant brand information.

School violence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

School violence - Research Paper Example nd also, the potential solutions that can be thought of, so that each and every day, when students and school personnel enter into the halls, they are given the strongest opportunity possible to accomplish that which they have set out to do. As a way to approach the issue at the broadest level, many have come forth with suggestions as to what should and should not be done, in terms of curbing school violence and most importantly, seeking to understand what may be the root cause(s) for those at the center of the debate. The possible solutions are far reaching, in terms of what many have felt should be done to aid and conquer the issue as a whole. The desire to create and facilitate an environment at which everyone takes part and becomes active, as to create an environment of inclusion, rather than exclusion. While the opinions offered may vary in direction, as well as end result, the fact remains clear that, as individuals retain the fundamental right of not only being a student at a particular school but also an employee. So the goal remains to acknowledge first and foremost that, while cases of violence may be few and farther between than they may have been, school violence remains a crucial concern that everyone conce rned should have on the forefront of their respective consciousnesses. Many are faced with the role of relying upon these institutions to educate the youth of America and in that process, the hope remains that such education is able to occur without the fear of impending violence. The overall problem to be addressed would be the occurrence of school violence within the halls of educational institutions. Such acts that would not only impact fellow students but also, place others into danger at the same time as the event(s) are transpiring. To place the description into greater detail, the issue of school violence centers upon the decision of a specific individual(s) to act out against those of whom they feel may have wronged them in any way

World Slavery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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