Who is mainly responsible for the tragedy that befalls Romeo and Essay

Who is mainly responsible for the tragedy that befalls Romeo and Juliet - Essay Example It combines heavy elements of comedy and tragedy, of classical and medieval tragedy, to create a groundbreaking and long-lived piece of art that continues to have tremendous influence in our culture as a well-known reference point. Nevertheless, the ingredients for tragedy are all there: the untimely death of the protagonists, the death of a young love, and a solemn prologue proposing that a sacrifice must be made to reconcile two feuding households. This foreboding preface to the play’s action gives the sense that its outcome is fated, and that those ultimately responsible for the sacrifice must be guilty by some standard of cosmic justice. Strangely enough, however, all primary characters of the play add to the price that Romeo and Juliet must pay for the love they share. Fate plays an instrumental role throughout Shakespeare’s work. In Romeo & Juliet, he places his audience in a position to observe their fate as the plot action unfolds. The audience is told that their story is one of â€Å"a pair of star-cross’d lovers† who â€Å"take their life†. Knowing this is their fate, the audience watches as their fates are realized. Our emotional connection with the character injects us with hope that the prophecies will be broken, and characters will alter their paths to the ending. However, the play unfolds as if under the direct control of destiny, and the audience is left questioning the existence of free will in such a world. When we look at how the plot of Romeo & Juliet is constructed, we see a plethora of well-placed factors that help drive its protagonists toward their untimely deaths. The Friar’s letter never arrives to tell Romeo that Juliet is not really dead; the protagonists are born to feuding families; Juliet is being forced into an arranged marriage; and so on. All of these make the outcome of the story seem inevitable, and, quite frankly, fated. In many ways, Romeo and Juliet are the victims of the

Critical synopsis Essay Example for Free

Critical synopsis Essay A book that scrutinizes the increasing competition between China, India, and Japan and how it affects the global financial system, Bill Emmott’s ‘Rivals: How the Power Struggle Between China, India, and Japan Will Shape Our Next Decade‘ dwells further on the issues that extend these three nations. Obviously, he recognize the fundamental evolving power rivals in Asia as such region still does not have the merging foundation that have facilitate Europe to its issues. He highlighted the importance of China, India and Japan to encompass a strong influence in the intercontinental associations to boost up their economies without clashing each other’s head. For me, the true essence of the book lies with his ability in molding the readers to understand the issues that these countries have with each other as well as with the US and other key nations without augmenting into alarmism. With the global economic turmoil that started in the US mid July-August 2008, reading the book really sharpens once mind to the reality that Asia, despite it’s own economic meltdown would always have a say in society as it generates a very strong influential power that could either make or break them and the whole world at large. Yes, China’s rapid economic leap is may be in conflict with it’s political reform; India’s economy might be in conflict with it’s key policy and Japan’s old age population issues might yield a very poor economic shrinkage but with the continued boost especially in the Business Process Outsourcing sector (which China and India are the leading provider), all three countries could safeguard their economic stability of course, providing that no chaos arises, which is only possible if all three countries could work harmoniously had in hand and eliminate any possible dilemma that would arise especially as we face the saga of recession.

Women in the Workforce Essay -- Economic Globalization Careers Essays

Women in the Workforce The integration of the world economy, or economic globalization, has been an operating force for centuries. However, in recent times the effects of this phenomenon have become a major cause for debate. Economic globalization is characterized and supported by free trade, the transcending of ideas and business infrastructures across national boundaries, increased capital flows, advanced communication systems, and an increased interdependence of national economies. It is a result of increased access to information, technology, knowledge and opportunities. The debate surrounding globalization however centers on how this increased access manifests itself in different countries, particularly underdeveloped and developing nations. Proponents of globalization argue that it creates expanded channels for employment, promotes broader and more substantial economic growth, allows for higher incomes, and improves quality of life. Critics say, among other things, that while this may be true for som e people, globalization is also functioning to marginalize underdeveloped countries and minority groups around the world. In the context of these two perspectives, I will examine a very important minority group who have, particularly over the past twenty years, become an increasingly important part of the labor force, women. In order to do this, I will first present some statistical data regarding women’s participation in the labor force. This data will show that women indeed have been affected significantly by globalization. In addition I will present a more qualitative look at how globalization has affected the lives of women by concentrating on several specific examples of women’s experiences in different countries. This is a statistical overview of women in the workforce. Female participation in the workforce ranges widely from 60% in some industrialized countries to about 10% in North Africa and Western Asia, averaging at about 43% as of 2000. This means that an average of 43% of women in the world work. This level of female participation is significantly higher than it was 20 years ago (Table 1), and is expected to reach an average of 48% by the year 2010. Table 1. Percentage of women that work Year Percent of women who work 1980 34 1985 36.5 1990 37.2 1995 39.5 2000 43.2 In the overall workforce, made up of approximate... ...tes and Projections of the Economically Active Population, 1950-2010. 5. Horton, Susan. Marginalization Revisited: Women’s Market Work and Pay, and Economic Development. 1999. 27 World Development: p571. Also see, Mehra, Rekha and Sarah Gammage. Trends, Countertrends, and Gaps in Women’s Employment Trends, Countertrends, and Gaps in Women’s Employment. 1999. World Development, 27: p533. 6. Aman, Alfred C. Introduction: Feminism and Globalization: The Impact of the Global Economy on Women and Feminist Theory, 1999. 4 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 1, 4. 7. Martha Chen et al. Counting the Invisible Workforce: The Case of Homebased Workers. 1999.World Development, 27: p603. 8. The World Bank Group. Data and Statistics – World Development Indicators. 2002. (See http://devdata.worldbank.org - Women in Development – About the Data). 9. Ministry of Labor. Data available at MOL's Website (See: http://www.mol.go.jp). 10. Rape for Profit: Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women to India's Brothels. Human Rights Watch. October 2000, Vol. 12, No. 5 (A). 11. Over 60 million women fallen victim to sex discrimination. Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay, Ltd.) July 24, 1997.

Beauty Queen

`The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ is set in an isolated cottage situated in a small Irish town called Leenane, during the latter half of eighties. The two characters that anchor the play are the mother-daughter duo of Maureen and Mag Folan. Maureen is a forty-year old spinster who had lived all of her life with her mom, while Mag is the seventy-year old mother who is not prepared to let go of her daughter. Mag is very ungrateful and unappreciative, in spite of Maureen dedicating her life to help Mag lead a somewhat normal life.Although both of them have gotten used to each other’s idiosyncrasies over the years, there still exists a power struggle of sorts between the two of them. At times, they even loathe and blame each other for their own miserable plights. The mother character is portrayed as a mean, selfish woman who believes that her daughter should feel indebted to serve her. The daughter desperately wants to find love, rather a husband who could free her from the ble ak existence. Maureen somehow wants to escape from the clutches of her mother and get married like her sisters.She even believes, at times, that her mother pretends to be sick to keep her confined to the four walls of the house. On the other hand, Mag tries to make her daughter feel guilty by accusing Maureen of ignoring her. As both of them had remained isolated for many years, they were reaching a state of social and emotional void. Many aspects of the play’s storyline draw parallels to Ireland’s socio-political standpoint. Many rural areas of Ireland like the one featured in the play are economically dead zones, where misery and dullness rule the day.This tone reflects in the play as Maureen and Mag lead a dull life which seldom lightens up. They also endlessly complain about how bad their lives are due to natural calamities and atrocities committed against the Irish community. It is quite ironic that the only time they enjoy talking is when they discuss their death . The ambiance of the play is quite claustrophobic as it takes place in a confined, darkly lit environment. The gray walls of the room are analogous to the sleepy town of Leenane, which breaks the usual conception of Ireland being associated with greenery and hills.This gives the viewer an unsettling feeling and conveys a sense of helplessness that haunts the play’s main characters. The other two characters in the play are Pato and Ray Dooley who happen to be brothers. Pato is a well-mannered gentleman who is sick of working in England for low wages and plans to go to America to try his luck there. He is instantly is attracted to Maureen as he expected every little. This made Maureen to be overjoyed over the prospects of being together with Pato and getting a second chance in life.On the other hand, Ray is a brash and irresponsible young man, but nonetheless amusing. This element of the play shadows on the restless youth of rural Ireland. The youth in Ireland apparently have only two possible choices; they would have to either rot their lives in boredom. or seek greener pastures in London. Although immigrating into England was not the easiest task in the world, it was their only hope to flee from poverty. The two brothers represent the two equally helpless groups of the rural youth in Ireland.This theme is universal since it can very easily be related to almost anyone living in any rural part of the world. Mag relentlessly tries to disrupt Maureen and Pato’s chances of falling in love, fearing solitude. Pato tries to pacify the situation between Maureen and Mag by talking to them, and gains Maureen’s respect. Maureen’s initial physical relationship with Pato was a result of several factors; it was due to sexual repression caused by Ireland’s ridiculously strong moral code and she also wanted to go against her mother for once in her life.However, she eventually falls in love with Pato and longed to be with him. Maureen’ s final ray of hope gets shattered as Mag’s purposely lets out certain sensitive information about their family. Mag also unscrupulously destroys a letter written by Pato which asks Maureen to come with him to America. Since Maureen does not get her hands on the letter on time, she does not get the opportunity to leave Leenane and unite with Pato. Ray inadvertently plays a role in the disaster that Mag plans to prevent Maureen and Pato from getting together.The violent unfolding of events, her medical history, Mag’s death and the grief of not being with Pato forces Maureen to go into a state of chronic depression and eventually turns into the person she dreaded most, her mother (Chang 2001). Mag was not only her daughter’s captor but also a captive of her own lifestyle and choices. Although Mag might seem like the root cause of the disaster, she was also barely a victim of the human condition. Maureen being forced to take care of her mother is a motif to Ireland ’s culture where love plays second fiddle to family responsibility.Maureen could not leave her old mom alone because she grew up on Irish values that condemned people leaving their elder alone during old age. The world needs to view Mag’s character as a self-indulgent parent from Ireland’s cultural perspective. In the rural parts of Ireland, children were raised merely to be additional hands in the family workforce, contrary to the western world’s perception of children being objects for showering love and care (Cobbe 2008).Since love is not a big part of the practical Irish life wherein arranged marriages are still the norm in certain areas, it gives the Irish another reason to escape to England. Also, the violent scenes in the play are not only an indicator of the true domestic violence that has become commonplace in the day-to-day lives of Irish people, but also a signifies that the petty fights that we as citizens of the world go through in the name o f war and so on (Gonser).Like love and hate in human relationships, there is a fine line separating tragedy and comedy in plays. What ‘the Beauty Queen of Leenane’ successfully does is strike a fine balance between the two elements, making it quite engaging albeit intense. Ultimately, the play is a strong cultural satire of sorts that showcases rural Ireland’s way of life to the rest of the world. One could interpret this play as ironical for relating the lack of economic wealth to the people’s lives devoid of happiness, thereby criticizing the spate of our modern soulless existence.Beyond the dark humor is a darker message signifying that the worst of human qualities can very easily come out under suitable circumstances. ‘The Beauty Queen of Leenane’ is a play that makes us look past the obvious and think about things that we usually avoid because they are too complicated and stressful. However, these kinds of plays do remind us of the true n ature of human beings that lies dormant behind years of cultural training. Also, Maureen growing old and turning into her mom is a classic case of the vicious cycle of life.Reference: Chang, E. (2001, May 7). Theatre: The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Retrieved 27 June 2008, Cobbe, E. (2008, June 20). Review – The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 27 June 2008, Gonser, J. â€Å"Welcome to McDonaghland – About Language, Biscuits, and a Certain Taste for Aussie Soaps†. Retrieved 27 June 2008,

Advantages of a Web Presence

Advantages and disadvantages of a Web Presence The World Wide Web is a World Wide Market. It is a new way of selling. More and more customers expect to find your product news and specifications on the web. But even on the Net, you have to advertise your product. Using Internet as a media to advertise your product is different from traditional media. Through Internet companies can be present all over the world. Using the web as an advertising tool is the cheapest way to be discovered at every time. You can also quickly change your promotional campaign, in order to gain attention that may lead the consumer to the product. Online services become so popular because they provide two major benefits to potential buyers: Convenience: Customers can order products 24 hours a day wherever they are. They don't have to sit in traffic, find a parking space, and walk through countless aisles to find and examine goods. And they don't have to drive all the way to a store, only to find out that the desired product is out of stock. Information: Customers can find reams of comparative information about companies, products, and competitors without leaving their office or home. They can focus on objective criteria such as prices, quality, performance, and availability. Customers can expect the advantage to pull the information, to be drained into detailed catalog or other information about products and services for sale that they are looking for. They do not feel forced, they are looking for the information by themselves. Nevertheless it seems that Web advertising is much more price than image oriented. Web advertising does not seem the appropriate way to advert a product. According to BMRB International (annex 1) 37% of UK Net shoppers are not ready to purchase off-line They always fear to give their account number to a company they do not know. Today a well-known brand is a real competitive advantage. BRMB International has shown that 16% of purchases has done thanks to an implicit trust of established brands. Nevertheless it does not mean that it will stay an advantage in the future. Moreover the difference with more traditional media is that customers come to you and not you to the customers. You cannot retain their attention if they feel that it does not worth it. When you wish to expand your market share trough Internet, you have to consider the specificity of your target audience. At the present time people who buy through Internet are young, daily users of computers. But there are not only people used to Internet. Because e-business is growing up (annex 2), we can assume that most people have no experience in e-business. The audience can be both good Internet users and beginners. Dealing with communication interaction Security The World Wide Web is the fastest growing part of the Internet. Increasingly, it is also the part of the Internet that is the most vulnerable to attack. For users, a secure web server is one that will safeguard any personal information (bank account number) that is received or collected. It is one that supports their privacy and will not subvert browser to download viruses or other rogue programs onto their computer For a company, a secure web server is resistant to a determined attack over the Internet or from corporate insiders. In order to increase security, you can use a system for automatically encrypting information as it is sent over the Internet and decrypting it before it is used. One of Netscape Communication's early innovations was its SSL. You can also use firewalls, which is a device that isolates an organization's internal network from the Internet at large, allowing specific connections to pass and blocking others. Marketing / Communication It is really important to get people inform of the existence of your web site. You will have to shout it from the roof tops! You can use your letterhead, your cards or your leaflets to write your web address. You can also through a TV or board advertising campaign let people know about your site existence. As Jim Sterne says: your web site can be funny, pretty, useful, crisp and clean, but if you don't promote it, its message won't be seen. By the way you can also manage to register different key words on browsers in order to put make know your web site when people look for information in your business area. Deliveries and Payment If you use e-commerce on your website, once the buyer has searched through a catalog and made his decision to purchase, the order, the payment, the handle fulfillment and other aspects of order management have to be processed. The order processing must include the ability to group items together for later purchase; this capability is called a shopping cart in the case of retail transactions; it usually includes the ability to modify the contents of the shopping cart at any time. This way the buyer can discard items, add new ones, change the quantities and so on. To the purchase, the buyer will have additional charges such as sales taxes and shipping costs. The order processing system presents the buyer with an itemized order form including all the charges so the buyer can pay for the items. Information effect With the Internet, it is now possible to obtain accurate and immediate feedback from your customers (A daemon can count the number of hits). With access to this information, your business will be able to add the most personalized value to the customer. Tool such as the World Wide Web helps you to build more of your business decision-making based on outside information, and find out more about your non-customers and what non-customers and what they are doing, and why they are not customers. Fiscal and legal implications Internet is still largely unregulated. Because Internet is global (no territorial limits), electronic (no writing) and digital (perfect copies can be made almost instantaneously and repetitively), it is a source of different problems. The state of California tries to regulate e-business in California (annex 3). It seems very complex to set up a world wide regulation and, at the present time nobody knows what to do if something going wrong in the cyberspace. Concerning taxation, applying existing tax rules and system to the Internet world is tempting but does not answer to the needs of this marketplace. One key aspect to resolving the taxation issue of Internet commerce is to keep tax policies universal, uniform, and neutral. Resources needed to maintain the Site Obviously, resources need to maintain a web site is going to depend on the size of the web site. Whatever the size you firstly need to ask you few questions such as: Will this solution be flexible enough to accommodate change? Do we have the technical competencies to support Internet initiatives? Is this solution customizable to our needs and our customer needs? Do we have the technological infrastructure (network services; hardware, software) required to develop and scale? Do we have sufficient funding for ongoing web site maintenance? Do we have operations capabilities to support our Internet strategy? Web creation There are two different ways to create a web site. You can do it yourself or ask an agency to manage the creation of your web site. If you decide to create yourself your web site, you will need special coding software. But if you decide to delegate the creation to an agency, it might cost you around $750 for a basic web site (annex 4). Web maintenance However you must also take into consideration the maintenance. When you have created your web site, you must care to make it alive. You need to care about your human resources skills According to the Business Marketing Web Consortium the following roles should be filled:  · A Web Editor. Depending on the size of the site, this could be a part-time or a full-time person. The Web editor is responsible for content for a site.  · A Web Master, responsible for the infrastructure and technology supporting the website. Making sure that links link, and the site performs  · An Infomaster responsible for timely response to inquiries  · An overall Technology Leader, defining corporate standards and resources required Poor maintenance can severely damage a company's image Site Design and Structure As we have pointed out since the beginning, e-business is a new way of selling. When a potential customer gets connected to your site, you have not sell anything yet. There are different ways to attract customers to your product. Firstly, you need to care about your web design. It means that you should not forget that if there are too many pictures or electronic animations, download is going to take a while. If your site require downloading applications, they should downloaded in twenty seconds or less. Users of Internet expect fast and functional site (avoid horizontal scrolling). Web sites must be customers oriented rather than product oriented. Information value is much more important than glizz. Customers stay loyal because of the service, not because they like your web site. Simplicity and speed differentiate your site, making it easy for business customers to order. Secondly, Web marketers must ask if their markets are comfortable with English. Global marketers recommend adding local languages when needed. Thirdly, in order to maintain interest in your site, you have to make it interactive. Internet is both a business and communication tool, you must provide to users a page where you give relevant information on your product but also on your industry area. It is recommended to let customers express their feelings through email. But you do not do it only for the fun, your site must be professional (ie: updated, fast answers), that is why you have to deal with your e-customers as you are used to do with your offline customers. In order to support the design of your future web site, we would like to present this tree structure. There will be 7 theoretical pages linked together.

buy custom Energy Drinks essay

buy custom Energy Drinks essay Energy drinks refer to beverages that contain calories, caffeine and other energy enhancing ingredients like vitamin B and herbal extracts. They first appeared in Europe in the 1960s and have ever been popular since then. The consumption of energy drinks is rapidly increasing and has a large untapped market in India. This paper will demonstrate a chocolate based energy drink, Mozarl energy drink, and demonstrate how the drink will be marketed in India. Product Description Mozarl energy drink is a new chocolate energy drink in the market whose purpose is to help the consumer boost his/her energy levels and improve metabolism. The Mozarl energy drink contains caffeine that helps improve strength, endurance and mental function. The Mozarl energy drink is packaged in a large returnable bottle (LRB) and non-returnable/ disposable bottle (NRD). The Mozarl energy drink gives the consumer extra burst of energy. Its energy comes from two main ingredients: sugar and caffeine. An average 12-ounce Mozarl energy drink contains 85 milligrams of caffeine. The reasons for picking Mozarl energy drink is that it is actually natural chocolate flavor unlike other drinks with artificial chocolate flavors. Mozarl energy drinks are easily applicable and they need to be reinvented in the Indian market. The target country in this case is India. As a category, India is a small as far as energy drinks is concerned by conservative estimates but the market has opened up and is growing at a very steady rate (Pinto and Shahana). Pinto and Joshi say that expert estimation show that the market is growing at 25 percent annually. This leaves room that no doubt there is a potential market for energy drinks in India. Chibber further asserts that the energy drink market in India is still in its infancy thus strengthening the fact that we will have a ready market for our product. Our Mozarl energy drink target audience will be anyone between the ages of 15-45 years; the young, ravers, athletes and even young adults in India. India a country that boosts itself as a sports hub in the Asian continent and sports like cricket and football are very popular. For athletes, we have discovered that they will need to improve stamina on the courts. Older adults will use Mozarl to enhance their physical performance not only in work but also even in bedroom matters. Mozarl is designed in such a way that it is a status drink. Therefore, we attract the youth who will want to be caught swallowing a can of Mozarl energy drink due to its designer status. To differentiate our products from competition, we will have to broaden the target market in an effort to reach niche markets. We have discovered that such submarkets in India will include energy drinks designed specifically for women, for the body builders, for the extreme sport enthusiasts and for carbohydrate conscious. We w ill target the upper and middle income earners but we will also distribute Mozarl to other rural towns in India as well. Energy drinks market in the U.S. is very much developed unlike in India. The U.S. market is very much attractive to the young upper middle class to affluent users. Statistics from Datamonitor indicate that the global soft drinks market grew at a rate of 3.45 percent from 2005-2009 and new product launches increased by 8.59 percent. The U.S. topped by retail sales while India ranked 25th in retail sales but 13th in terms of number of new product launches in 2009. India has a large population with 47 percent of the people below 30 years of age. Despite this, India has a low consumption average of 5.2 liters against the U.S. average of 300-400 liters or even a world average of 85.22 liters. In 2006, the U.S. consumer drank 900m liters of energy drinks and this was a 47 percent increase from the previous year (Merett). The growth of energy drink consumption was attributed to male oriented energy drinks and a consumer looking for healthy drinks who want to enjoy a new wave of energy products. The latent demand for energy drinks in India neither actual nor future sles but can go either way especially if its market is inefficient market. Inefficiencies in the Indian market are caused lack of international openness, regulations, cartel like behaviors and cultural barriers. The single most important variable determining consumption in any country is income, the United States is a developed country unlike India and therefore we expect demand in Indi be lower when compared to the U.S. India has some cultural beliefs that may limit consumption while the U.S. has few cultural beliefs, in any does exist. Language is barrier in India due to its many sub-tribes and English is not commonly used throughout the country unlike in the U.S. where almost 100 percent of the target market understands English. As a developed country U.S. citizens have extra money to spend in luxuries and other affluent products like our energy drink. The living conditions in the U.S. are high as to when compa red to those in India and therefore we expect a lower energy drink uptake in India as compared to the statistics in the U.S. Indians attitude towards foreign products has been shown to be poor. Therefore, we are planning on using local musicians and Bollywood starts to market Mozarl and have the distinctive nature as being one of their products. Negotiating Business with Indian Channels Business regulation varies across the continent and India has stringiest laws unlike in the U.S. where we have relaxed systems. It is important to realize that India has a history of invasion and migration that has influenced its culture, economy and how business is conducted in general. Economic reforms however have ensured that business markets have continued to strengthen and grow. Indias population consists of 80 percent Hindus, 12 percent islands and 8 percent other ethinic groups. According to Katz, business meeting in India generally starts with a small friendly talk including personal questions about the family. This is especially important as it is seen as building a good rapport and trust before business. The family unit is highly respected and it is therefore important that a lot of interest is shown towards Indian counterparts to help establish successful relationships. During negotiations, it is vital to trust and establish relationships with Indians before any form of business can take place. This is mainly to help bridge cultural and communication gap that we had seen earlier that do exist. These negotiations can be done by individuals or a team of negotiators with everyone assigned a specific role. Although Indians may appear in scheduled meetings late, they expect foreigners to be punctual and therefore it is important that agreed time is observed. Although both men and women can take part in introductions, men should wait women to initiate handshakes first as some Indian women may not be ready to make a physical handshake with men prompting a nod from foreigners. Indians value academic and professional titles and is important that they are used. Culture dictates that older people are introduced and greeted first. Namste is a traditional Indian greeting that involves putting both hands together as if in prayer but light handshakes can be done if a foreigner (Katz, p.3). Challenges in Conducting Business in India A review by Ansar lists the following as the challenges foreign investors encounter when doing business in India; Building relationships_ Indian culture focuses more relationship and trust and cultural awareness will help develop strategies to avoid frustrations and delayed projects in order to be able to reach tangible results. Levels of English_ most university graduate in urban centers have a good command of English but understanding Indian English can be challenging especially with their heavy accents. Being aware of Indian English will help reduce both loss of time and reduce misunderstandings. Authority_ many Indian cultures places a lot of importance to authority and status. Unless well understood, these complexities of Indian attitudes and how they affect business can make organizations doiing business in India struggle and fail to harness value or experience from its employees. Delays in courts_ foreign companies face the daunting task of case delays in Indian courts some taking even years to resolve. Arbitration has not gained prominence and can also be long. Corruption_ corruption in India is a big hurdle. India was ranked number 92 out of 159 countries that were surveyed by Transparency International on corruption index. There is rampant bureaucracy as well as many political and regulatory risks can be a big challenge. Inadequate infrastructure_ India has a poor infrastructure with poor energy supply, ineffective airports and unpaved roads will be a big challenge especially for distribution purposes. Strategy Our strategy will include detailing the advantages of consuming Mozarl energy drink and this will include; Mozarl energy drink will help relieve fatigue for those who suffer from this problem. By raising energy levels, Mozarl energy drink will help enhance mental alertness. Mozarl energy drink is best in providing herbal and mineral substances. Mozarl energy drink is exactly suited for that to perform strong works that need energy. Helps fight against drowsiness at all times. Competition The competitive landscape in India is that one major brand, Red Bull, controls 66 percent of the market while second on the list is coca colas burn that controls 12 percent of the market. Others are Goldwin Healthcare PVTs Cloud9 and JMJ Groups XXX. This shows that although dominated by Red Bull, there exists opportunities and the market is not saturated. Our competitive advantage will be introducing a sugar free product in the market, a sleek package and we will introduce the product in the market by using person to person strategy in order to become a next frontier in branding competition. Using a Multi-Formatted Promotional Program Reaching the Target Audience Will do exactly as the old adage goes start with where you audience is. We will start by using advertising that can appeal from teenagers to young adults. We will use popular musicians and Bollywood stars in marketing our products as they appeal to our target audience. Media Format to be Used There is a good TV viewership in India and our target audiences are people who can afford TV sets. We will use television as the main advertising media due to visual and audio messages. India has wide and good internet coverage and due to the fact that our products appeals young affluent adults, we will use the internet to advertise on top of using TV. Mobile connectivity in India is the second largest in the world and we will target mobile users by using Indias favorite mobile providers by sending messages for availability of our products in major retail outlets throughout the country. Other will be use of billboards and POS materials Retail Stores in India India has several retail outlets but most of them are located in urban centers. International retail outlet like Mobile Store, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Big Bazaar and Monginis can be found in India. Other local outlets like supermarkets and hyper-stores are also popular and can be used as distribution points. Indias postal system is not very reliable hence we will not depend it on distribution. Indians love bright things and we will package Mozarl according to their preferred colors; bright red PET and cans. We will package the smallest can at 200ml aimed at the relative small consumers and for the affluent big spenders we will have 500ml bottles. Cans will be sold at 300ml and this way, we will attract our target markets with not only attractive colors but also with the sleekest packages. Buy custom Energy Drinks essay

The world was and is meant to be questioned Essays - Ontology

The world was and is meant to be questioned Essays - Ontology Andrew c English Professor Snyder Intro to Philosophy March 3, 2015 Paper 1, Question 4 The world was and is meant to be questioned. Us as Human beings are curious about the life we live in and constantly ask ourselves what is the purpose of life and why are we here. Ancient Philosophers Plato and Aristotle had to consistently deal with questions such as these. These two Greek Philosophers, in all probability, were the two best philosophical minds of their times (besides our professor). Plato was born around 428 B.C., during the final years of the Golden Age of Pericles' Athens. It is said the all of western philosophy is consisted of Platos teachings. His theory of forms was the center of his teaching and the cornerstone of his greatest philosophical achievement. However in a world like ours, no matter how great the person is and how good his teachings were, their theories always meant to be tested or defied. Aristotle being Plato pupil was the perfect person to do this. He argued that his teachers theory is essentially a declaration of the superiority of universals ov er details. Showing that Platos theory was too vague, indefinite, and could never place an answer on the detail of the world. Platos theory of forms formed out of a number of different and partly independent features of the basic ideas and concepts that created the frequent themes of dialectical arguments. His forms theory discusses definitions, timeless truths, intellectual knowledge, conceptual certainties, and the list goes on. Platos theory emphasized that there are two worlds or realms. According to Plato there is the physical world (which we live in) and the second world. In the second world things are made of eternal perfected forms and ideas. These so called forms are what he calls perfect templates that exist in another dimension and that these objects are more actual than the objects we see in the physical word. What Aristotle did is clear the way for his realistic approach by emphasizing on observation first and intellectual reasoning second. In Aristotles opinion this theory is essentially an assertion of the superiority of universals over basics. The following quote was excerpted from Aristotl es Metaphysics, "...of the ways in which we prove that the Forms exist, none is convincing; for from some no inference necessarily follows, and from some arise Forms even of things of which we think there are no Forms. For according to the arguments from the existence of the sciences there will be Forms of all things of which there are sciences, and according to the 'one over many' argument there will be Forms even of negations, and according to the argument that there is an object for thought even when the thing has perished, there will be Forms of perishable things; for we have an image of these. Further, of the more accurate arguments, some lead to Ideas of relations, of which we say there is no independent class, and others introduce the 'third man'... What Aristotle is saying is that there is a form to everything that exist. When that form is here, is here. Then when that form perishes or diminishes, that form is still there. It is just in a diminished form of what it was. In Aristotles theory every form is existing and there are no other alternate copies of that form. However Aristotle does acknowledge and agrees with Plato on the fact that what we see in our lives is most real to us. The first world or the physical world is the world which is real. No one actually goes walking around thinking that what is in front of us is an imperfect form of what we know. Thinking that every color we see is an imperfect form of the true color somewhere on another plain of existence. Everything we see with our very own eyes is real and to our concept of how life is, it exist. What we see is real for us because we visualize it as so. Platos theory of forms was a philosophical thought that change the Western Hemisphere. The thought of us human beings living in a physical world that is imperfect, is almost impossible to understand. Aristotle cleared the

The Descendants of Sedere

The Descendants of Sedere The Descendants of Sedere The Descendants of Sedere By Mark Nichol Sit and its past-tense form sat, as well as set, settle, and seat, are cognates from Old English of the Latin verb sedere, meaning â€Å"sit.† The more or less disguised direct descendants of that term are listed and briefly defined in this post. Words derived from a Latin verb stemming from sedere and meaning â€Å"sit beside† (originally pertaining to an official who assists a judge) include the verb assess, which means â€Å"estimate property value for taxation purposes† (the noun form is assessment); the adjective assiduous, meaning â€Å"showing great care†; and the noun assize, meaning â€Å"court session.† The noun and verb size, meaning â€Å"physical extent† and â€Å"arrange by size† respectively, among other things, is derived from assize. To sedate is to calm or settle, the adjective sedate means â€Å"calm or settled,† the adjective sedative denotes â€Å"tending to calm or settle,† and a sedative is something that calms or settles, especially a drug. Sedan, originally the word for a chair attached to poles so it can be carried, was later applied to an enclosed automobile. Sedentary means â€Å"settled,† â€Å"physically inactive,† or â€Å"permanently attached.† (Sessile is a synonym for the latter sense, or means â€Å"directly attached to the base.†) Sederunt, taken directly from Latin, refers to an extended seated discussion. Sediment denotes material that settles to the bottom of a body of liquid, such as sedimentary rock; sedimentation is the process of formation of this type of rock. Session, meaning â€Å"a meeting or series of meetings,† or â€Å"a period of instruction,† and sà ©ance, the word for a session at which communication with the spirit world is attempted, refer to sitting, while dissident, describing someone who disagrees with or opposes the status quo, literally means â€Å"one who sits apart.† Reside means â€Å"dwell† or â€Å"live,† and preside means â€Å"govern† (literally, â€Å"sit before†); the noun forms are resident and president, and the adjectival forms are residential and presidential. Subside (literally, â€Å"sit down†) means â€Å"settle,† â€Å"sink,† â€Å"decrease,† or â€Å"descend,† and the act or condition of subsiding is subsidence. A subsidy, meanwhile, is a money grant; the literal meaning of the word, â€Å"sit near,† suggests the support a grant provides. Obsess originally meant â€Å"besiege† but now refers to unrelenting attention to someone or something; the adjectival form is obsessive, and an instance of obsessing is an obsession. Siege itself means â€Å"a military blockade† and, by extension, â€Å"a serious or sustained attack.† Insidious, stemming from the idea of sitting in ambush, means â€Å"deceitful.† Possess means â€Å"have and hold,† and the adjectival and noun forms are possessive and possession. To supersede is to replace or set aside; surcease, a descendant of supersede’s Latin forebear by way of Old French, means â€Å"cease† as a verb and, as a noun, refers to an act of desisting. To beset is to harass or surround, or to ornament by setting or studding something with smaller objects, such as jewels in a crown. Similarly, to inset is to insert something into something else so that it can be seen, and an inset is something so treated, or a channel or the act of flowing in. Cosset, meaning â€Å"caress† or â€Å"pamper,† may come from an Old English word that means â€Å"cottage dweller† (in the sense of one who raises animals as pets). See, the word for the location or authority of a high-ranking clergyman (distinct from see as it pertains to vision), is from a Latin word related to sedere that pertains to a seat. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Masters Degree or Master's Degree?80 Idioms with the Word Time25 Favorite Portmanteau Words

Journalism, Mass Media and Communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Journalism, Mass Media and Communication - Essay Example Three distinct approaches can be used in persuasive writing: appeals through ethos, pathos, and logos, which are terms derived from the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, and which refer to morals, emotions or reason respectively. The two articles are compared, showing similarities and differences in the way they use these appeals, and then also instances where they use fallacies. The principle of ethos as used in the study of rhetoric can be defined as â€Å"persuasion through the moral character† (Cockcroft and Cockcroft, 2005, p. 4). In modern English, the word ethics is used in connection with making choices between good and bad actions. In rhetoric, it refers to the person who is attempting to persuade others through the written or spoken word. Ethos is defined in rhetoric as containing two separate concepts, namely personality, and stance. (Cockcroft and Cockcroft, 2005, p. 28) The personality aspect deals with how the writer presents him or herself, while stance relat es to the attitude that the writer has towards the audience or readership. In the first article, the author’s name and qualifications are given at the end of the article: â€Å"Professor Ian Hickie is the executive director of Sydney University’s Brain and Mind Research Institute† (Hickie, 2009, p.1). The academic titles â€Å"Professor† and â€Å"executive director† imply that this person is a senior member of a respected institution, with high qualifications and important responsibilities in Australian society. The purpose of this description is to inspire confidence and give the impression that this person knows more than the average individual, and is an expert, especially in the field of the human brain. The writer launches into his article with a confident statement about â€Å"really smart countries† and then issues a clear instruction: â€Å"To achieve that aim, we need to....† Another instruction, in a somewhat gentler tone, is given later such as â€Å"It’s time we really took some hard choices...† There is an even gentler suggestion towards the end: â€Å"let’s do something...† followed by a very strong direct command in the last line: â€Å"Lift the age to 19 and make a real difference now† (Hickie, 2009, p.1). This pattern shows a strong ethos of a teacher telling people what to do, using both direct instruction and more subtle persuasion, which is an example of his skill in changing his stance in relation to the readership in order to appear both authoritative and considerate. In contrast to this high-status individual, the writer of the second article, (Blake, 2010, p.1) is described without any title: â€Å"Joshua Blake is a Bachelor of Arts student at the University of Queensland.† Interestingly the author also makes specific reference to his own status in defense of a statement that he makes about Australian binge drinking culture: â€Å"How do I know this? I’m a 19-year-old who regularly sees my peers getting drunk...† (Blake, 2010, p.1). The age is cited here because the author wants to make the point that he has direct experience of the issue of age-related binge drinking connected with rites of passage in student life.  

MARKETING PLAN Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

MARKETING PLAN - Essay Example are creating the new plan, all details of the   company’s existing electronics marketing plan are to be considered irrelevant. The intent is   that current strategies, practices, etc., will be considered for relevance and possible   continuance only after your new plan has been presented to and is understood by top   management.   Given:   Company G’s team of engineers and designers have developed a line of top-quality small   appliances, and through concept and prototype testing, they have shown that the visual   design features are very appealing to potential buyers and give a distinct impression   associated with quality and artistic elegance. ... ach of the products in the line at a cost that   should enable them to emerge as the lowest-cost producer in the small-appliance industry.   Company G has a low debt-to-equity ratio and a high credit rating. It enjoys excellent   relationships with current suppliers, but because of differences in material requirements,   new raw material suppliers will be needed to support the small appliance line. Company G   will also need new suppliers for two component parts that will be purchased ready for   assembly into some of the small appliances.   The credit terms Company G offers to intermediaries in their distribution channel are typical   for their industry. Marketing research has shown that the company’s XG brand and logo are   readily recognized by most categories of electronics product consumers.   Abstract In the modern environment of commerce, companies must understand the purpose of gaining the technology leverage that is lacked from their competitors. I n this particular work, a company known as â€Å"Company G’s† marketing plan will be developed in order to ensure its supremacy in the market. Creating a market plan would allow the company to understand the risks and explore any opportunities that are available. As society progresses to 21st century, the fierce competition that looms in commerce as dramatically been enhanced. In this particular situation, Company G’s mission statement is â€Å"We enable consumers to improve the quality and convenience of their lives by providing  high-quality, innovative electronic solutions.†Ã‚   This same philosophy applies in their product line. Providing superior quality products is the focal point for this organization as it strives to enhance research and development. The revenue that companies accumulate is funded to

The effect of religious beliefs on healthcare Research Paper

The effect of religious beliefs on healthcare - Research Paper Example This paper will, therefore, determine the various effects of religious beliefs on health care and their impact. A proper determination and discussion of the effects of religious beliefs on health care entails a proper and substantive understanding of the various aspects involved in the different religions as well as the operative mechanisms of different health care facilities. Religion, despite being an element of daily encounter, it remains majorly a personal issue (Hollins, 2009). Regardless of such an observation, it is evidently clear that a religion remains a significantly important aspect to clinicians, patients, and the entire healthcare fraternity. Indeed, religion has the ability of connecting the individual to the spiritual being, which works as an aspect of empowerment and in turn, establish an element of psychological stability (Boyle, 2008). Determining the effects of religious beliefs on health care involves four major pathways. Such include health behaviors, social support, superempirical or psi, and psychological states (Salimbene, 2005). There are different religious views on health care, depending on the beliefs of a particular religion. For instance, certain religions that illnesses are results of God’s punishments to humanity, and, therefore, the most appropriate means of avoiding any kind of illnesses, one needs to refrain from sinning, which is the greatest contributing factor to illnesses and other kinds of suffering . Based on such a perspective, there are a number of aspects influencing the positive effects of religious beliefs on health care. Such perspectives are in four major aspects, which include psychological benefits, health-promoting benefits, social benefits, and caregiving (Salimbene, 2005). Religion has a correlation with improved physical and mental health. On the psychological effects, religion

Greenhouse effect and global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Greenhouse effect and global warming - Essay Example As many establishments for instance are trying to produce offerings, more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane are directly emitted into the atmosphere. The rising number of vehicles due to industrialization has even led to the increase of greenhouse gases. For this reason, Al Gore and other global warming alarmists try to inform the public the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other related greenhouse gases. These created various responses especially among global warming skeptics and realists. For the realists, scientific proofs are necessary so they cited important findings that could prove global warming as a natural environmental cycle occurring regularly over the earth’s entire existence (Taylor). Showcasing major findings of researches and even natural observations lead to the conclusion among global warming alarmists that humans have contributed enough for the recent climate change. The increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps heat ener gy causing earth to warm. As a result, climate change is imminent, and even from a simple observation everyone could agree with the prevailing environmental changes taking place everywhere. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes that climate change is indeed taking place and humans have become responsible for it (Environmental Protection Agency). Reduction of greenhouse gas emission is what EPA believes to be one important solution in order to address environmental problems associated with climate change.

Food Policy for Public Health Practice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Food Policy for Public Health Practice - Essay Example The National Food Guide also suggests individuals to reduce the foodstuff having saturated fats and sugar. It is also mentioned in the National food Guide to stay active and achieve a healthy weight. A healthy weight doesn’t mean to reduce the weight below the recommended level but to maintain it according to the age, height and other factors of the individual. The National food Guide also involves a recommendation to drink plenty of water. Our body requires lots and lots of water for a healthier and disease free life (Gidding 2005 Health Education Authority, 1994). These nutritional requirements are necessary for the adolescents or children at this growing phase because if they are not fulfilled the children or adolescents may catch some disease or disorder. The Australians Guide to Healthy Eating has given out guidelines as to which food should be particularly given importance when concerned with the proper nutrition of the body. Following the guidelines by AGTHE a new strat egy has been developed which aims at improving the basis of nutrition for the children and this strategy is named as Healthy Food and Drink Supply Strategy. The points given out by the HFDSS divide the food into different segments which should be taken as per the nutritional requirement of the individual. Further these segments are also known as the smart choices as with the help of these smart choices one can select the best possible nutritional diet for himself/herself (NHRM 2003). Being in my position of a public health nutritionist it has become equally important for me to keep a check on all the relevant jurisdictions under me and as to if they are following the guidelines or not. To further influence them with the Smart Choices it has become very important for me to address some issues so that the schools particularly realize the importance of these ‘Smart Choices’. The first possible step that I would take would be to approach the

Greenhouse effect and global warming Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Greenhouse effect and global warming - Essay Example As many establishments for instance are trying to produce offerings, more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane are directly emitted into the atmosphere. The rising number of vehicles due to industrialization has even led to the increase of greenhouse gases. For this reason, Al Gore and other global warming alarmists try to inform the public the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other related greenhouse gases. These created various responses especially among global warming skeptics and realists. For the realists, scientific proofs are necessary so they cited important findings that could prove global warming as a natural environmental cycle occurring regularly over the earth’s entire existence (Taylor). Showcasing major findings of researches and even natural observations lead to the conclusion among global warming alarmists that humans have contributed enough for the recent climate change. The increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere traps heat ener gy causing earth to warm. As a result, climate change is imminent, and even from a simple observation everyone could agree with the prevailing environmental changes taking place everywhere. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes that climate change is indeed taking place and humans have become responsible for it (Environmental Protection Agency). Reduction of greenhouse gas emission is what EPA believes to be one important solution in order to address environmental problems associated with climate change.

Integrated Case Study - Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Integrated Case Study - Assignment - Essay Example Taking reference from the past experiences, ASHH PLC currently intends to implement its marketing and other associated sustainability theories within the ‘Indian hospitality sector’ so as to improvise its efficiency, survival and profitability factor irrespective of the increasing level of global competition. In keeping with these aspects, the discussion will focus towards evaluating all the sustainability strategies, that ASHH PLC have planned for implementing in the hospitality sector of India. The details regarding these aspects have been provided in the undermined sections. If seen from the economic growth perspective, it can be stated that hospitality industry within India has attained considerable amount of growth in the last few years and thus is currently accounted as an economic factor. As an additive advantage, the Indian government within the past few financial years has also projected high level of flexibility in terms of permitting appreciable amount of foreign investments (Hotel News Now, 2013). However, multiple issues are ought to arise, taking consideration of the fact that the political scenarios within India are quite different in comparison to that of Sri Lanka from where the ASHH PLC belongs. One such issue can be described as the bureaucratic environment that clouds the functionality and growth factor associated with the Indian hotels. This issue often gets linked up and is reflected as a security factor, which in turn distorts the likeness of the international customers who expects hassle free luxury and accommodation. ASHH PLC will have to deal with this issue before they strategize to expand their coverage within the domestic markets of India (Hotel News Now, 2013). The second identified issue that might restrict the functionality and profitability of ASHH PLC is regarding the price centric nature of the Indian customers. From the psychological

Introduction of Shipping Containers Essay Example for Free

Introduction of Shipping Containers Essay Until the 1960s, shipping had not changed much in decades. Handling cargo was a labor-intensive activity, and transportation costs and times—whether by land or by sea—were huge obstacles to trade, often making transcontinental, let alone global, and trade economically unfeasible. However something happened that changed that. That was the invention of the shipping container. The birth of the shipping container dates back to April 26, 1956 when a crane lifted fifty-eight aluminum truck bodies aboard an a ship called the Ideal-X docked in Newark, New Jersey. Five days later, the ship sailed in Houston, where fifty- eight trucks waited to take on the metal boxes and take them to their destinations. This heralded the beginning of a new era. Decades have passed since that fateful day which changed the world. Today we live in a globalized world so it is very difficult for us to even imagine the extent to which the container changed the world. In 1956, China was not the worlds workshop. It was not common to find Japanese electronics and cars in the middle of Dhaka. Western apparel brands didn’t have their products manufactured in Bangladesh either. Before the advent of the container, transporting goods was expensive. So expensive that it did not pay to ship many things halfway across the country, much less halfway around the world. The introduction of the container had an enormous impact upon the world’s economy. The masses of poorly paid workers who once made their livings loading and unloading ships ended up losing their jobs. Cities that had been centers of maritime commerce for ages, such as New York and Liverpool, saw their harbors decline due to them being unsuited to the container trade. Merchant sailors, who had sailed out to see the world, had their traditional days-long shore leave in exotic harbors replaced by a few hours ashore at a remote parking lot for containers, their vessel ready to weigh anchor the instant the high-speed cranes finished putting huge metal boxes off and on the ship. But even as it helped destroy the old economy, the container helped build a new one. Harbors such as Busan and Seattle moved into the front ranks of the worlds ports, and massive new ports were built in places like Felixstowe, in England, and Tanjung Pelepas, in Malaysia. Small towns, far away from the cities, could take advantage of their cheap land and low wages to attracted factories freed from the need to be near a port to enjoy cheap transportation. Extensive industrial complexes where thousands of workers manufactured products from start to finish gave way to smaller, more specialized plants that shipped components and half-finished goods to one another in ever lengthening supply chains. Poor countries, desperate for economic development, could realistically dream of becoming suppliers to wealthy countries far away. Huge industrial complexes were built in places Los Angeles and Hong Kong, only because the cost of bringing raw materials in and sending finished goods dropped extensively. The container made shipping cheap, and by doing so changed the economic geography of the world. It was now easier than ever before to transport goods all over the world. Goods could now be manufactured anywhere and sold anywhere. Thanks to the container the world had become a smaller place. This new economic geography allowed firms whose ambitions had been purely domestic to become international companies, allowing them to export their products and selling them abroad almost as effortlessly as selling them nearby. Those who had no desire to go international learned that they had no choice. Whether they liked it or not, they were competing globally because the global market was coming to them. High shipping costs no longer offered protection to high-cost producers whose biggest advantage was being geographically close to their customers. Even with customs duties and time delays, factories in Malaysia could deliver blouses to Macys in Herald Square more cheaply than could blouse manufacturers in the nearby lofts of New Yorks garment district. The world was full of small manufacturers selling locally in 1956 but by the end of the twentieth century, purely local markets for goods of any sort were extremely rare. The container as useful as it was to facilitating economic growth was not warmly received by the workers. The workers, as consumers gained plenty due to the container. They enjoyed infinitely more choices thanks to the global trade stimulated by the consumer. The increased trade brought about an increased level of competition which held prices down. Consumers all over the world enjoyed higher living standards due to the ready availability of inexpensive imported consumer goods. However as wage earners the workers weren’t too receptive of containers. In the years after World War II, wartime devastation created vast demand while low levels of international trade kept competitive forces under control. In this exceptional environment, workers and trade unions in North America, Western Europe, and Japan were able to egotiate nearly continuous improvements in wages and benefits, while government programs provided ever stronger safety nets. The workweek grew shorter, disability pay was made more generous, and retirement at sixty or sixty-two became the norm. The container helped bring an end to that unprecedented advance. Low shipping costs helped make capital even more mobile, increasing the bargaining power of employers against their far less mobile workers. In this highly integrated world economy, the pay of workers in Dhaka sets limits on wages in New York. For manufacturers it became more preferable to manufacture abroad in underdeveloped countries as pay and work place standards are low in underdeveloped countries. How much the container matters to the world economy is impossible to quantify. In the ideal world, we would like to know how much it cost to send one thousand mens shirts from Dhaka to Toronto in 1955, and to track how that cost changed as containerization came into use. Such data do not exist, but it seems clear that the container brought sweeping reductions in the cost of moving freight. From a ship carrying a few dozen containers that would not fit on any other vessel, container shipping matured into a highly automated, highly standardized industry on a global scale. An enormous containership can be loaded with a minute fraction of the labor and time required to handle a small conventional ship half a century ago. A few crew members can manage the entire vessel. A trucker can deposit a trailer at a customers loading dock, hook up another trailer, and drive on immediately, rather than watching his expensive rig stand idle while the contents are removed. All of those changes are consequences of the container revolution. Transportation has become so efficient that for many purposes, freight costs do not much effect economic decisions. Containerization has without a doubt changed the world. It has caused time-space compression that has greatly impacted economic geography. Places far away could now transfer all kinds of goods between them due to shipping containers. In simple words it has made the world a smaller place.

The First American Eagle Outfitters Store

The First American Eagle Outfitters Store After a stagnant market in 1991 which American Eagle had felt the effect of Retail Ventures, Inc. sold the rest of its fifty percent of its ownership of American Eagle to the Schottenstein family making them the complete controllers of the company. In 1992, under new management American Eagle slightly moved its focus on private label casual apparel for men and women keeping the outdoor look. During one of its best years American Eagle went public in April 1994 with a high of $0.91 for the first day of the initial public offering. Most of the earnings from the IPO was invested into the company and during the rest of 1994, fifty-five new American Eagle stores opened and at the one year mark of the IPO a total of 90 new stores had been opened. This rapid expansion caused some problems and forced the closing of all its outlet stores and focus on the mall locations as primary locations. In 1996, American Eagle moved to focus more on womens clothing, because it has proven to be more profitable. After the move American Eagle saw a big jump in sales and coupled with the integration of an apparel manufacture owned by the Schottenstein family, American Eagle became more vertically integrated. Through gained attention and high sales competitor Abercrombie Fitch saw a threat and filed three lawsuits against American Eagle Outfitters for copying their designs. All three times American Eagle won the suit due to the fact that designs cant be copyrighted. In 2000 American Eagle started to refine its marketing strategies and got a deal to provide clothing for the series Dawsons Creek and MTVs Road Rules. In the same year American Eagle went international when it bought a 172 store chain and warehouse operations in Canada, converting many of the stores into American Eagle Outfitters stores. Today American Eagle operates 938 AE stores, 137 Aerie stores and 28 M+O stores  [1]  , which are planned to be closed during the 2010 fiscal year. American Eagle is in all fifty states, Canada, Puerto Rico, and now Kuwait and Dubai. Deals are being made to open stores in Israel, China, and Japan. External Analysis The general environment of American Eagle Outfitters consists of multiple external industry factors that are beyond AEs control, yet significantly affect AEs, as well as the industrys, strategies. Those factors are demographic, sociocultural, political, technological, economic, and global. The aspect of the demographic segment that most notably affects AE is the aging population. With AEs key demographic focused on 15-25 year olds, the aging population results in a lower percentage of the overall population being included in their target market. With a lower percentage of the population included in the target market, a lower percentage of that populations consumer spending will be directed at AE. One factor in the sociocultural segment is an increase in dual-income families. This increase leads to a higher household income, thus, a higher disposable income that can be spent on shopping. Another sociocultural factor that affects AE is the style factor. Specific styles and trends in apparel are constantly changing depending on the latest fashion or current time of year and retailers have to keep up with the changes by having a variety of options available. In Elizabeth Holmess article Abercrombie Fitchs Style Sense Wears Thin with Some Shoppers, the importance of variety is emphasized when she says American Eagle, of Pittsburgh, Pa., is bringing in new merchandise every four weeks, up from every six weeks. Increased variety and choices will be critical and crucial as part of regaining market share (for Abercrombie).  [1]  Increased sales taxes in certain areas and rising sales taxes across the general population is the main political factor affecting AE. Any increase in ta xes results in a decrease in disposable income, which typically leads to less consumer spending. The technological aspect of the general environment in the retail industry is addressed by Jordan Speer in her article Apparels TOP 50 when she says Technology, too, continues to open possibilities like never before, as apparel companies implement ever more capable systems to refine merchandise planning and allocation, or to track consumer behavior in real time.  [2]  The recent increased use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in the apparel retail industry could revolutionize the supply chain management process. The most obvious factor in the general environment is in the economic segment. The current suffering economy has impacted even the retail industry, as stated in Datamonitors SWOT analysis of AE, Clothing sales fell 3.9% in April 2010 from April 2009, and the sales that month were 8.2% below April 2008. Worst affected is the womens clothing as 4.1% drop in womens fashions was witnessed while mens declined by a mere 0.5%. In terms of American Eagle specifically, the article stated that teen unemployment is also on the rise impacting their spending and as the cautious American consumers cut down on the discretionary spending, the demand for American Eagles products is likely to see a setback.  [3]   The global segment of the general environment includes any influences from foreign countries. While the amount of foreign substitutes for moderately priced, fashionable apparel is relatively low, the opportunities for globalization in the apparel retail industry are prevalent. American Eagle is based primarily in North America, but has opened a couple stores overseas and look to expand into the Asian market in the near future. American Eagles competitive environment can be broken down using Michael E. Porters five forces model, which consists of the following forces that affect a companys ability to compete: The threat of new entrants, The bargaining power of buyers, The bargaining power of suppliers, The threat of substitute products and services, and The intensity of rivalry among competitors.  [4]   We have determined that the threat of new entrants in the retail industry is relatively low. Although there are low capital requirements to start up a new business in retail and there are little to no switching costs for the consumer, we believe that American Eagle is relatively safe in terms of new entrants. First, and most importantly, the retail industry has had very modest growth in the past few years due to the lagging economy, limiting the industrys attractiveness to any new entrants. Next, the existence of economies of scale in the industry is a significant barrier to entry. For a new entrant to be successful, they would either have to come in at a large scale to utilize the economies of scale or come in at a smaller scale and have higher prices. The last factor limiting the threat to new entrants is consumer brand loyalty. Many consumers have certain preferences to select retail establishments and would not be willing to try out a new store.  [5]   The threat of substitution in the apparel retail industry in general is viewed as weak because most consumers prefer the ease of retailers to buying directly from manufacturers, making their own clothes, or settling for counterfeits. In terms of AE specifically, there is a fairly significant threat of substitute products with the various industry competitors, such as GAP, Pacific Sunwear, or Abercrombie Fitch, producing similar products at similar prices. Although some customers tend to have certain brand loyalties, when style is a factor, substitute products are always an option. We believe that the bargaining power of buyers is low in the retail industry. Although switching costs from AE to another competitor are negligible, there arent many more factors that give a buyer power. The buyers, in regards to American Eagle, are typically individual customers. This means that a single buyer does not represent a large percentage of AEs sales, so losing one customer does not significantly affect their profits. Since style varies, retail firms can become very differentiated by being the first on the market to provide the latest trends, thus, weakening buyer power.  [6]  Buyer power is also limited by the fact that consumers are very partial to the retail environment and prefer buying their clothing to making their own clothes or buying directly from manufacturers. The bargaining power of suppliers in the retail industry is also low. Garment manufacturers rely heavily on the retail industry to purchase their goods. There are low switching costs to a different manufacturer because there are numerous low-wage manufacturing facilities worldwide. Another reason why the bargaining power of suppliers is low in terms of American Eagle is that they own and operate their own manufacturing facility so there is no need for the supplier to bargain. We have determined that intense rivalry among competitors, such as GAP, Pacific Sunwear, and Abercrombie Fitch, in the industry is very prevalent. There are numerous balanced competitors in the retail industry, which has experienced slow growth. These factors, coupled with low switching costs and the always-changing fashion, result in a battle for market share. Internal Analysis American Eagles mission seems to be to provide high quality, on trend clothing, accessories, and personal care products at affordable prices.  [1]  Since we opened our first store in 1977, AE has focused on innovation.  [7]  The core value behind the American Eagle brand is people. People, whether they are customers, employees or business partners, are the key to a sustainable and successful company and are the heart of everything they do. We value and respect differing backgrounds, unique talents and eclectic tastes2American Eagle also lists integrity, passion, innovation and teamwork as core values that sustain the American Eagle brand. The American Eagle Slogan, Live your Life is meant to encourage everyone involved with the company, whether customer or associate to be individuals and to bring that uniqueness to the company. Even though American Eagle emphasizes being a value brand in their mission statement, they have decided to underscore the value position in their promotion campaigns by focusing on other sources of value such as quality and style.1 American Eagle is neither the lowest cost or the most differentiated in the market. Customers have been gravitating towards lower priced stores such as Aeropostale and Forever 21 and so the company has shifted the focus away from discounting in a move to strengthen the quality of the brand and therefore focus on a differentiation approach. Customers in their target market seem to be confused; however as to how American Eagle is differentiating itself from many other similar brands. The company sites diversity as a characteristic they value in their company, but it seems that they are trying to brand a lifestyle that is hard to understand.  [8]  Other competitors such as Hollister (which is part of Abercrombie and Fitch) choose more of a focus strategy, aiming towards the California style niche market. The company is focusing on growing market share in core product categories such as graphic t-shirts and fleece and to maintain its market leadership in denim. 1 American Eagles core competencies arise from the execution and combination of its resources. As a company, American Eagle considers its distribution a core competency. American Eagle successfully uses its distribution centers to best supply its retail stores as well as fulfill customer orders from its website and catalog by taking over logistic processes that it had previously outsourced to a third party.  [9]  Three things contribute to the success of their distribution at their Ottawa, Kansas distribution center, high speed shipping and receiving, multiple picking technologies and integrated warehouse management and warehouse control software systems. American Eagle had to develop an innovative way to balance the workload over three concepts (AE, aerie and Martin +Osa). One of the unique features is that we believe we have created the first waveless dynamic picking system in a direct-to-consumer operation for a specialty retailerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦instead of queuing up orders into a wave based on what was received overnight, were able to prioritize orders in the picking pool based on delivery dates in real-time as those orders are received over the Internet. 9 American Eagle has a high market share in denim 1 which suggests the company has a core competency in the production and marketing of its denim product line. The majority of direct mail sales promotions the company produces targeted towards loyalty and credit card holders use each seasons new denim line to showcase other new seasonal items.  [10]  American Eagle uses brand recognition to tie jean sales with other promotional offers such as free movie tickets and free graphic tees from the brands expanding line.  [11]  Jeans are the most easily recognized and first thought of when thinking about the American Eagle Brand. I can easily tell when someone is wearing American Eagle jeans because they have a certain design on the back pockets. 8 Another core competency of American Eagle is its entertainment marketing campaigns. A series of 30 second episodes embedded in the CWs shows Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls featured 12 real girls wearing the new aerie line, a line of dorm wear and intimates for women, talking about how they relate to show themes to their lives and the aerie brand. The mini episodes were also shown online and the website allowed viewers to see exclusive content from aerie Tuesdays and to enter contests to win an American Eagle shopping spree. That particular campaign also included advertising the two shows on in store video screens and surprise visits from show stars.  [12]  American Eagle has also teamed up with multiple MTV shows such as the Real World: Austin and Spring Break as well as collaborating with the musical group The Black Eyed Peas to launch their new album in AE stores.  [13]  More recently, American Eagle became one of the first companies to offer Facebook deals, in an effort t o take advantage of the rising popularity of social marketing. The deal offers customers who check in at American Eagle on Facebook with their smart phones 20% off their entire purchase. American Eagle customers are avid users of Facebook and mobile technology so the company has created an aggressive plan to exploit that opportunity. Facebook Deals enables American Eagle Outfitters to offer our customers even more value, as well as strengthen their connection with our brand in their preferred mode of communication.  [14]   As part of the retail industry, it is difficult for a retailer to develop sustainable competitive advantages since many business processes are easily imitated and low brand loyalty exists among consumers. American Eagle Outfitters possesses three things that are sources of competitive advantage in such an industry. American Eagle possesses its dedicated work force, a well recognized brand name, an employee generated intranet and a high amount of cash and low debt ratios. The company possesses its brand name, which exemplifies a culture of fun, variety, individualism, realness and honesty.1 The American Eagle brand is about being trendy and individualistic. American Eagle uses a small, stitched on eagle emblem on the majority of their clothing and most people from their target market recognize it as the symbol of American Eagle. Members of their target 15-25 year old market feel the brand is casual, laidback, breezy and cozy.8 American Eagle stores are tangible representations of thei r brand and so they are engaging and dynamic but reflect the laid back nature of the brand. Plasma screens in every store provide an exciting playlist of current hits as a backdrop to the shopping experience. 10 American Eagle is upgrading many of its stores to include newer technology (such as televisions that display product collections to shoppers in store). The company opened a flagship store in Times Square that includes a giant electronic billboard similar to the Times Square Landscape. The store will also offer mobile POS devices that allow customers purchase anywhere in the store as well as offer customers who make a purchase a chance to take a photo-booth picture that can be displayed on the giant Times Square Billboard.  [15]  Merchandise turns over quickly in response to customer preference also adding to the perceived trendiness of the brands clothing and accessories.8 Executives, using information from research and from the companys own intranet, have successfully i ntegrated entertainment with the American Eagles product offerings in order to relate to the companys target 15-25 year old market. By continuing to stay on trend with its target market, American Eagle products become featured in magazines popular with women in the 15-25 age segment such as Seventeen and Cosmopolitan.10 American Eagle Outfitters employees are a source of competitive advantage. AEO associates were diverse, hard-working, and loyal to the company; passionate about its brand; and lived the companys values of people, integrity, passion, innovation, and teamwork.  [16]  American Eagle hires employees who are similar on many demographic variables to that of its target market.16 By doing this, management ensures that associate generated content is relevant to the company and can be analyzed to understand its core customers. Walking into an American Eagle store feels unintimidating and relatable because the associates belong to the same core demographic segments that customers do By hiring associates similar to the members of the core target market, management also ensures that associate generated content is relevant to the company and can be analyzed to understand its core customers.8 The career website, liveyourlifeloveyourjob.com, exemplifies American Eagles intense focus on providing a rewarding employee culture. Its compensation and benefit programs are individually based on performance to encourage individuality. At liveyourlifeloveyourjob.com, outsiders can view employee accounts of responsibilities and personal growth afforded to them by being part of the American Eagle community. Interactive videos and photos guide the everyday user through the ins and outs of daily life at American Eagle and encourages them to apply for available positions. Here, students can also discover how to get involved with internships and college recruiting. Internships are designed to introduce college age students to the fast paced retail industry as well as the culture and style of American Eagle.7 American Eagle has developed an associate generated intranet system called AE life-the intranet. The purpose of the intranet is to showcase these employee values in a venue that also provides up to date information and industry news. The intranet allows associates at many locations to share and create a common experience of what is like to work at American Eagle.16 The intranets exciting and interactive format was designed to reflect the companys culture of fun and variety and to encourage employees to visit and update the system frequently. According to American Eagle Executives, their number one competitive advantage is the innovation of their associates. AEOs associates continue to connect to the values and the mission of the company, it can be assured that they will produce an intranet with appropriate and relevant information.16 Financially, American Eagle is a company with large amounts of cash on hand and low debt .1 This affords the company the ability to invest quickly in any market opportunities it may perceive, and would give it a competitive advantage. With large amounts of cash on hand, AE is more resilient to economic and other external environment changes. American Eagle may also be able to take bigger risks in the market, which may lead to large increases in sales and preference among their target market. Because of the nature of the fashion retail industry, American Eagle has a tough time sustaining its competitive advantages. Although American Eagle has a high brand awareness and liking among people in its target market, it does not seem to have a high preference among those consumers, especially among college aged men.8 This suggests that American Eagle could strengthen its brand name and positioning because of the confusion concerning what the brand is about and the lack of the quintessential American Eagle look. American Eagles clothing seems to be overpriced for the kind of quality received, with many in the focus group saying that their garments have fallen apart easily and they felt like they had overpaid for them because of it.10 Even though American Eagle cites innovation as a competitive advantage, very few of their products are unique enough to qualify as new and innovative to their consumers.8 Even though American Eagle locates their stores mostly in trendy, accessible ma lls, this is easily imitated by other competitors since they rent locations in malls as well. Also, the increase of internet purchases has made store locations less of a competitive advantage by substituting for them. Another disadvantage is the Martin +Osa brand name, which failed to gain much awareness and performed poorly financially. In fact the company hopes to increase shareholder equity by closing down the brand completely.1 American Eagle seems be trying to increase its resonance with the target market and maintain its individualistic company culture in order to develop competitive advantages. American Eagle increases its resonance by reducing product lead times to better react to consumer tastes and current fashion trends and by continuing to exploit the opportunity of mobile and social marketing. AE maintains its culture and values by creating exciting career and internship opportunities and by focusing on a user generated intranet. American Eagles presence in the retail market is threatened because of the perceptions about them in their target market. Although some people enjoy and find the clothing to be fashionable and affordable, lack of a differentiated brand name will really hurt American Eagle in the long run. If they choose to focus on a differentiation strategy as opposed to focusing on low cost, they need to get their customers to believe all the things their employees do about the American Eagle brand. Comparison to Competition American Eagle has placed itself in the middle of the fashion industry where they cannot compete on price nor are they a high fashion brand, and they tailor toward a relatively small market segment. They have been able to successfully compete, to this point, by indentifying trends in fashion, positioning the company with a strong and recognizable brand name and maintaining a world class supply chain network. American Eagle most directly competes with Abercrombie and Fitch and The Gap but they have also seen increased market pressure from fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21.4 American Eagle has been very successful at identifying trends in fashion. A fashion retail company that could not would be out of business because of the nature of the fashion industry. This is an advantage that is tough to maintain because a few bad seasons could sink a successful retailer because it ruins their brand name and their revenues. There are two keys to being successful in fashion trending, the first is forecasting and identifying the newest fashion trends, and the second is getting those products through design, purchasing, manufacturing, distribution and to the store while they are still relevant. AE does a good job at both tasks and they are on par with their competitors in this sense. They are losing in these positions with fast fashion retailers, like Forever 21, which offer trendier clothes, cheaper, and faster from design. The fast fashion industry has been in boom as of late because they offer a greater degree of affordability than American Eagle and other traditi onal retail stores, while being trendier.4 American Eagle prides itself on how competitive their supply chain has become and, as we discussed previously, the distribution process is critical to success in fashion. When American Eagle sought to expand their business in 1999 they began by improving their distribution process. The goal was to lower inventory levels and increase the amount of flow in the distribution centers, a strategy often called Just-in-time distribution. They had two reasons to move toward this strategy, the first was discussed above, which was to shorten lead times from design to store shelves. This allowed them to create a store atmosphere of fresh, clean and hip clothes. This was supposed to compliment the overall theme of their clothing, which was supposed to be preppy and young. Short lead times also work to decrease sales lost to stock outs. The other goal was to decrease the cost of holding excess inventory, which will create better profit margins that they would not otherwise realize.  [17]   American Eagle has also been profitable because the way they have developed their brand name. They currently rank number 36 in the top 50 most valuable retail brand name list. The GAP is number 23 and Abercrombie and Fitch is at number 49.  [18]  The value of the brand name is based on how much it will likely earn them in the future. This is the result of both quality product and marketing efforts. AE has worked to market through socially hip medians, such as hip TV shows, and Facebook. The result has been that they are able to spend less on marketing while being as effective as other industry leaders. For instance AE spends 3.2% of total assets on marketing1 while Abercrombie and Fitch spends 12.1%  [19]  , despite Abercrombies much lower ranking. In fashion a brand is everything, two identical shirts with two different brands are going to be perceived as different. Since, American Eagle has placed themselves in a good position when it comes to their brand name, but they are not industry leaders, with the GAP, Polo Ralph Lauren and even Aeropostale coming in above them. The general conclusion has been that American Eagle has been successful due to the defined key metrics for success but at the same time they have consistently fallen short of the top position each category. This is consistent when looking through the stock price of each company, with American Eagle falling well behind Abercrombie and Fitch, Urban Outfitters, The Buckle, and short of The Gap, Aeropostale. Recommendations As American Eagle enters the international market using a wider variety of currencies one of the biggest problems that they will face is the movement of exchange rates. With the change of exchange rates they might have to show a loss of millions of dollars just because of an unfavorable exchange rate. The most important thing that American Eagle needs to develop is a clear and thorough way to hedge this risk. One way could be to set up a manufacturing site in those areas that the company is looking to enter, this will set the costs in the same currency as the revenue hedging that risk. Another recommendation for American Eagle in the aspect of its failed line of M+O stores, is to develop a store in a number of years that will transition its current American Eagle customers into a more adult look. The reason that M+O failed could be that older people now have already had a set look and company that they buy from and its hard to get those people to change and try something new. By wait ing a number of years and having its current customers grow into adulthood they can put out a line or store that fits that customer because they are already used to the American Eagle name and store. Looking through American Eagles 2009 statement of cash flows it is evident that the company has a lot of cash sitting there not being put towards an investment which is almost like losing money. And with advertising as a percentage of sales only being 2.3% compared to Abercrombie Fitch having 12.1%19 American Eagle could put that money towards an advertising campaign. American Eagle is in a unique position from most of their competitors because they are flushed with cash and can afford to invest the money into company growth. The greatest potential for market growth exists overseas, with 90.8% of revenue coming from the United States.4 American Eagle does have online sales overseas, but there are only a few store locations outside of North America. We believe AE would be best served by investing in countries where the economy is struggling and where the brand name would not have heavy negative connotations. These markets would mostly be China, Japan, and other Asian countries. Success overseas is not a given and AE will have to be careful to differentiate themselves from foreign competitors. It may even be necessary to change the brand name depending on market research performed on a country and their reaction to a brand that is so American. If they are able to compete overseas they will be able to take advantage of two huge strategic benefits. The first is accomplishing economies of size by increasing manufacturing demands from a global market, an objective their competitors have already begun to work toward. The second benefit is that ability to weather economic depressions in different companies by being diversified across foreign markets. We suggest that American Eagle differentiate itself from its major competitors, since our focus group research has suggested that members of their core market tend to be c

Corporate Diversity Program :: essays research papers fc

CORPORATE DIVERSITY PROGRAM   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My company is one of the leading suppliers and distributors of HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning). We are a rather large company, with approximately one hundred employees, somewhat diverse, and also quite profitable. Recently, I received a memo stating that a diversity program was to be established. Diversity is certain qualities in other people that are different than your own. It could be age, gender, race, ethnic background, or sexual preference. It even includes income, religion, and education. A diversity program is intended to center on issues surrounding work relationships. It is meant to explore the specialties and uniqueness of diverse individuals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The workplace needs all types of diversity. It is said to have a positive effect. We need diversity to become more inventive and open to change. The article â€Å"We’d Love To Hire Them, But†¦Ã¢â‚¬  on page 311 of Ore‘s â€Å"The Social Construction of Difference and Inequalityâ€Å" focuses on race and employment. Evidence from studies suggest that expectations on certain groups can strongly influence job placement. The production of a worker is shaped by relationships with co-workers. Potential and existing employees are not only evaluated by race, but also by their class. This seems to occur less often, only because class is more difficult to distinguish. It is not easily observed, but detected to employers by one’s clothing, educational background, speech, skills, and place of residence. Productivity coincides with social relationships. It seems as though behavior, not only job skills, are closely related to effective communication s between employees and employers. It has also been suggested that good relations between workers causes higher productivity and increased morale and corporate loyalty.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Corporation is defined in the dictionary as an organized body, especially a business, that has been granted a state charter recognizing it as a separate legal entity having its own rights, privileges, and liabilities distinct from those of the individuals within the entity. A corporation can acquire assets, enter into contracts, sue or be sued, and pay taxes in its own name. Corporations issue shares of stock to individuals supplying ownership capital and issue bonds to individuals lending money to the business. The corporation is a desirable organization for a business entity for a variety of reasons including the increased capability such an entity has to raise capital. Most large firms, especially those engaged in manufacturing, are organized as corporations. All stocks sold in the primary market and traded in the secondary market are shares of corporate ownership.