The 19th Century Prose of Nathaniel Hawthorne :: Biography Biographies Essays

Nathaniel Hawthornes 19th Century Prose Nathaniel Hawthorne, a master of American fiction, often utilizes dreams within the annals of his writings to penetrate, explore and express his perceptions of the complex moral and religious conflicts that plague mankind. His clever, yet crucial purpose for using dreams is to represent, through symbolism, the human divergence conflict manifested in the souls of man during the firm Christian precepts of the Era in which he lived. As a visionary in an extremely conservative Puritanical society, he carefully and successfully manages to depict humanitys propensity for sin and secrecy, and all resulting punishment or atonement by weaving dreams into his tales. The dreams he refers to in many of his writings are heavily symbolic due to his Christian foundation, and they demand that he views most dreams as a pigmentation of naive realism. Hawthornes ability to express and subsequently bring to fruition the true state of mans sinful n ature by parallelling dreams with reality represents not only his religious beliefs but also his true mastery of observation regarding the human soul. An examination of Hawthornes own biography in his short story, The Birthmark, produce in 1850 during the latter part of the period of Puritanism expands his observations of mankind with keen insight. Truth often finds its way to the mind close-muffled in robes of sleep, and then speaks with uncompromising directness of matters in regard to which we practice an unconscious self-deception, during our waking moments. (par.15) The prophetic statement was made by Hawthorne to open the readers mind and perhaps inject an introspective glimpse of his scene that dreams do indeed contain precursors or warnings of future conscious realities. He also contends that people often purposely disregard the contents of their dreams and do not face the realities that they are confronted with while in unconscious moments of slumber . Hawthornes writings are marked by intrinsic depth and a sincere desire to weirdy inside of the characters he has created. He accomplishes this objective by allowing them to dream. He makes his presence known by frequently commenting openly throughout his prose and interject a narrative of his assertions. Hawthorne historically has his characters confront reality following a dream, or he reveals that

Animal Farm and A Modest Proposal Essay -- Animal Farm A Modest Propos

Animal Farm and A modest ProposalAlthough Animal Farm and A Modest Proposal were written all over twohundred years apart, and one is non-fiction and the other is not,there are distinct similarities between the two. Both of the piecesare political, with Animal Farm based on the Russian Revolution, andA Modest Proposal based on the situation of homelessness in Ireland.Also, both of the pieces are satirical. Animal Farm ridicules theordinary Russian people for being gullible, and A Modest Proposalmocks politicians who ignore commonsensical suggestions and come up withextreme ones.In the build up to his speech, Old study first clears his throat, togain all of the animals attention. The fact that all he has to do isclear his throat to do this, gives the impression that he isauthoritative, and in control. We are given the idea that the otheranimals respect him.In the following paragraph, Old Major mentions a dream, but he says Iwill come to the dream later. The dream is the whole reas on themeeting has been called, and by saying that he will talk about itlater holds all of the animals in suspense. They are willing to listento what he has to say, to hear about the dream. He also mentions his at hand(predicate) death, which will gain the audiences sympathy, and again take for them listen. To guarantee that the animals are going to listen tohim, he says that he will pass onto to you such wisdom as I haveacquired. This makes it seem like everything he is going to tell themis wise, true and worth listening to.In the third paragraph of his speech, he is viciously honest, and worksup the animals, to get them angry. He tells them our lives aremiserable, laborious and short. This is the problem. He then tellsthem the sol... ...ing their bastard children alas Again though, Swift uses a stilt less exclamation marks than Old Major. This is mainly because hispiece is meant to be formal.Both Old Major and Swift use alliteration in the pieces to makethemselves sound stylish an d eloquent. In one part of his speech, OldMajor says as sure as I see this straw The repetition of the smakes certain(p) words in that sentence stand out, making his messagemore clear. Swift says Four females.Although Old Majors speech and A Modest Proposal were written overtwo hundred years apart, they both use very similar techniques anddevelopment of their argument to get their point across. Both of thepieces are politically based and satirical, both use formal andemotive language, differing sentence types and structures and insparse amounts, alliteration. This makes their arguments fairlysimilar.

The Individual and the Court System Essay -- essays research papers f

The Individual and the Court System - EssayThe Australian dialog box trial system is tell to hurl many merits and defects, and as Winston Churchill once said about democracy the Australian jury system is not a perfect system, it is just the to the lowest degree worst of all the others. In analysing the system several major strengths can be seen, but many weaknesses can be found also. It is a social function of great interest in the general familiarity and many people have written on it, ranging from past jurors to university students.Some of the main strengths seen are that juries have established philosophical and historical importance within our community. The jury system is a centuries old tradition of our legal system and in the eyes of the community it remain a vital expression of the importance of justice being adjudicated upon by ordinary citizens. Without a jury system, it is claimed that the liberties of individuals would be adjudicated upon by unrepresentative expe rts who would that remove the workings of the legal system from those it is meant to serve in the wider community. It is also seen that the random selections of jury members from a cross section of society ensures that the law remains adjudicated upon by a representative sample of society who can reflect the values of the community they serve. In recent years it is argued that juries have effectively express community attitudes on diverse matters including passive smoking, reckless drunk driving and self defense claims in murder trials by women who had suffered repeated physical and noetic abuse.The existence of a jury means that lawyers must ensure that their cases are presented in a way that enables community understanding of important issues and principles. Without a jury it is argued the evolution of the principles of our legal system would become increasingly complex and removed from the understanding of the community. In general the community is more likely to have trustin gness in the decision of a representative group of that community than one made by a single judge or a motor hotel appointed panel of experts.If the system was removed it would open the adjudication process of civil and criminal trials up to the possibility of political or monetary influence - the jury is a vital institution for ensuring that open courts remain truly open to public scrutiny. It is also argued by some that in diversity... ... and feeling it limited their ability to absorb evidence. "They matt-up that the barristers hadnt given them information that they required through the evidence," One juror mentioned that "It was a bit like being thrown pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and in that location were pieces that were missing and they had to fill those pieces with their own experience".It is arguable which side holds more sway, while it seems that the majority of published reports deal with the defects of the system there are a number of reasons for its cont inuation. This seems to fate that it unlikely to be abolished entirely in either civil or criminal courts. It seems to me that any changes that are to be made go out be focused on the wish for specialised jurors and the ability for civil juries to award damages. As crimes become increasingly more complex it seems that changes will need to be made to the system but it will be a heatedly debated subject when its change is made.BibliographyStructures and Systems, Willmott. J and Dowse. J, 2001, Western Australia, Politics Law createBulletin with Newsweek, 7/6/2004, Vol. 122 Issue 6428, p22, 4pwww.ebsco.com - Jury Problems

We Must Fight Internet Hate Propaganda :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

We Must Fight Internet Hate Propaganda This essay approaches the subject of the hostility to traditional American values presented by the internet. At a very deep level the world of the internet can sometimes seem indifferent and even hostile to morality. This is partly because internet culture is so deeply imbued with a typically postmodern sense that the only absolute truth is that in that respect are no absolute truths or that, if there were, they would be inaccessible to human reason and therefore irrelevant(1). Among the specific problems presented by the internet is the presence of hate sites devoted to defaming and attacking religious and ethnic groups. Some of these range church buildinges. Like pornography and violence in the media, internet hate sites are reflections of the dark side of human nature. And while respect for free expression whitethorn rent tolerating even voices of hatred up to a point, industry self-regulation-and, where required, intervention by public authority-should establish and enforce reasonable limits to what can be publically said. Church-related groups should be creatively present on the internet and well-motivated, well-informed individuals and unofficial groups acting on their own initiative are entitled to be there as well. But it is confusing, to say the least, not to distinguish eccentric doctrinal interpretations, idiosyncratic devotional practices, and ideological advocacy bearing a specific church label, from the authentic positions of that Church. There needs to be the development of an anthropology and a theology of communication(2) with specific reference to the internet. Christians, as concerned members of the larger Internet consultation who also have legitimate particular interests of their own, wish to be part of the process that guides the future development of this new medium. It goes without saying that this will sometimes require them to adjust their own thinking and practice. It is important, too , that all people use the Internet creatively to meet their responsibilities and help fulfill their mission in life. Hanging spine timidly from fear of technology or for some other reason is not acceptable, in view of the very many positive possibilities of the Internet. Methods of facilitating communication and talk among people can strengthen the bonds of unity between them. Immediate access to information makes it possible to deepen dialogue with the contemporary world. People in leadership positions in all sectors of society need to understand the internet, apply this understanding in formulating plans for social communications together with concrete policies and programs in this area, and make tolerate use of this media.

Buy Essays Online: Flaws of Society and Man Revealed in Odyssey

Flaws of Society and Man Revealed in Odyssey Society is formed around morals, but society is ruined by the flaws of the citizens. Man has come a retentive way since the time of Homer, thus far there are still many blemishes tumid in man, which binds man to society and society to man. Homer uses Odyssey to address and break apart these flaws of society and man such as mans dis devoteing spirit, mans survival based on others misfortune, and mans nature to gain unworthy assistance through pity. These vices are universal, and no one, not even the immortals, may eliminate them. One of the main flaws with man is their distrusting spirit. Even Odysseus himself, is distrustful of others when others have not yet proven their trust. Since Calypso has not yet proven her trust to Odysseus, Odysseus does not feel that he should trust her even when her intentions are pure. Because of his distrust, when Calypso was meant to send Odysseus on his way, he made Calypso paying back an oath and says, I will never, notwithstanding what you say, set foot upon a raft till you consent, goddess, to swear a solemn oath that you are not meaning to plot me further woe(48). Even with Calypso just being a messenger of the gods, Odysseus still will not put his trust in her. In order to allow himself to depend on Calypso, he must be assured by the gods that Calypso means no harm. along with people having to prove their trust, Odysseus takes away the trust he sets in others and the gods when he is doubtful of himself. Once Odysseus experiences self-doubt, then he undergoes a mental process in which no one may be trusted. This can be overcome once a god makes Odysseus believe in himself again. One of the most prominent ... ...s of mankind. It is then reasonable to conclude that the immortals themselves have imperfections as well, for if they were perfect then wouldnt they make the mortals perfect too? If perverted man is dependent on the bodge gods, then how could society ever be a utopia? Works Cited and Consulted Crane, Gregory , Calypso Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988.Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homers Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988.Homer (Translated by Robert Fagles. enter by Bernard Knox). The Odyssey. New York Viking Penguin, div. of Penguin Books, Ltd. 1996.Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993. Van der Valk, Marchinus. Textual Criticism of the Odyssey. Leiden A.W. Sijthoff, 1949.

Buy Essays Online: Flaws of Society and Man Revealed in Odyssey

Flaws of Society and Man Revealed in Odyssey Society is formed around morals, but society is ruined by the flaws of the citizens. Man has capture a long way since the time of kor, yet there atomic number 18 still many blemishes prominent in man, which binds man to society and society to man. home run uses Odyssey to address and analyze these flaws of society and man such as mans distrusting spirit, mans survival based on others misfortune, and mans nature to gain unworthy assistance through pity. These vices are universal, and no one, non even the immortals, may eliminate them. unmatched of the main flaws with man is their distrusting spirit. Even Odysseus himself, is distrustful of others when others have not yet proven their trust. Since calypso has not yet proven her trust to Odysseus, Odysseus does not feel that he should trust her even when her intentions are pure. Because of his distrust, when Calypso was meant to send Odysseus on his way, he make Calypso take an sw earing and says, I will never, notwithstanding what you say, set foot upon a raft till you consent, goddess, to swear a solemn oath that you are not meaning to plot me further woe(48). Even with Calypso just being a messenger of the gods, Odysseus still will not put his trust in her. In order to allow himself to depend on Calypso, he must be assured by the gods that Calypso elbow room no harm. Along with people having to prove their trust, Odysseus takes away the trust he sets in others and the gods when he is doubtful of himself. Once Odysseus experiences self-doubt, then he undergoes a rational process in which no one may be trusted. This can be overcome once a god makes Odysseus believe in himself again. One of the most prominent ... ...s of mankind. It is then reasonable to conclude that the immortals themselves have imperfections as well, for if they were perfect then wouldnt they make the mortals perfect too? If perverted man is open on the corrupt gods, then how could s ociety ever be a utopia? Works Cited and Consulted Crane, Gregory , Calypso Backgrounds and Conventions of the Odyssey, Frankfurt, Athenaeum 1988.Heubeck, Alfred, J.B. Hainsworth, et al. A commentary on Homers Odyssey. 3 Vols. Oxford PA4167 .H4813 1988.Homer (Translated by Robert Fagles. Preface by Bernard Knox). The Odyssey. New York Viking Penguin, div. of Penguin Books, Ltd. 1996.Rengakos, Antonios. Homertext und die Hellenistichen Dichter. Hermes. Einzelschriften, Heft 64. Stuttgart, F. Steiner, 1993. Van der Valk, Marchinus. Textual Criticism of the Odyssey. Leiden A.W. Sijthoff, 1949.

The Usefulness of Traditional and New Performance Measures Used in Nigerian Companies

USEFULNESS OF TRADITIONAL AND NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES SOME EVIDENCE FROM NIGERIAN COMPANIES BY DR. (MRS. ) S. L. ADEYEMI segment OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN ABSTRACT This paper distinguishs the incurings of a survey on the usefulness of selected handed-down and new death penalty measures used in some Nigeria companies that eat up latch oned a flexible manufacturing dodging. The results indicate that majority of these companies considered the new carrying out measures useful particularly among the larger companies and among those with 5 years or less of business line experience. tralatitious measures ar still useful, though to a much lesser extent. These results suggest that a combination of both traditionalistic and new measures would be needed oddly when Nigeria companies are going through the transition of implementing changes to their strategies from cost scarpering to flexible manufacturing. INTRODUCTION The combination of slower economic grow th and change magnitude competition has laboured firms in every industry to concentrate on efficient and effective deployment of elections. One result of these efforts has been the emergence of a new corporate position utilize to controllership.The controller is concerned with continuous quantity of a firms implementation. In order to carry out the measuring rod process, controllership focuses on the assessment of resources deployment and destruction attainment Numerous research initiatives puddle a bun in the oven identified the eminent correlation between superior exercises and the development and use of sophisticated assessment or touchstone capabilities. As early as 1985, A. T. Kuarney Consultants noniced that firm engaging in comprehensive performance realized goods in boilersuit productivity in the pluck of 14 to 22 percent.Effort has been expended by establishments to improve the character of information that their managers impart at their disposal to measur e, compare and guide performance. In most firms in Nigeria the traditional formats and travel reports are still in used. TRADITIONAL AND MODERN MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE AN OVERVIEW OF A REVIEW The traditional performance mensuration system has been knowing to report labour productivity, machine and capacity utilization, and standard cost variances.These are cost-efficiency-based measures derived from a strategy to minimize drudgery be, described as a cost leadership strategy, which is characterized by mass production of a new standard products musing s turn off engineering (hall, 1980 Kaplan. 1986). The modern manufacturing environment has undergone dramatic changes since the past decades mainly because of intensifier global competition, shifts in customers buying behaviour, and rapid innovation in manufacturing and information technology product.A cost-minimization and mass production strategy is no hourlong compatible with this new manufacturing scenario. Instead, issues such as responsiveness to customer needs, improving quality, reducing lead times, technological innovation and enhancing production flexibility have emerged as strategically more important to maintain competitiveness. Direct management to these issues is the essence of a flexible manufacturing strategy. (Nemetz and Fry, 1988). Despite this strategic re-orientation among the more progressive companies, performance bill systems have non kept pace with the change.The theory of organizational follow has been involved to explain this lag in making changes. The theory of organizational lag has been involved to explain this lag in making changes to focussing accounting systems of which performance system forms a part. According to this theory, administrative innovations in management accounting (and performance) systems tend to lag behind the technical innovations of manufacturing. This is because the potential benefits of administrative innovations are less certain and are likely to tak e more time to have any recognizable impact (Dunk, 1989).Failure to make complementary changes in the performance measurement system to fit with the companys new flexible manufacturing strategy whitethorn lead to dysfunctional consequences. As pointed out by Howell and Soucy, (1987). The manufacturing transformation in many companies has been slowed, if not set back, as antiquated sets of operating performance yardsticks promote inaccurate compendium, poor operating decisions, and inappropriate resource allocations.This paper reviews traditional financial measures of performance and discussed the potential benefits of incorporating new performance measures into the performance measurement system. The usefulness of these measures was empirically tested using a sample of Nigerian Companies that have adopted flexible manufacturing strategy. The bulk of responding companies came from the electronic and other high technology product industries (60%) Business experience was categorized i nto groups, as follows 5 years and below (7. 5%( 5-10 years (22. 5%) and 10 years (50%).TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES Traditional performance measures have been developed to meet the needs of manufacturing characterized by the production of standard products with high direct labour contest. Set ups are minimized to interpret uninterrupted production runs. In this way, labour and machine capacities merchant ship be fully utilized and the greatest possible output produced with a consequent decline in the overhead cost per unit of output. The competitive strategy is cost minimization, so variance reporting, overhead assimilation and capacity utilization measures appropriately take a hop this strategy.Variance Reporting The use of variance accounting for managerial performance evaluation has been criticized as counter-effective in the modern global environment (Howell & Soucy, 1987). This is because traditional variance analysis encourages dysfunctional behaviours such as allo wing inventorying to build up so as to show a favourable volume variance, and delaying machine maintenance, padding the reckon or shifting expenses between accounts so as to show a favourable expenses variance.Purchasing managers, for example, may act dysfunctionally by purchasing materials based on low price considerations at the expense of quality so as to show a favourable materials price variance. The consequences of inferior quality materials purchased are manifested in increased reworks, scraps, inspections and storage of defective parts leading to higher production cost and loss of competitiveness. The volume variance as a manufacturing indicator has been criticized since traditional absorption costing encourages excessive production in order to absorb the fixed overheads into inventory costs.Maximizing capacity utilization is necessary to achieve cost minimization. However, such a policy is short-sighted because any production in excess of market demand must be consigned to inventory and this runs counter to the just-in-time philosophy of maintaining a zero inventory with all its attendant benefits (Sadhwani, et al, 1985). Variance reports at the managers level are as well as too aggregated for meaningful interpretation. Moreover, the standard cost itself may be perceived the norm eliminating any incentive for product innovation.In this case an unintended signal has been put out which impede efforts to infuse a civilization of continuous improvement. Capacity utilization measures productivity improvement, automation and robotics have shrank direct labour cost to only a small fraction of the total manufacturing cost, whereas overheads have increased fundamentally. Despite these developments and the consequent impact on cost structures, reports from surveys in various countries indicated that companies have not responded in tandem with the technological changes (Schoch, et al. , 1994 Teoh, 1991).This has serious implications for production costing and performance evaluation as the continued focus on direct labour means labour is still considered a major driver of costs when it is no longer relevant. The result is the development of burden rates that are volume-driven, based on a diminished direct labour element. much(prenominal) a computed burden rate is artificially inflated due to the small direct labour base. Hen applied to an increasing pool of overheads, the incurrence of which may not be totally volume-driven, the labour generated burden rate can lead to serious distortions of the overheads absorbed into production cost.This is because of the unrealistic burden rate used which does not reflect the actual consumption of overheads by different products or processes (Kaplan, 1986). The overhead absorption measure gives rise to a distorted product cost analysis, so good performance is associated with products apparently showing profitable margins simply are actually incurring loses (Beckett & Dang, 1992). Thus an incorr ect signal about profitability is receivedEarned hours, as a measure of labour efficiency, is also deficient since it provides an erroneous signal to supervisors to maximize earned hours by keeping employees gainfully occupied regardless of market conditions. It would have been more beneficial in the long term to use the time for training or cross training of operators so as to move on their skills. The machine utilization rate, as a measure of supervisory performance, also suffers from a number of deficiencies. It encourages the excessive use of machines for large-scale production, resulting in an unwidely accumulation of inventory.Worse still, maximizing the utilization rate encourages continuous machine usage at the expense of regular maintenance. Moreover, the focus on utilization may lead to inadequate tension on quality. Short-term Financial Measures Although achieving profit and an acceptable return on investment are the raison detre for a company to stay in business, the t raditional focus on these performance measures however encourages managers to take a myopic view that emphasizes short-term results to the detriment of long-term profitability (Banks & Wheelwright, 1979).This is the gaming effect where management manipulates accounting figures to show favourable results or alternatively, builds in slack to ensure that budget targets (Merchant, 1985) are met. Reliance on short-term financial measures can lead to dysfunctional decisions since these indications fail to signal the erosion of a firms value if discretionary expenditures have to be reduced for short-term gains. Such expense is fact essential for new products development production process improvement, worker skills training and upgrading distribution networks and promoting customer awareness (Kaplan, 1986).Furthermore, profit measures represent outcomes that may not fully reflect managements effort (Drucker, 1964). Stated differently, total performance cannot be completely captured by Nair a profits. NEW PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT OBJECTIVES In the new technological environment, a flexible manufacturing strategy must be implemented that focuses on customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources practices. A performance measurement system designed to achieve the traditional objective of cost efficiency will be incongruent with this new strategy.It is necessary to redesign the system so as to reflect this change in strategic objectives. Customer Responsiveness increasingly, customers demand not only a better service but also a wider variety of products with improved quality and shorter delivery times (Northey, 1991). Customer responsiveness examines a firms relative ability to satisfy customers. Therefore, high customer responsiveness translates into greater customer retention, leading to longer-term.Profitability as the costs of acquiring and serving customers come down. Customers responsiveness measures therefore must be designed into the performan ce measure system. These include reporting on the number of customer complaints, warranty claims, and on-time deliveries, among others. As Eccles (1991) put it bluntly what you measure is what you get and what you measure gets attention, indicating that performance measures must be relevant to send the right signals for employees to achieve desired company objectives.For example, a system that evaluates how well customer demands have been convenient can better support efforts in achieving sustainable competitive advantage than one that emphasizes labour or machinery efficiency in internal operations (Beckette & Dang, 19910, Goldhar & chaplet 1991). Quality Quality measures, which are the most process-oriented evaluations are designed to determine the effectiveness of a series of activities rather than the individual activity. Quality refers to the degree to which a products specific features in terms of workmanship durability and so on satisfy the requirements of a particular cust omer.Poor quality can result to a significant increase in the manufacturing costs in various ways. As Howell and Soucy (1997) stated The absence of good materials, highly-trained labour, and well-maintained equipment will dramatically increase the costs of non quality such as scrap, rework, excess inventories, process and equipment breakdowns, field serves, and warranty claims. However, quality is usually difficult to measure because of the broad scope. A contemporary measurement concept that is increasing in interest is the perfect order.Delivery of the perfect order is the ultimate measure of quality operations. The perfect order represents ideal performance from an operational perspective, a multi-industry consortium defines the perfect order as one that meets the complete delivery of all items requested, delivery customers request figure with one-day tolerance, complete and accurate documentation supporting the order and perfect condition, that is, faultlessly installed, corre ct configuration, customer-ready with no damage. Operational and financial measurers to monitor quality include the manufacturing quality index (i. . defect rates), inventory levels, warranty claims, vendor quality, cost of quality and scrap cost. All these provide valuable feedback for identifying existing problems and assessing whether the quality objective is adequately meet. duration Reducing level times is also of the new manufacturing strategy through out, (manufacturing cycle) time measures the amount of time require to convert raw materials into finish products. Cycle time is the total value from the issue of materials into production to the delivery of the final products to customers.The theory is that the cost of a product is related to the time required to produce it. Cycle time variance therefore provides useful information about non-value-adding activities such as moving, inspecting, reworking, storing and waiting, that added to production costs as overhead charges b ut no value to customers (Alexander et al, 1991). Using throughput and cycle times as performance measures help managers to eliminate these non-value adding activities, considered as waste time, and achieve substantial cost savings.Thus, fit in to Lippa (1990) Shorter cycle times can result in less finished goods inventory, less forecast reliance, strategic capability when a firm reacts to customer demands high-speed than the competition and the ability to exploit opportunities). Innovation in todays competitive environment companies must continuously engage in product improvement be designing new and improved products with unique characteristics valued by customers. Only in this way are companies able to enlarge their market region and maintain a competitive edge.Introducing technological innovation and advanced design features into new products is costly initially and requires operational flexibility unlike cycle have unique characteristics (Ainikal & Teo, 1992) that will requi re performance measures tailored for this purpose such as turnover by products and product cost improvement. Human Resources The benefit of adopting a long-term employment policy is a loyal and committed workforce, resulting in productivity increases, reduced training costs, and improved customer services since this is provided by long-serving, presumptively more experienced and better-informed employees.A performance measure such as employee turnover is needed to help management assess an enterprises human resource availability and capabilities. It is against this background that the present theatre of operations has been conducted. In Nigeria, the trend toward high technology manufacturing is a recent event, partly motivated by rising costs and partly encouraged by the Government as a strategy to maintain a sustainable competitive edge. As companies automate or adopt advanced manufacturing technology, complementary changes in performance measurement systems must be implemented t o reflect the new manufacturing environment.The following sections presented the results of a recent empirical study CASE STUDY METHOD A questionnaire survey design was employed as an exploratory case study. The sample was drawn from a cross-section of companies in Nigeria that have implemented or are implementing changes in their production processes. Respondents were asked to consider the usefulness of selected performance measures. expedientness has been operationalized as the frequency of use of each measure. establish on a total of 200 questionnaires distributed, 36 useable replies were received, given a response rate of 18 percent.Response rates of this level were conformable with previous(prenominal) other studies of Ghosen el al, 1992 Petzall el. Al, 1991. Responding companies were classified by size musing sales turnover as the proxy measure, as follows N20one thousand thousand and below (7. 5%), N20 million N100 million (17. 5%) N100 million (75%). It was not surpris ing to find a higher percentage of response from the larger companies, because previous studies have found size as important determinant for a company to adopt a flexible manufacturing strategy (Schoch, el. l, 1994). EMPIRICAL FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows that at least 63 percent of respondents indicated their dissatisfaction with the existing performance measure system. As more and more companies turn to automation or other advanced technology for their manufacturing processes, it is not unannounced that performance measures originally designed for a labour intensive environment will no longer be appropriate.What is noteworthy is that 37 percent of respondents inform that they were either satisfied with the existing system (26%) or not sure see any need for significant changes to the system (11%). Many of such companies are currently going through the different stages of implementing changes to their manufacturing processes. So it may not be surprising that 37 percent co ntinue to rely on the traditional measures. TABLE 1 OVERALL RESPONSE TO TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURE FREQUENCY (EXPRESSED AS %) Satisfied 26 Did not see any significant change needed 11 Dissatisfied 63 perfect 100 Table 2 presents findings on the usefulness of selected traditional performance measures. These results are consistent with the overall findings above. For example, for five of the eight measures, the percentage of respondents indicating useful is also lower, ranging from 61. 3 percent for standard cost overhead to 41. 4 percent for earned hours, and these mark to the overall 63 percent who expressed dissatisfaction with traditional measures.As earlier indicated, not all companies have fully automated, so some traditional measures have been regarded as still useful, such as purchase price variance report by 86. 7 percent. TABLE 2 USEFULNESS OF TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES Useful not or Less Useful Materials price variance 86. 7% 13. 3% Standard cost overhead 61. 3% 38. 7% Scrap work out built into standard overhead 51. 6% 48. % Labour Reporting 58. 6% 41. 4% Earned Hours 41. 4% 58. 6% Machine Utilization 78. 8% 21. 2% Net Income 85. 7% 14. 3% Return on Investment (total assets) 50. 0% 50. % Average 64. 1% 35. 9% The new performance measures presented in Table 3 relate to customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources factors, reflecting the strategic objectives of the new manufacturing environment. There is overwhelming evidence that these measurers were found to be useful by most respondents. The overall average of 83. 7 percent compares favourably against the 64. 1 percent for the traditional measures. TABLE 3 USEFULNESS OF NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURE Useful Not or Less Useful Customer Complaints 88. 6% 11. 4% Warranty Claims 75. 8% 24. 2% On-time Delivery 93. 9% 6. 1% Manufacturing Quality Index 82. 4% 17. % take stock Levels 88. 9% 11. 1% Vendor Quality 84. 8% 15. 2% Cost of Qualit y 84. 4% 15. 6% Scrap Naira 85. 7% 14. 3% Throughput Time 91. 2% 8. % Cycle Time 78. 1% 21. 9% Waste Time 72. 7% 27. 3% Product Cost Improvement 70. 0% 30. 0% arsenal Turnover 88. 2% 11. 8% Turnover of Products 78. 8% 21. % Employee Turnover 86. 1% 13. 9% Average 83. 7% 16. 3% Cross-tabulation analyses were performed by company size and years of experience in business. Only significant results have been reported in Table 4 and 5. Larger companies found four specific new performance measures more useful than the smaller companies. On-time deliveries (X2 = 7. 92, df = 2, p . 05) inventory levels (X2 = 5. 98, df = 2, p . 05) throughput time (X2 = 9. 80, df = 2, p . 1) and inventory turnover to be the forerunners in implementing technological innovations, and so find new performance measures more appropriate. Smaller companies tend to lag behind in implementing changes, so adoption of these new measures is not as widespread. In table 5 significant results were fou nd for vendor quality (X2 = 6. 32, df = 2, p . 05) and throughput time (X2 = 5. 00, df = 2, p . 10). Companies with 5 years or less in business reported the new measures as useful compared to companies in the other categories, e supererogatoryly in regard to vendor quality longer established companies have developed special relationship with selected vendors and, consequently, vendor quality is no longer of major concern.In contrast, more recently established companies need to identify vendors who can meet the more taut demands in high-tech manufacturing, such as just-in-time deliveries and supply of quality materials. TABLE 4 CHI-SQUARE TESTS FOR NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES BY COMPANY SIZE Company sizing On-time Deliveries Inventory Levels Throughput Time Inventory Turnover N20m & below Useful 66. 7% 66. 7% 66. 7% 66. 7% Not Useful 33. 3% 33. 3% 33. 3% 33. % N20m-N100m Useful 85. 7% 71. 4% 71. 4% 71. 4% Not Useful 14. 3% 28. 6% 28. 6% 28. 6% N100m Useful 100. 0% 96. 7% 75. 0% 96. 7% Not Useful 0. % 3. 3% 25. 0% 3. 3% TABLE 5 CHI-SQUARE TESTS FOR NEW PERFORMANCE MEASURES BY YEARS IN BUSINESS geezerhood in Business Vendor Quality Throughput Time 5 YEARS Useful 100. 0% 100. 0% Not Useful 0. 0% 0. % 5 YEARS 10 YEARS Useful 88. 89% 77. 8% Not Useful 11. 11% 22. 2% 10 YEARS Useful 60. 0% 100. 0% Not Useful 40. 0% 0. 0% CONCLUSION AND SUMMARYEffective performance measurement and controllership are necessary to locate and monitor resources. As competency becomes a more critical factor in creating and maintaining competitive advantage greater attention must be given to strategic issues concerning customer responsiveness, quality, time, innovation and human resources factors than a cost-minimization mass-production strategy, in order that companies can remain competitive. To this end, a performance measurement system capable of meeting these strategic objectives also must be in place. This study reported the findings of a surve y on the usefulness of selected traditional and new performance measures used by Nigerian companies that have adopted flexible manufacturing strategy.The results indicated that the majority of these companies considered the new performance measures useful particularly among the larger companies and among those with 5 years or less of business experience. Traditional measures are found to be still useful, though to a smaller extent, as companies are going through a transition of implementing changes to their manufacturing strategies. REFERENCES Alexander, G. , G. Gienger, M. Harwood and P. Santomi (1991). The refreshed Revolution in Cost Management, Financial Effective, November/December, pp 5-9. Ainikal, J. and H. Y. Teoh (1992), Overhead Allocations and Product feeling Cycle Emphasis The New Zealand Situation, report Journal (NZ), April, pp 69-71.Banks, R. L. and S. C. Wheelwright (1979), Operations vs Strategy Trading Tomorrow for Today, Harvard Business Review, May/June, pp. 112-120. Beckett, W. K. and K. Dang (1992), Synchrous Manufacturing New Method, New Mind-Set The Journal of Business Strategy, January/February, pp 5-6 Drucker, P. (1964), Control, Controls and Management in C. P. Bonini, R. K. Jaedieke and H. M. Wagner, Management Controls New Directions in Basic Research McGraw. Dunk, A. (1989), Management Accounting Lag, Abacus, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 149-155. Eccles, R. (1991), The Performance Manifesto, Harvard Business Review, January/February, pp. 11-17. Ghosh, B. C. S. K. Teo and A. M. Low (1992), Factors Contributing to the Success of Local SMEs An Insight from Singapore, Proceedings of ENDEC World Conference on Entrepreneurship Challenges for the twenty-first Century, pp. 574-585 Goldhar, J. D. & D. Lei (1991), The Shape of Twenty-Frist Century Global Manufacturing, The Journal of Business Strategy, March/April, pp. 1-41. Hall, W. K. (1980), Survival Strategies in Hostile Environment, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 58, No. 5, pp. 75-85. Howe ll, R. A. and S. R. Soucy (1987), Operating Controls in the New Manufacturing Environment, Manufacturing Accounting (USA), October, pp. 25-31. Kaplan, R. S. (1986). Accounting Lag The Obsolescence of Cost Accounting System, California Management Review, Winter, pp. 174-199. Lippa, V. (1990), Measuring Performance with Synchrous Management, Management Accounting (USA), February, pp. 54-59. Merchant, K. (1985), Budgeting and the Propensity to Create Budgetary Slack, Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 10, pp. 201-210. Nemetz, P. L. and L. W. Fry (1988), Flexible Manufacturing Organizations Implications for Strategy Formulation and Organization Design, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 627-638. Northey, P. (1991), Cut Total Costs with Cycle Time Reduction, CMA Magazine, February, pp. 19-22 Petzall, S. , S. K. Teoh and R. D.Johnson (1992), Leadership in the Singapore Small Business, Proceedings of ENDEC Conference on World Entrepreneurship Challenges for the 21st Century, pp. 143-151. Sadhwani, A. T. M. H. Sarhan and D. Kiringode (1985), Just-in-time An Inventory System Whose Time Has Come, Management Accounting (USA), December, pp. 36-44. Schoch, H. P. H. Y. Teoh, M. H. Lee and K. B. Ang (1994), Activity-Based Costing in the Electronics Industry, Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, January- March, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 28-37. Teoh, H. Y. (1991), Discretionary or Non-Discretionary Costs Managing Ballooning Indirect Costs in a Profitable Manner, 7th National Accounting Conference, Kuala Lumpur, September, pp. 18-19.

Why I am ready to be a Non Commissioned Officer? Essay

This impersonal comment defines in a few words what a NCO is ( Kautz. 2001 ) . To me this definition encompasses a whole batch more. Ever since my childhood. I showed leading qualities. As a child. I was more interested in taking my friends in a footb exclusively game. during or so competition or any type of competition alternatively of the humdrum of my scientific discipline. geometry and English linguistic communication books. My parents despaired only if I come from a household where of all timey kid is encouraged to happen their ain personal niche and tantrum into society through it.After some clip. even though I was a better than mean pupil started to believe that I would make good in a occupation where I could learn others by illustration and use both my encephalon and muscle. I proudly admit that I am a nationalist. The sight of the Washington register and the White House. both important landmarks of our state have never failed to convey cryings to my eyes ( Winkler. 1998 ) . I believe my state was won after great adversities by our sires and it is our responsibility as its citizens to look after it.And I believe because of both my innate leading qualities and my love for my great states. I am ready to be a Non-commissioned officer. I to the full understand the responsibilities associated with going a NONCOM as it is known in some circles. Non commissioned officers are frequently referred to as the anchor of the armed services and I understand the of import deduction of this definition ( Fisher. 2007 ) . I would hold to be the primary leader for the majority of the enlisted corps.This would nail down full duty or what I consider waxy heads ( Salinas. 2008 ) . I pray I can learn them non merely by words except by my illustration. I would hold to be really careful with my each and every measure cognizing that any incorrect measure of mine can non grow down my image in the heads of my juniors but besides mark my countrys name to dishonor which is something. I being so loyal. may neer be able to populate with. I would besides be responsible for put to deathing military missions and developing military forces in order to fix them to put to death their missions.This to me seems an even bigger duty in visible radiation of the recent universe events and the menace to universe peace which many peaceable states cheek from a minority of extremists. I would hold to be argus-eyed in my responsibilities and judge to fix the male childs for what I know to be tough conditions for them the likes of which near of them can neer even conceive of. I will seek to transfuse in their heads that it is non a mere kid of an enemy that we face but a deadly enemy and it is our and or responsibility merely to protect the citizens of our state for them.I besides understand how delicate military missions can be and I will seek through my experience and surveies to do certain that non even one error takes topographic point or at least a error which ca n set the mission to hazard. I understand that I am besides to be a nexus between the majority of the enlisted forces and the officers in any military organisation. Messenger or concatenation functions as they seem to me are peculiarly really delicate because both of the parties can all of a sudden be at odds with each other over fiddling or apparently everyday issues.I will seek my best to transfuse in the military forces a sense of regard for their higher-ups and for the higher-ups to really care about the well being of their juniors. I have ever believed that the ground forces hierarchy has a certain beauty to it. Where else would we see an ordinary adult male move through different ranks such as Corporal. police sergeant. Staff-Sergeant. Sergeant First Class. Master Sergeant. First Sergeant. Sergeant Major. Command Sergeant Major and Sergeant Major of the Army. To most people. these stations may look really mutually exclusive but to me this represents a calling way ( Thompson. 2006 ) .To be an officer of any organisation. non merely the ground forces requires mammoth dedication. unexcelled accomplishments. good instruction and a crispen head. I believe I have all these regardless of my immature age and I am ready to turn out this to the universe. Mentions Kautz. A. ( 2001 ) . Service for Non-Commissioned Officers. Fisher. younger ( 2007 ) . Guardians of the Republic. Thompson. ( 2006 ) . How Long Is the Night. Salinas. J. ( 2008 ) . All were Valiant Winkler. ( 1998 ) . Future Leader Development of Army Noncommissioned Officers

Observation and Description

The instructor used iridescent manipulative materials, visual aids, bang projector, projector screen, blackboard, and chalk in t distributivelying equivalent fractions.The students ga in that respectd their desk together and worked in groups. on that point were four students in each group. Each group member has colorful fraction pieces of paper in a plastic bag to help them perform the Mathematical activities on equivalent fractions.The classroom is spacious and there argon shelves filled with tuition materials. There is also a television set above the blackboard. The classroom is well lighted, orderly and the purlieu is conducive to learning.b. Describe the discover teaching situation in television receiver 2.Students worked in groups. There are three students in each station. Every station has a variety of activities intentional to help students learn the concepts of geometry. Students tolerate used the resources available in the station in learning geometry.The classroo m is spacious, orderly and well lighted. There are nigh(prenominal) learning materials inside the classroom. The environment is conducive to learning.c. Describe the observed delivery of instruction in movie 1.The instructor has an organized way of preparing the class for the lesson. originally presenting the lesson, the teacher instructed her students to get the materials needed for the Math lesson such as fraction pieces of paper and notebooks. Then, she asked them to put all the colors of the fraction pieces of paper together so they could easily use the materials.The teacher was able to give instructions in a clear manner. She initially used her manipulatives and the overhead projector to demonstrate how to find bingle half of the circle. This prompted the students to follow what she did and discover antithetical combinations of one half using their fraction pieces of paper.d. Describe the observed delivery of instruction in video 2.The teacher allowed the students to dis cover the principles of geometry on their own. She went to the stations to observe and check on what the students are doing. She guided some students and tell them how other students approach the problem and work on the activities. Probing was also done when she asked the students this one connects to that vertex, is there another one that this one could be connected to? All instructions given by the teacher were clearly understood by the students.There was a good follow-up on what the students project learned when the teacher asked some students about the types of information that they pass water used to describe the shapes, and what they make water discovered when the vertices were connected. In addition, she also had a good control of the flow of lesson and classroom situation when she asked the student, who was busy working on the activities in the tangram station, to write a reflection on what they have learned. The teacher also expressed appreciation on the effort of the st udents.e. Describe student fundamental interaction with the observed instruction in video 1.After the teacher demonstrated how she was able to get the equivalent fractions using her manipulatives, the students use the fraction pieces of paper that they have and they were able to work on their own in discovering the equivalent fractions.The teacher went around the group to ask questions as students work on their fraction pieces of paper. There were positive interactions between the teacher and the students.f. Describe student interaction with the observed instruction in video 2. Students had positive interactions with their classmates and with the teacher. They spoke and listened to one another, shared what they have discovered, considered the ideas of their classmates, and sometimes agreed or disagreed with their ideas.Each member of the group contributed to the learning process. They shared the resources found in their respective stations.Analysis, Exploration, and Reasoninga. Expl ain the pedagogical single-valued function of the observed teachers lesson in video 1.The teacher has used modeling when she initially demonstrated how to discover the equivalent fractions. The cooperative learning system has encouraged small groups of students to work together and discover the different combinations of equivalent fractions using the fraction pieces of paper.While working in groups, the active learning environment was established and students learn by performing the activities, discussing their work with their group mates and seeing different combinations of fractions that their group mates have done.b. Explain the pedagogical enjoyment of the observed teachers lesson in video 2.The teacher has used cooperative learning in grouping students in each station. The activities in each station were structured to help students learn geometry through their own find and to make them fully engaged in the learning process.The teacher made some observations, listening and i ntervening whenever necessary so students can meet the goal in learning the concepts of geometry. Students have hands-on learning experience, good interaction and cooperation as they share their ideas with their classmates and use the resources that are found in the stations. This encourages retention of the lesson and appreciation of learning.c. Analyze the observed teachers workable purpose for using a specific strategy in video 1.Math is a subject that a lot of students fear and do not appreciate. The teacher has used her creative thinking in utilizing manipulatives in teaching fractions to make the lesson interesting to the students.A lot of students are visual learners and the mathematical activities involving the use of colorful manipulatives and overhead projector as visual aids and fraction pieces of paper for hands-on learning develop eye-hand coordination and critical thinking.d. Analyze the observed teachers possible purpose for using a specific strategy in video 2.The a ctivities that were structured in every station were observed to be in various levels of difficulty. Learning about shapes is easy, connecting the vertices and discovering if there are similarities between the number of vertices and the number of lines connecting them has an average level of difficulty. The tangram station is challenging because students are required to put the polygons together to form some patterns.The possible purpose of using the cooperative learning strategy is to allow students to work at their own pace and within their intellectual capacity. Asking students to write what they have learned in each station is a good way of checking whether they find the lesson interesting or if they are ready to move to a different station in their next lesson.e. Analyze the impact of the observed teachers instructional strategy on student learning in video 1.Students were performing the activities in fractions without realizing that they were adding, subtracting, or multiplyin g numbers to discover equivalent fractions.Cooperative learning allowed students to work with other students and gain knowledge through their own discovery while interacting with their teacher and with other members of the group.f. Analyze the impact of the observed teachers instructional strategy on student learning in video 2. All students were fully engaged in the activities. Cooperative learning led students to engage in a lot of discussions, sharing of ideas and critical thinking.Students are learning the principles of geometry through hands-on activities. They also learn through exploration and discovery. With the variety of activities, students are not bored and they appreciate the lesson.

Journey to the Center of the Earth Essay

Based on one computer natural novel, write about an important lesson that you have learnt. An important lesson that I learnt from the graphic novel, Journey to the pump of the Earth is that we should never give up and have confidence in ourselves. Professor Lidenbrock felt very excited when he entrap the document about how to breed to the centre of the earth. He wanted to learn about what lies beneath our feet. although getting to the centre of the earth was not going to be easy, he still went because he was a determined man. Although the journey was fraught with difficulties he never gave up because he had confidence in himself. In the shutting the journey was a success.Based on one graphic novel, write about a happy event. A happy event in the graphic novel of A Journey to the centre of the Earth is when the Professor, Axel and Hans managed to come out of the earth uninjured and alive. They could have easily when been hurt or died as they were lone(prenominal) on a raft and were thrown out of an erupting volcano. They estate of the realmed uninjured in Sicily which is 3,000 miles away from Iceland where they started their journey. It is a happy event as they had successfully journeyed to the centre to the earth and lived to tell the tale of their adventure.Based on one graphic novel, write about an event that you cannot allow in the novel. An event that I cannot forget is when Axel passed out because they had run out of water. Hans, their guide then left Axel and the Professor. When Axel woke up he looked for Hans. When he could not find Hans he thought that Hans had deserted them,. merely an hour later Hans returned. He then told them that he found water. Axel was very grateful to him. This is an unforgettable incident because although Hans could have easily left them he did not. He was a good and responsible guide.Based on one graphic novel, write about a character you sympathise. The character that I sympathise is Axel Lidenbrock. He is Professor Otto Lidenbrocks nephew. When the professor wanted to figure out what the runic symbol in the document by the famous explorer, Arne Saknussem meant he forced Axel to aid him. He said both he and Axel will not eat or sleep until they find the meaning. Later when they find out that the document shows how to get to the centre of the earth the professor forces Axel to go with him. I think as an uncle, the professor is a bully and I sympathise with Axel because he is not wedded a choice by his uncle.Based on one graphic novel above, write weather you equivalent or do not like the ending of the story. I did not like the ending because I think it is a bit ridicuious. The explorers think they are going to die because they are on a raft in a volcano and the temperature is steadily increasing. The water begins to boil and their raft rises and finally when the volcano erupts the explorers are thrown out of the volcano. They land in Sicily, a country 3,000 miles away from Iceland. I think i f they were in a volcano that was going to erupt they would have died. Therefore I notice the ending is illogical and I did not like it.Based on one graphic novel above, write an elicit event. An interesting event in the graphic novel, Journey to the centre of the Earth is when the explorers are caught in an electrical storm. They were travelling in an underground sea on a raft do by Hans. Suddenly the raft was hit by an electrical storm. Axel nearly died but luckily he survived. The explorers landed on a beach. The compass showed that they were thorn where they started. However the professor did not give up and said it was time to travel across the dangerous sea again. I found the event interesting as it showed that the professor does not give up easily.

Mukcrakers 5.02

1. Define the term Muckraker. Be sure to include the name of the someone who created it -Muckrakers were the Statesn journalists and novelists of the 20th century who exposed corruption in government and businesses. The term was created by Theodore Roosevelt. 2. Naturalism was a literary movement of the late nineteenth century that was an extension of Realism. What was the main focus of the Naturalistic writer? -The main focus of the Naturalistic writer was the fringes society, the criminal, the fallen, and the down-and-out 3.American Realists believed that humanitys freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. How would this view differ from the perspective of the Romantic writer (think of someone like Emerson)? -Romantic writers believed that all people were encouraged torward self-development, and that everyone is valued as individuals from birth. They similarly believed in expressing themselves in musical modes that they chose, like art, and all kinds of expr ession. 4. Inyouropinion, based on what you have read, why would post Civil War, newly industrialized America be attracted to the Realistic movement? It was an age of reform. There was so sugar coating things. The south was destroyed, newly frees blacks were in poverty, and the economy was bad. Change was happening solely everything wasnt lollipops and daises. 5. What is meant by the term local color? -Local color is also called regional literature. It is fictional literature about a certain region, which means the characters the way they talk and live would all be they way things are in that specific region.

Globalization Essay

Effects of Globalization As Candied said (a character created by Voltaire), we must wreak our garden. Globalization ca go fors diversity amidst cultures because unfortunately thank to world(prenominal)ization, the origination channelizes negatively day by day and also cultures are shaped according to this change. In todays world we have to range ourselves In order to exist in society, Cooperation in cultures helps to follow this change and creates new identities. According to Tyler Cowmen, globalization has a heathenish benefits for society but in contrast Dry. Stranger argues that globalization creates a monot wholeness identities which concourse want to attain It.Thus, this change which we call cross-culture has both negative and prescribed side and from my pose of hitch, Its true that cross-culture has positive effects for creating diversity in cultures but by a majority, globalization has a negative side on us as Dry. Stranger claims. Societys perspective determine wom en and men roles in society. Before the period of globalization there was a definitive offer between genders. Thus, thanks to globalization, societys point of view changes on man and women positively. Before, women have to look beautiful, made-up and have specific body size of it which makes them all seem bland and plastic like Barry dolls.They dont have right to work because they are fragile, naive and emotional but In contrast, man has to be a bread winner because they are strong, not sensitive and independent. Therefore Simons De Behavior (French philosopher) used Hedges description of the master-slave dialectic. She compared the call master and slave with subject and other. She claims The subject Is the absolute. The other Is the inessential. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2010) Therefore she argues hat there is a huge inequality between genders and this inequality model women into the background.However, after the French revolution, the world started to change. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France was over people became aware of what they were and what they can do. Thus, this revolution caused a big change in Europe, afterwards this revolution, Europe had entered into three revolutions and the most effective one was is the industrial revolution. Thanks to the industrial revolution, society perspective was shaped differently because states started to cooperate between all(prenominal) other. As a conclusion, society needs more labor and this event caused a change in gender roles.Women may also place in the work place which reduces the inequality between man and women. Also this is a revolution of new identities because we act our social roles how society wants. This revolution causes a change in social perspective, culture, so peoples view Is also change which creates new identities. After all. People developed themselves. As Tyler Cowmen claims Look at a book and ask yourself, where does paper come from, where does printing come from, where do the ideas in the book come from? Whats the religious background of the motive? ( real Creative Destination August,2003) Thanks to revolution, Europe made a trade between each other which caused a diversity in cultures. They changed all their view in every subject especially in gender roles. Thus, this interaction caused a change in whole world. People became more open-minded and they cultivate Off Cowmen affirms, these discoveries created more comfortable lives. Consequently, Im agree with the idea that interaction lead to the development of personality. Its true that globalization has a positive side as has been illustrated, but in my opinion, costly, it has a negative side.For instance, the inequality between rich and poor increases. The Rich get richer and poor get poorer. stinting power causes this difference which influences the culture. Its indispensable that people should protect their own traditions but globalization cause a personnel casualty of heathen identiti es. Most of the world tries to act according to American lifestyle because America has all the economic, politic power. Therefore, globalization can lift people out of poverty but the inequalities between groups get stronger. People wear aforementioned(prenominal) clothes same shoes and eat same foods such as fast food.They follow same trends and same dream so as Dry. Stranger claims As humans we naturally measure ourselves to those around us, but now we live in a global village we are comparing ourselves with the most significant people in the world and finding ourselves wanting. (Bates, 2011). Accordingly, this global village which Dry. Stranger mentions causes a damage of cultural identities because we act and evaluate to be like a dominant culture. In fact, we dont want to be like a dominant culture. They draw in us to be like them, they manipulate our brains so they make pressure on us that we should act according to their rules.For representative George Orwell explains th is situation in one of them his books which is 1984. In 1984, he creates a character which he entitles Big Brother who is a dictator of his own state and he forces his people to obey them. He manipulates their brains and he gives a role to play for existing in society. Thus these people loss their identity also their personality as we do. The another example is sasss Turkey which we experienced the period of wrong westernizes due to media and literary influence. In sasss all of Turkish people try to live like Europe.However, their lifestyle is not laid for our culture so in time family values changed and were mostly disjointed. Also our language started to get baffled their value which is a another negative side of globalization. Languages lost their value day by day and its a big cultural loss because language is the most important element of identity. As Tyler Cowmen approved the cross-culture, he also add In terms of culture, there is a loss. For instance, its suddenly true th at a lot of languages are dying. ( rattling Creative Destination August,2003).Therefore in sasss Turkey people migrate to Europe and if e read the books of this time we will observe that writers use French in order to use Turkish. Also if we regard todays world everyone use English in order to use their tongue. In this manner, I may say that, globalization creates diversity but this diversity also creates a nut house in culture because people start to take someone as a roll-model and try to live like that. In this case, we observe a loss in cultural traditions which makes a negative effects on society. Again Taylor Cowmen argues The Julian Simon point that the gains are much larger than the costs is certainly true. Really Creative Destination August,2003). Im totally disagree with this claim so from my point of view, in this situation, the costs are much larger than the gains because when we lost cultural values there will defends that globalization has a positive effect on cultur es because thanks to diversity people make change in their perspective especially, they start to know many cultures which help to develop themselves. However Im disagree with this idea like Dry. Stranger. Globalization damages cultural values. Its true that thanks to globalization people are not stay shallow but constantly, it causes a loss in cultural identities.Therefore, I assert the idea of protectionism. Everyone should protect their cultural values and be aware of what they are. Otherwise in the future, there will be a monotone people as Dry. Stranger asserted. Eventually, this cultural interaction causes a shape in society negatively to the contrary of the claim of Taylor Cowmen. Works Cited Ibuprofen, Debra. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy 2010. Simons De Behavior. Cowmen, Tyler. Really Creative Destruction August September, 2003. Interviewed by Nick Gillespie of Reason Magazine. Bates, Claire. The Daily Mail.

Achievements of Alfred Hitchcock Essay

Alfred Hitchcock, born in 1899 in England, re primary(prenominal)s a prominent figure in the world of cinema. Hitchcocks passion for drive began in his childhood with his source job as writer of the title cards for silent demands and, later on, becoming a director. Influenced by his Catholic up look ating, Hitchcock developed a sense of guilt and sin throughout his life with which he portrays in his work (Kehoe N. P. ). As the leading director in the 1930s, Hitchcock set the standard for international intrigue with his unpolluted thrillers.His mastery of suspense and his unprecedented technique still makes him one of the intimately popular and celebrated film directors of all eon (Flint N. P. ). Alfred Hitchcock has numerous accomplishments the most noteworthy being his films dizziness (1958), psychotic (1960), and The Birds (1963). Alfred Hitchcocks Vertigo (1958) raises performance to such a personal level that it addresses the nature of human personality itself (Sterritt 1 13). The protagonist in the film is John Scottie Ferguson, a former police detective, who has been forced into early retirement due to giddiness and depression.Scottie is then hired as a private investigator to follow a woman, Madeleine Elster, who had been behaving peculiarly. Vertigo is a film that operates on emotions and negative feelings. Hitchcocks use of fade to black illustrates his tendency to emphasize the films most emotionally meaningful moments with a touch of theatricality. This technique intensifies the otherworldliness that travels Vertigos most significant quality (Sterritt 92).Vertigo has a clear association with insanity Michel Foucault, a cut social theorist, states that it affords the delirious affirmation that the world is really turning around, such delirium being a necessary and sufficient reason for a disease to be called madness (Sterritt 98). The repeated shot of Scotties troubled gaze into an abyss below solidifies the ingenuity and peculiarity of Vert igo (Sterritt 82). This shot provides a ocular approximation of the psychological condition- extreme dizziness and disorientation- that is affecting Scottie.Hitchcock enhances the approach on point of view by providing information to the audience through Scotties eyes (Sterritt 83). Vertigos conclusion is unusual for its time because of its depiction of a neurotic hero, not a common feature in mainstream cinema (Sterritt 92). Alfred Hitchcock reached his tasty peak with his filming of psychotic (1960), which set a new level of acceptability for violence, deviant air and sexuality in American films (Flint N. P. ). The protagonist Marion Crane ends up at a secluded motel after embezzling money from her boss. She finds herself faced with the motels disturbed owner, Norman Bates.Hitchcock described the beginning of Psycho as a way of distracting the audiences attention in order to heighten the murder (Baer N. P. ). One of the main themes in Psycho is voyeurism or the practice of spy ing on people engaged in knowing behaviors. Many critics feel that the film not only maintains a general sense of voyeurism, scarcely a specific indictment of voyeurism with the audience- what Hitchcock called Peeping Tom audiences. Psycho manipulates the audience in supporting a thief, Marion Crane, which allows the viewers to become personally involved in the characters guilt.Joseph Stefano, a writer for Hollywood films, states In a more general sense, I think a fundamental essence of watching films is voyeuristic because we trespass so deeply into the characters liveswhile sitting in the dark. Its not necessarily sexual, although it can be, but its power to involve us with the characters is incredible (Baer N. P. ). Alfred Hitchcock introduces a new narrative dimension in Psycho by including his personal appearance in the film He faces away from the camera indicating his control oer the film and keeping with theme of voyeurism (Sterritt 103).Hitchcock viewed his actors perfor mance as the very essence of human identity Psychos character Normans performance being the most profound of all of Hitchcocks performances. Norman gives himself up to his character by assuming her voice, her appearance, her movements, and her thoughts. Hitchcock uniquely displays Normans performances with his use of windowpane/curtain imagery. The windows and curtains indicate that the viewers are a private audience (Sterritt 113). By distancing the audience from the characters, Hitchcock achieves some(prenominal) an alienation affect and a sense of intimacy between the character and the audience (Sterritt 114).Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds (1963) is the most radical of all his films because of its refusal to return the audience to normality (Sterritt 121). When asked what the film was about, Hitchcock replied peoples lack of occupy about the fact that nature can turn on them (Abrash 153). The Birds takes place in Bodega Bay, California, which suddenly undergoes a series of widespr ead and violent bird attacks. The Birds is a follow-up to Psycho with Hitchcock attempting to go further beyond the boundaries of rationality.Not only does the film display the irrational, but it also becomes the irrational by prohibiting natural causes to bring real and fantastic elements together. With the filming of The Birds, Hitchcock violates the rules of classical cinematic storytelling in order to actualize the fears that lurk in everyones unconsciousness (Sterritt 121). With the lack of a conventional ending, The Birds represents Hitchcocks ultimate gesture of despair all over the power of the characters. The protagonists remain in danger, the antagonists gain even more power, and the emotional relationships of the characters are only partially resolved.The resulting visual allows the characters to work towards a better world (Sterritt 124). The film critic Robin Woods interpretation of The Birds was a concrete embodiment of the arbitrary and the unpredictable a reminder of fragility and dissymmetry that cannot be ignored or evaded and, beyond that, of the possibility that life is meaningless and absurd (Abrash 154). In guardedly balancing the ordinary and the bizarre, Alfred Hitchcock was the most noted juggler of emotions in film history.The majority of his films were meticulous creations of nightmares consisting of peril and stake relieved by unexpected comic ironies and absurdities. Hitchcocks style of always stressing imagery over communion gave him a distinct reputation. All of these achievements allowed Alfred Hitchcock to be the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award of the Academy of Motion draft Arts and Sciences in 1967. When asked what his approach was on filmmaking, Hitchcock responded with some films are slices of life, mine are slices of cake (Flint N. P. ).

Best Buy Marketing Plan

2012 4/26/2012 look ating Plan The Micro Environment The Company better(p) grease angiotensin-converting enzymes palmss mission statement is Our rule is simple were a issue connection pointed on better solving the unmet postulate of our clientsand we swan on our employees to solve those puzzles. Thanks for stopping. Their fellowship perspective is the following Our vision is to happen upon look fun and easy. Our business schema is to bring technical schoolnology and consumers to readyher in a retail surround that focuses on educating consumers on the features and benefits of engine room and entertainment professional personceedss, while maximizing overall profitability.We believe our installs asseverate consumers purposeful advantages in enclose environment, carrefour value, selection and service, all of which advance our objectives of enhancing our business sit, gaining mart sh ar and up profitability. go around misdirect strives to continue its growth and innovation in govern to come up with unsalted ideas and sore sorts to intrigue their nodes and a bid new ways for their employees to extend as a police squad and work to inducther. mavin of their ends is to oblation solutions for entertainment and technology that pass on meet their guests films, closedown-to-end. trump corrupts totality fightncies is manifestly to even off technology and entertainment harvestings afford qualified and easy to use for their customers. Were world- grade in retentiveness catch, customer orientation, inventory management, executing new re bureau concepts, and rallying our muckle around common goals, as well as, marting, merchandising and link disciplines. around atomic go 18as of improvement that prohibiteddo procure is currently undergoing ar to be cat valiumer.In order to do so, they gestate to add such(prenominal)(prenominal) common land vehicles when it comes to transportation and excessively line of reasoninging more(prenominal) than green increases in their stores so they dirty dog educate their customers ab disclose the impacts they whitethorn deplete by defileing green products. Competitive revue scoop corrupts top three chief(prenominal) competitors admit Wal-Mart, tail, and RadioShack. Wal-Mart non only when engages in the retail change of electronic high- valueds, further withal endures food, health and beauty aids, fit extinct for women, girls, men, boys, and infants, jewelry, and a wide intermixture of umpteen some other products.Their market summit is $211. 51 B, which as you scum bag happen upon is much larger than bug outgo taints market cap, nevertheless the reason is simply because Wal-Mart specializes in selling a wide commence of products and non solely electronics. Wall-Mart is the worlds largest retail merchant and grocery store by gross sales, which amounts to almost 50% more than its closest competitors combined, much(pren ominal) as Target and Sears. integrity of Wal-Marts freehandgest strengths is that numerous another(prenominal) suppliers confine in to Wal-Marts pressure because they depend heavily on the discount rate retailer that they can for a majority of their sales.One of Wal-Marts weaknesses has to do with their reliance on Chinese-made imports because the club may run short vulnerable to a weakening dollar or strengthenceing of the Yuan. Since Wal-Mart bargain fors the majority of their products from China e rattling year, if the Yuan dollar strengthens, Wal-Mart concede for soon imbibe to pay more for their merchandise that comes from China, which forget gain ground affect Wal-Marts bottom line. Target is very similar to stovepipe get and like Wal-Mart they offer far more then effective consumer electronics.Most of their stores include c administerhing, furniture, and a grocery department. In the die hard year, their stock has hit a 52-week low of $45. 28 and 52-week lavishly of $58. 95, equald to that of topper grease ones palms, which has a low of $19. 79 and a high of $32. 85. The reason the stock for Target is worth more is because they offer a larger variety of products so they entrance a larger market sh atomic bite 18 then topper Buy. When you comp atomic number 18 the timberland of electronic products amidst scoop Buy and Target you testament see that best Buy has the advantage.For specimen with TVs, Target lead offer more of the smaller pretendd more low- outlayd boob tubes. These TVs raise non comp atomic number 18 to the quality of the big(p) invoke products that Best Buy offers, such as Pi unmatcheder Elite. The biggest strength that Target has is their wide array of products from many divers(prenominal) departments. solely they as well as engage a weakness for their customer service. Many beats you commode go into the store and never be stand byed by one of the employees. then when you befall one, they a tomic number 18 uneducated on many of the products.RadioShack is similar to Best Buy since they both engage in the retail sale of electronic products and services. Some products include dwelling entertainment systems, s brush offners, GPS products, digital camera, and many others. As of March 31, 2011, the party operated 4,467 company-operated retail stores under the RadioShack fool name in the United States and 1,304 kiosks located in Target and Sams Club stores. Their market cap is a total of 732. 80 M, comp bed to Best Buys market cap of 8. 88 B.RadioShack late launched a new low bruise guarantee on unstable phones in order to displume customers and signal them that they be offering the outmatch accosts. It is also has a Trade and Save program which allows customers to pot in their used mobile phones and other electronic devices for immediate credit toward their next leveraging. The company also has a new mobile Product Support which go forths customers with free specia harken support to help them cut off any of their mobile phones or other device-related issues at no additional cost.RadioShack is currently undergoing a sop up in their stock hurt due to the signifi tooshiet growth of the online retail market, such as eBay and virago. embodied partners review and channels Best Buy is an electronic retail store, according to the Best Buy 2011 pecuniary year report, they operate 1,099 US Bes Buy stores, 6 Magnolia auditory sensation Video Stores specializing in high-end electronics, 6 Audio Visions Stores, 117 Best Buy Mobile Stores and 35 peaceful Sales kitchen and bath concentrate on Stores (in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada).Best pervert also operates on the international market with 71 Best Buy Stores in Canada, 2440 Best Buys in atomic number 63 Small Box, 6 Best Buys in Europe Big Box, 166 Five Star Stores, 8 China Best Buy Stores, 10 Best Buy Mobile Canada, 6 Mexico Best Buy Stores, 2 Tur line Best Buy Stores and 146 future ca-ca stores throughout Canada. In the U. S. Best Buy has a 1,200 squ atomic number 18 foot Best Buy Mobile store as well as a 20,000, 30,000 and 45,000 squ atomic number 18 foot Best Buy big box store. In Canada, Future Shop stores mediocre 26,000 squ ar feet and Canadian Best Buy stores average 32,000 squ be feet.In Europe, The Carphone W arhouse and The Phone House stores average 800 squ be feet. Best Buy also operates online, allowing Customers to purchase product on line at www. best debase. com. The main challenge associated to Best Buy distri notwithstandingion is that the company relies on a handful number of vendors for the supply of their product. Best Buy only accounts for 60 pct of the merchandise it purchases, in that respectfore if any supplier is unable to supply or in that respect is disruption and illogical from any vendor, the company may non be able to meet the demand of the customers. Product reviewBest deal offer product such as electronic, seat o ffice product, entertainment software, appliances and related services. Consumer electronic is their largest product category which includes television receiver and audio frequency equipment such as television sets, DVD shapeer, audio system, portable audio player and car stereo. Some of the Home office products are computers, telephone, cellular telephoneular phone, duplicator and calculator. Entertainment software offered are CD, DVD, computer software and video games. Best Buy al-Qaeda appliances are dish washer, air conditioners, washing machine, dryers, dresss and refrigerator.Best Buy offers sales on multiple of their items which are computer, tablets, home theater, mobile phones, IPod, cameras, car GPS, appliances, home, finesses, music instrument, video games and movies. However, Best Buys most celebrated sale is on black Friday, they are among the top 3 brick and mortar retailers according to blackFridayads. com. Best buy has a price co-ordinated guarantee police th ey state Best Buy testament match the price if you find a degrade price on an identical available product at a local anaesthetic retail competitors store, a local Best Buy retail store or BestBuy. com.Simply let us k nowadays when you are do your purchase or during the return and exchange period. Matching prices to competitor such as Amazon and Wal-Mart. The Bureau of Economic Analysis recorded negative growth rate for retail stores during the third and fourth quarters of 2008. Best Buy is the largest U. S consumer electronic retailer by revenue, with $40 billion in lettuce sales in fiscal 2008. Best Buy revenues extradite plus since 2007 it went from 35. 9 billion in February 2007 to 50. 3 billion in February 2011. The gross profit has also intimately additiond by 46. 5% since 2008. There is also a rentable increase in their net income, it went from 1. 38 billion to 2. 70 billion in 2011. However, and their operating incomes stir also increased, due to an increase of 9 2. 14% in the depreciation and amortization. In overall their profit has been increasing since 2007. Market/ manufacture explanation and overview Over the last few years the consumer electronics retail industry has taken a big hit. One of the big factors for this is the recession the great unwashed constitute less capital to kick the bucket on material receiveions then they used too.The big retail stores such as Best Buy and Target have disordered profits due to customers flavor for at to find the best deal possible to save money. Some of Best Buys biggest competitors, Amazon for usage, have been able to take advantage of this by selling items online at a much demoralize price. Many magazines it is a price that Best Buy and many other large retail stores chamberpotnot match. An article from http//ledfrog. com/blog/2011/04/the-future-of-big-box-retailers/ stated, I can go to the store, check out a new camcorder or surround sound system and then mold if its some intimacy I pauperism.If it is, Ill ask the manager if they can match Amazons deeply discounted price. If he can, Ill buy it at Best Buy. If not, Ill go home and order it online. Because of the online shopping, the market for electronic retailers is shrink so it will be important to capitalize on the market that is there. The mackro Environment purification Best Buy wants its main consumers to be in the mid(prenominal)dle to upper berth class. It is because of this that they do not particularizedally scratch any one gender or race. As broad as the consumer has the money to fade Best Buy will want to service them.Those apply to Best Buy as a whole throughout the country regionally things are a little diverse. Depending on what region the store is located Best Buy will have to focus on polar things. For example in South Los Angeles where the population is predominantly Hispanic and primarily speak Spanish, the employees that are hired there are going to have to know how to speak Sp anish, and many of the product signs can have Spanish pen on them too. So Best Buy can have the corresponding message throughout the company, besides you are going to have to focus more on the little details of where the store is regionally so you do not offend the customers.Demographics As a company Best Buy has divided up its core customers into five different demographic segments, and they call it customer centricity. They have transmitn a name to each one of these segments, Barry, Jill, Buzz, Ray, and Mr. Storefront. Barry is a man in the age range of 24 to 45 who is an plenteous tech enthusiast typically he will be in the higher income angle bracket and spend more money. Jill is a suburban mom with a targeted age of 24 to 45 she is also in a high income bracket but does not like the whole shopping experience for tech products. Buzz is either male or female with a targeted age of 18 to 24.They would be young shoppers into gadgets, video games, and movies, and is in a low income bracket. Ray is a price-conscious family guy between the ages of 24 to 45 he will be looking for the best deals and likes to see advertisements, also he is in a middle income bracket. Mr. Storefront is a small business owner in any age bracket and any income bracket. They have also divided two other segments of customers who are outside of their core targets. The head start is named Carrie and she is a young single woman in a low income bracket between the ages of 18 to 30.The second is targeted at empty nesters they are both male and female between the ages of 45 to 55 they are in a middle income bracket and are named Helen and Charlie. The purpose of the customer centricity program is so that a store can meet the needs of its main shoppers. You have to first find out the find out what type of shopper goes to a store most and then tailor that store to their desires. For example if you have a store that is tailored to a Barry and Jill that store will have a dope of lighting and fixtures to meet the needs of Barry and personal shopping assistants to help the Jills find their products.Best Buy as a whole has decided to focus its demographic segments on people in the income bracket of the upper to middle class. The reason for this is that our core customers are in these income brackets, and knowing this allows the company to ground the store to what those classes want. I would not consider dropping any of these customer segments because they cover a vast majority of the shoppers that Best Buy receives. The customer centricity program is what helped get Best Buy so profitable when companies like electrical circuit City went out of business. I would however create a new segment named Andy.Andy will be a single man living on his own. This person will be in the mid to high income bracket and be a new tech and gadget shopper. His main purchases would be in home theater and computer. Social trends Social trends are one of the biggest driving factors for the income that Best Buy receives. But they also can have a negative impact if we do not address the trends properly. It is very important to keep up with the social trends to help keep our business relevant and in the news for positive reasons. One of the bigger trends right now is marketing through Face book and cheep close to 41. % of Americans are active users of Face book. That is a rope of people we can market to at a basically free price since Face book and chirrup are free to use. hurt sensitivity is also a major concern to deal with. If we only have high end products that are very expensive to buy you are limiting your customer demographic which will in turn lower profits. The best way to deal with this is to carry the high end products but also carry similar products that are at a lower cost. One of the bigger concerns that we have to deal with is energy consumption.The Go Green social trend is a big thing right now and three of our big departments, Home Theater, Applian ces, and Computers. These departments not only consume a lot of energy in the store but the products we sell do too. I feel that we can capitalize on this market by purchasing products to sell that are more energy efficient, and advertising these products. This can help take in up our business while also having a greener impact on this earth which looks good for our frequent relations. Other macro environment factors Current technological trends have had a negative effect on Best Buys current and potentially future succeeder.One of the main tech trends eroding Best Buys business model is the increased utility and web capabilities of brisk phones. With the increased web capabilities of phones a new type of shopper has emerged cognize as the mobile price matchers (Smith). According to a recent survey conducted by the Pew meshing project More than half of mature cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during the 2011 spend season (Smith). These custo mers routinely use their phones while in retail locations to price match, find product reviews, and/or ask friends for advice.This trend has been especially damaging to Best Buy who is a chief victim of this new style of shopping. It is not uncommon for customers to walk into a local Best Buy view a product and immediately search for reviews or better prices on their smart phones. It is possibly to use this technology to our advantage. One way is to break-dance a smart phone app for Best Buy that is fun, interactive, and in cookative. This will allow the customer to use the app to find if the product he wants is in the store, and compare it to other major retailers prices for the same product.The economic situation is quite possibly the most damaging thing for Best Buy. When the country, let alone most of the world, is in a recession it affects the number of customers that come into the store and the amount that they are impulsive to spend. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Americ a was at its highest. plurality had more money then ever and they were looking to spend it. Then when the big recession hit in 2008 customers unperturbed were looking to purchase products but their style of purchasing changed. For a while there, a lot of customers did not negociate what they spent for their item, they clean wanted it. at one epoch they are looking for the best deals out there, it does not matter how they get their product as long as they get the best deal for it. This is where it has hurt Best Buy the most because they can not compete with most online store prices, and cool it be able to make a profit. The key for future success for Best Buy may be to offer more variety of products at a lower cost. This can help them drive more consumers to the store and make purchases. Marketing Strategy Sustainable combative advantage Best Buy enjoys a sustainable free-enterp build up(a) advantage because to this date, they are the biggest U.S specialty electronics retaile r. Although they are currently experiencing pecuniary occupations due to the recession a few years back, Best Buy still seems to have many loyal customers that continue to keep shopping at their stores. The reason why Best Buy contains such a sustainable competitive advantage amongst their competitors, such as Walmart or Amazon, is because it relates not only to product excellence, but customer and locational excellence as well. Best Buy has achieved product excellence through offering the top of the line products in consumer electronics.This is why Best Buy has a lot of loyal customers they provide products with great quality and high perceived value. They know that if they buy a product from Best Buy that this product will last them a long time, especially if they buy the sanction for it. Another reason why Best Buy enjoys a sustainable competitive advantage is because they also have customer excellence. Best Buy contains a service, known as the Geek Squad, which is a company of employees that help customers with problems they may be having with their electronics. Also, customers are able to rely on the well rained employees when they have a question regarding veritable products. Best Buy also has locational excellence since they have over a special K stores both domestically and internationally. Many interpret The three most important things in retailing are location, location, location. With this many stores Best Buy is going to be an appealing choice to those other than loyal customers, because itll become more convenient to go to a Best Buy that is less than 20 minutes apart from your house. There are plans to capable up at least 100 stores by 2013 http//www. innovationexcellence. com .This will not only help with their sales, but it will also allow for more customers to become loyal to Best Buy because itll be convenient for them to go to their local Best Buy. Growth strategies Best Buy pursues a marketing penetration strategy. The company emp loys brisk marketing mix and focuses the firms efforts on existing customers. Best Buy attempts to increase market share by using existing products and services. The company wants to pull in new customers to the current target market and encourage current customers to patronize the firm more often, or buy more merchandise on each visit.In order to accomplish its goals Best Buy has to develop great marketing effort, they have to increase advertisement, sales, and promotions. For model, Best Buy will broadcast ads on TV every time they want to advertise a new product in the store, such as the latest IPhone. The company wants their current costumers to be aware that the store is carrying new products and new costumers to know what motley of products they sell. During holidays and events such as black Friday, the company advertises their deals, so their current costumers buy more merchandise on each visit. SWOT STRENGTHS Large amount of retail outlets in prime locations * 1,099 US b est buy stores, * 6 Magnolia Audio Video Stores * 6 Audio Visions Stores, * 117 Best Buy Mobile Stores * 35 Pacific Sales kitchen and bath center Stores * Brand Loyalty * Very strong brand name * Stores are large * Flexibility exists to add new product lines due to ample space * Value adding customer service * Excellent customer service and technological know how * Geek Squad WEAKNESSES * Best Buy relies on vendors to supply a large percentage of products which can potentially lead to supply disruption. archetype If Sony and apple decide to no longer supply Best Buy it would be devastating. * Weak online front line * Late start in e-commerce * E-Bay and Amazon far better online Limited product selection in OPPORTUNITY * Capture emerging mobile price matchers market * Use social media to moot out to this market * Capitalize on iPhone Smart Phone market * Pursue the business of young bachelors more aggressively * Undervalued customers with high interest in technology * Social Me dia * Utilize Face book and Twitter more effectively build relationships * Going green Can lead to potential overhead nest egg and good public relations THREATS * Retail discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target * Discounters are stealing electronics market share due to higher foot traffic fueled in large part to product mix * Consumers spend more time at discounters locations because they can buy food, clothing, and entertainment under one roof * Rising trend of mobile price matchers * Consumer deciding to buy elsewhere while in Best Buy can prove to be fatal because it negates all other core competenciesObjectives/Goals and task to be Addressed Based on the forces of your SWOT analysis, draw inly state the Problem that you are cooking to address (once you have described the current situation of the company, you should be able to articulate the specific problem you want to address and the goals of your marketing plan. ) Please make sure to clearly identify your specific Objectiv es/Goals. division (See Chart in Index) When making the market segmentation we decided to reveal it into three different segments, gender, age, and income.We chose these segments because they provide the bulk of our customers that shop at a store. Gender was first because that is the most identifiable one. It is easy to separate and calculate who is coming to the store based on their gender. Age is a big factor because we can determine the type of customers that are coming into the stores, a young person will see things much differently then an older person and they both will be looking to buy different things. Finally we picked income because it will tell us how much money people have and are willing to spend at our stores.If we have a store that is getting a lot of low income people going into it, we can not have it stocked full of products that they can not afford. Using this we were able to create a customer segment chart. (See Customer constituent chart in the Index) After m aking the Customer Segment chart we found that we had 18 different segments to work with. Each segment is a little different, but as a whole they make up most of the customers that shop at our stores. When looking at the chart you can see that each segment has something different. The chart covers male and females from different ages to different income levels.You can see that in segment 1 you have males who are under 17 and are in the low income, which is different then segment 4 who are the same but middle income and segment 7 who are in the high income. The information provided by the chart will be very useful in determining which segments to target, and which segments will be unprofitable so we can eliminate them. Targeting Market segments 1. Gender Male and Female 2. Age teenager 17 and under, young adult 18-29 and adult 30-59 3. Income middle class and upper class Segment bring inivenessIt is essential for Best Buy to appreciate segment seduceiveness for each of these segme nts. They first essential determine if the segments are worth pursuing, using specific criteria is the segment identifiable, substantial, reachable, responsive, and profitable. Identifiable * Teenagers 17 and under have high interest for video games and cell phones. They are aware of the new technology innovation but dont really use convoluted ones which office be to high-tech for them, therefore Best Buy will have to take in consideration that they superpower not be able to know how to use a MacBook Pro as a young adult would. Young adults 18 to 29, such as college students, are more clear to try new technology which would later build up in lifelong brand-loyal customers. As a result Best Buy everlastingly tries to keep up with the latest technology, offering the newest version of Mac laptop or the last android. * Older adults age 30 to 59 tends to stay with products they are customary to. They have difficulties getting used to new technology or do not have the in truth time to keep up. Older adults have long working hours or have children to take care of they do not really have time to used new technology.Most even have to rely on their children in order to know how some electronics around the household work. Best Buy should also consider the differences in incomes among the classes. They should divide customers by their incomes in order to provide services and products that are low-cost to all. We consider middle and to upper classes since they are the ones who can purchase higher priced electronics. The middle class which is price sensitive makes between 30,000 to 50,000 dollars a year. They have the ability to purchase electronics such as computers, cell phones or TVs but only at low-priced prices.In the upper class, customers are ready to pay high prices for high end goods. However we wouldnt target gender because it just lives one segment. Best Buy doesnt sell one type of product that attract men and another that attract women they do not focus on gender differentiation. For instance they are no special gadgets or section for women in the store. Substantial This criterion consists on measuring the target markets. If a market is too small it is peanut and it will not generate sufficient profit.If its too big it might need a bigger store. In this case we should consider the segment of Loyalty loyal consumers are lifelong customers which make them a substantial segment. Most loyal consumers are those living near the location. For instance it would make more sense for a customer to go grocery shopping at a Vons store thats 2 miles away and become a regular customer, than drive 20 miles to an Albertson store. Database such as census. gov can be really useful to determine how many people live in the sector or how long they have been living in that area.For instance 1,068,344 people in Los Angeles have been living in the same house since 2005, which is 33. 2% of the population in Los Angeles. So this intend that some of the 33. 2% might be loyal customers to their local store. We wouldnt consider occasion consumer because they dont represent a large enough market segment. Since they are not a usual customer it is serious to consider them as a significant segment. Video game companies always come along a new game, and teenagers like to be up to date and purchase the latest one, which is profitable on the long run.Young adults also represent lifelong consumers, since they are kindle in technology innovation. For instance college students like to purchase new gadgets to work on their school work or just to stay in touch with their friends, classmates or family members. It would be a good idea for Best Buy to use census data to allocate to younger consumers. Reachable It means that the consumers know the product exists, understand what it can do for him or her and recognize how to buy it. It is essential for Best Buy to care different types of technologies at different prices.Their product must attract al l ages and be affordable for all Incomes. Different items are offered at different prices, which means everybody can afforded regardless of their incomes. * Middle classes are price sensible, they want to own technology but at affordable prices. It is easier for a company to reach them during sales and holidays, where they purchase items in large county, buying for family member, friends or just for the good deals. * Upper classes are easily reachable they want to get high end products and are ready to pay the price.They commonly want to purchase the latest high-tech product, new IPhone or biggest 3D TV. They are principally up to date and are aware of new innovation through the different media outlets. Both young and old generations should be aware that Best Buy caries different types of technologies. For instance phone with lots of different applications and new innovations. Such as the iPhone, it attracts younger crowds, whereas less complex gadgets generally attract an older crowd. * Teenagers and young adults are usually aware of the latest technology and where to purchase them.They have easy access to media they follow TV and internet ads. Moreover, young generations share information among each other talking almost the latest orchard apple tree computer or Android. * Older adults found out about new technology or where to purchase them from their children, friends or coworkers. They are also easily reachable they have access to internet, TV or older media such as newspapers. Loyal consumers are the most amicable stores mainly collect their information email addresses or phone number.It makes it easy for the store to send them ads about new products or inform them about a sale on existing products. Loyal consumers also frequently come in the store to check on new product or get information about items they want to purchase. Responsiveness The customers in the segment must react similarly and positively to the firms offering, move toward firms produc t and services and fancy the firms value proposition. It is easy for a company to measure the responsiveness of loyal consumer, since loyal consumers are extremely responsive to a companys product.They have learned to appreciate what the firm has to offer and accept their value, which lead them to become usual. Companies have to make sure they can properly respond to their consumer needs and wants, if they cant provide them with the product they want, they shouldnt target them. For instance, Best Buy would probably fail if they decide to sell bridal gal to attract more female customers. Best Buy is known to offer technological products and their consumers come in the store looking for electronics. They would be confused to see an electronic store selling bridle gal.Teenagers are highly responsive to new technology, they always want to upgrade to newest and immediate gadgets. For example if new video games come out, teenagers are the first to line up at the store and purchase it a t any price. Young adults are open to trying new technology, therefore it would be easier to get them positively respond to new innovations. They are the early adopter of new media and technology. The middle class are price sensitive however they are open to spend money when the deal is right. They are more responsive during sales period, such as black Friday and holidays, such as Christmas.They are big spenders compared to the upper class which according to the book The millionaire next door put 20 percent of their money into investments and savings accounts. During sales and holidays the middle class purchase in large quantities, as they find the best deals to buy for family and friends. Nevertheless the upper class is still responsive to new innovation they want to take in the latest technology no matter the price. They like to purchase luxury electronics that provide the experience and the consolation that high-tech has to offer. vaneability Market segments that generate profi tTeenager According to the U. S census Bureau, there are 247,215 out of 3,772,486 people in Los Angeles who range from 10 to 14 years old, which is 6. 6%. 273,419 out of the same number are between the age of 15 and 19, it represent 7. 2%. let say out of the 520,634 teenagers 10,000 (2%) play and purchase video games on regular bases . The average video game at Best Buy cost 19. 99$. Video games are realize every 5 to 6 days, which mean there is a realize every week. We will consider they purchase the video game every 2 month when they receive pocket money.Variable cost would represent 1/3 of the price sold 6. 66$. Best Buy spend 10,325,000 on fixed cost a month and they have 1099 stores which means each store spends 9,394. 90$. It is 112,738. 80 a year Segment size 520,634 X Segment interlingual rendition percentage 2 %X Purchase behavior (19. 99*6) X Profit bank percent (19. 99-6. 66)/19. 99 -Fixed cost 112,738. 80 = 724,022. 08 Best Buy would make a profit of 724,022. 08 a year by selling video games to teenagers. Middle class 176,674 out of 1,314,198 household in Los Angles make between 35,000 to $49,999 which is considered as middle class income.Most of these household spend a large quantity of money during holiday. Especially during Christmas on gift items, which mean they would purchase them 2 a year IPad is really famous not only among children but also adults. It is a great birthday or Christmas gift. Let say 500 of this household purchase iPads, at least two iPad per household either own by two children or one child one adult or two adults. 100 iPads. One iPads cost 499. 99$. The variable price is 259. 60$. Segment size 176,674 X Segment suitation percentage 0. 3 %X Purchase behavior (499. 9*2) X Profit margin percent (499. 99-259. 60)/499. 99 -Fixed cost 112,738. 80 = 141, 66571 Upper class 62,319 out of 1,314,198 household make between $150,000 to $199,999, they are the Upper-class. They like to purchase brand new electronics as gift or because it is the brand new model. We will consider 3 purchases a year birthday gift, holiday gift and the realize day for the brand new model. 5000 of the 62,319 household purchase iPads the same year. Upper class family usually do not have a lot of children, high income just represent 5. % of the working class with families. They buy 5 of them a year, 2 birthday gifts for children and wife/husband, for they realize of the new model and Christmas gift for friends and family 2. Segment size 62,319 X Segment adaptation percentage 8 %X Purchase behavior (499. 99*2) X Profit margin percent (499. 99-259. 60)/499. 99 -Fixed cost 112,738. 80 = 2,280,262. 94 Best buy would definitely make a higher profit if they target the upper class for the sale of IPad. Market targeting strategy We will use the Differentiated (segmented) marketing as our market targeting strategy.Differentiated marketing strategy is a market-coverage strategy in which a firm decides to target several market segments and shapes separate offers for each segment. This strategy is the most appropriated for Best Buy since its goal is to target specific market segment. It wouldnt make sense for them to practice an undifferentiated marketing strategy, which involve ignoring the different segments and going after the whole market. Moreover, Best Buy is a retailer of consumer electronics, which means they sell all types of electronics coming from different brands, they are already able to provide the consumer with a wild varieties of brands.By using the differentiated marketing strategy they can assist all of their consumers regardless of their preference, income or age. They would provide them with the exact product they want. This strategy is also profitable in the long run, helping build up lifelong consumer. The consumer is able to get the product that he wants and also has varieties of other options, which gives you an advantage over your competitors. The practice of concentrated marketing strategy will not allow Best Buy to have the flexibility to offer different electronics, this strategy only concentrate on a single target market.Micromarketing strategy wouldnt apply to Best Buy because it only focuses on satisfying the need and want of a single consumer, whereas Best Buy groups his Customers inside segments. Perceptual Positioning Map (See Index at the end) Positioning One of the reasons Best Buy has been so successful over the years is because of its brand loyalty. We believe that this was created from the good customer service that we provide and the relatively low prices we maintain, as you can see from the chart. Some of our competitors have lower prices than us but the ones that do tend to have poor customer service.One of the biggest concerns that we as a company have to worry about is the low prices that Wal-Mart offers. As the economy continues to be in a recession people are looking for the best price possible as they have to be thriftier with their money. Wal-Mart has do minated the low price position for years and it will be very hard to compete with the prices that they offer. One of the ways to compete with them is our price match guarantee, that way if they have the exact same product at a lower price we can keep our customer by matching the price. Another concern that we may have is with apple.They have built one of the strongest customer loyalty companies in the world. People are willing to spend more money on Apple products and services just because of the strong brand name that Apple is. Even now that Best Buy is offering Apple products in our stores people will still choose an Apple store over ours. We believe that that main reason for this is the customer service that Apple has provided over the years. They are known for having some of the most go technology in their market. For us to gain the loyalty that Apple has we will have to focus on meeting all of our customers needs.Most notably the place on the map we would like to be is at the lower right side at low price and high customer service. This is a position that is not covered on a map that there will be a wide open market for. Target, Wal-Mart and online stores such as EBay are able to offer lower price on many of the products that we sell, but they do not provide the quality of service that we do. If Best Buy can keep or even improve its customer service while at the same time sound many of our prices, we can open the doors to a much larger market.The best position to be taken by Best buy would be one of cheaper prices and better customer service. Now it is true that Best Buy has fairly cheap prices already and with Geek Squad they have fairly good customer service but my belief is they need go further with what they have already accomplished. Given the facts and findings there is an entire untapped market of lower priced products and great customer service that would be incredibly lucrative. Now the obvious reasoning behind why there is an untapped market in this area is the financial problems.There isnt an easy way to have cheap products and great customer service because of the fact that customer service is expensive. However there is one way to successfully do it. As stated primarily they need to target their ideal markets better and literally know when a customer walks in where he or she would be best suited to go and make that area the most appealing. Maybe give the areas themes that would attract the ideal market. The next thing that they would have to do is steal customers away from places like Wal-Mart and Apple because it is the fact that they are loyal to those companies that is the most damaging to Best Buy.Now granted this would not be the easiest thing to do. They would have to consistently gain ground cheaper products and better customer service. After they have make that however, the number of customers that they have would make up for the cheaper prices, the increased customer service, and the advertising (in theor y). And if this is successful they would have gained access to an un-tapped market where they literally could not be touched, because no one could compete with them. The way the company is currently focused is on targeting wealthier customers.Our store associates are trained to spot customer demographics in the middle to upper class and vex our products to them. In many cases this can cause them to focus too much on a one demographic and leave out great customer service to other social classes. If we change our position and start offering similar products at a lower price than our high end products, we will attract the thrifty spenders to Best Buy. So by offering these products at lower prices but still providing top notch customer service we can see a large growth in customer loyalty.The most important thing to this is to treat the lower income families just as well as we would treat the higher income families. This is where places like Wal-Mart and Target fail, they offer the bet ter bargains but it is hard to find good help from an employee when you go into the store. Marketing Mix Products and Services Best Buy is currently one of the last major consumer electronics retailers out there because they provide a wide variety of products that customers can choose from.Since Best Buy sells everything from televisions to refrigerators, which are two completely different appliances, what more can Best Buy offer? Instead of introducing new products, Best Buy should consider offering cheaper prices for their current products in order to attract a different group of customers. Currently, Best Buy is more focused with attracting the wealthy consumers by providing them with products such as the iPad and Blu-ray televisions to keep those customers interested and loyal to their company.By offering cheaper prices, this could allow the middle-/lower-class to be able to pee-pee great quality products with affordable prices. Since our marketing positioning is to target thos e customers with lower incomes, what better way to do so than lowering their prices on certain products to show that Best Buy products are great and affordable for everyone? As far as their products are concerned, the main modifications they need to make to existing products is providing a wider range of video games and gaming systems.Since the younger generation is becoming more accustomed to using electronics at such a young age, it might be an advantage for Best Buy to sell more video games, which will in turn attract the younger earreach to convince their parents to bring them to the store. The company will not only benefit in bringing in the younger crowd, but will also bring in their parents, who will more than likely become attracted to the big screen televisions and wide range of laptops that Best Buy has to offer. Also, Best Buy should consider hiring qualified employees for the Geek Squad in order to minimize customer complaints.Since this service provides customers with aid for their broken electronics, some one who has background knowledge and has had experience fixing broken laptops, cameras, etc.. should be the one assisting them with their problems. The Geek Squad is known for hiring employees who have not had preceding(a) experience with fixing broken electronics. Although the Geek Squad does a good job, customers will be more comfortable knowing that the geek helping them with their broken electronics is someone who knows what they are dealing with.Best Buy provides many products for their customers, some that even some people wouldnt expect for their store to provide. For instance, the company should consider dropping the home appliances section because since Best Buy is known more as an electronics store, kitchen accessories such as refrigerators and microwaves seem to be products the company is selling just to make extra profit. From past experiences of visiting the store, the home appliances section is always either empty or with very f ew people taking a look at their washers and dryers.Most of Best Buys customers are concerned with the laptops and televisions, and to sell kitchen appliances doesnt go along with the entertainment feel that Best Buy provides. Also, now that technology is improving and more people are switching to buy Blu-Ray televisions, Best Buy should consider dropping the VHS section. Since people are learning to adapt to the new technology, more customers are interested in buying Blu-ray DVDs since they provide better quality than VHS. Pricing In the consumer electronics retail business having competitive pricing is of the utmost importance.This is due in large part to the ultra-competitive nature of the electronics business. Consumer electronics such as new TVs and the latest computers/tablets are highly desired by the masses. However, these items tend to be highly elastic in there demand, making pricing a key component in attracting customers. Furthermore, in todays consumer electronics marke t many major retailers regardless of specialty carry consumer electronics, making it possible to purchase socks and a computer all under one roof.Moreover the emergence of e-commerce has made it easier than ever to perform real time price likenesss. The growing practice of online price comparisons has given online retailers who benefit from lower overhead costs an advantage, because they possess the ability to offer low prices along with a massive selection. Taking the preceding factors into consideration it is clear that the importance of being price competitive is greater than ever. As a result we have conducted a price analysis of Best Buys top selling product lines. The retailers compared to Best Buy in this nalysis are Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target. The products to be compared consist of top selling T. V. s, Tablets, Laptops, and Mp3 players. T. V. Price comparison Televisions have been of Best-Buys top selling product lines for years and a vital component of any future success . It is important that Best-Buy continue to dominate television sales if we hope to remain atop the consumer electronics retail mountain. Continued dominance in television sales will be a problem. Due to increased competition from retailers who now offer a armament of televisions for sale, Best-Buy is losing market share.Because consumers are more likely to frequent Wal-Mart and Target for every day purchases such as soap, it is important to convey value through pricing when customers enter our doors. Our price survey shows that Best-Buy continues to be highly competitive on television prices. For example, a Samsung 51 (PN51D450) television can be found at Amazon for $697, but Best-Buy and Target are not far behind at $699 and Wal-Mart is priced highest at $799. Amazon beats Best-Buy by 2 dollars but the added convenience of in-store pickup outweighs the slight price difference.Generally Best-Buy is the lowest price if not it is very close to its competitors. The television price s trategy is spot on. However, offering a one-time sale of loss leader 32 could go a long way in establishing Best-Buy as the go to retailer for television purchases. Tablet price comparison Tablets are the hottest devices in the electronics market today. Tablets continue to rise in popularity and it is likely that they will eventually replace laptops as the device of choice for mobile computing. Because of tablets wage hike popularity its important for Best-Buy to capture market share in this product line.The best-selling tablet and industry leader is Apples ipad3 this product is currently offered by all of Best-Buys competitors at the same price across the board. It is marvelous that any retailer will ever have a price advantage on Apple products. Next in line behind the iPad is the asus eepad, this tablet has the potential to one day compete with the iPad. Best-Buy offers the eepad at the lowest cost on the market at $349 Target can match this price but struggle to keep stock leve ls up. Amazon and Wal-Mart offer the eepad at $359 and $379 respectively.Offering the next best option to the iPad at the lowest cost puts Best-Buy in an excellent position to capture market share. Laptop price comparison Although tablets continue to increase in popularity the staple of mobile computing continues to be the Laptop. The versatility and portability of Laptops have kept it in high demand. It is likely that tablets will not possess the computing power to replace laptops anytime soon because of this Best-Buy must remain a major player in this market. A price comparison of laptops shows that this is an area Best-Buy can improve in.For example, HP 17 dv7-6c90us laptop is priced $1029 at Best-buy, but is $959 at Amazon. The price difference is between Best-Buy and Amazon is $70 in favor of Amazon. A savvy consumer armed with a smartphone can cursorily discover this, and it is highly likely that Best-Buy would lose this sale. Large price discrepancies such as this one hurt Be st-Buys reputation in the long run. Consumers are quick to share the news of their cost savings with friends and family which will in turn make them less inclined to look towards Best-buy for electronics.The loss is two -fold, because not only did Best-Buy lose the sale but it also lost the opportunity to capture the most powerful form of advertising word-of-mouth. Best-Buy must drop its prices on laptops to the point where they can beat Amazon who consistently sell laptops at a lower cost than Best-Buy. (See Price Chart in the Index) Place Best Buy has a few of different forms of distribution. The first is in-store shoppers who physically come in the store and purchase the products. Our stores need to make sure that we have a full inventory for the product that our customers are looking for.To do this we have to have a good computer program that keeps track of our inventory, as well as near by stores inventories, and the distribution centers inventory. With this information we can tell customers about another store that may have their product. Or we can specially order it from the distribution center and give them an accurate time of when it will be delivered to our store for them. The second distribution strategy and the most important one for our companies growth is our online store. Distribution for www. BestBuy. com needs o be fast, efficient, and available for our customers to make their purchase. Online shopping will allow customers to purchase the products without ever having to step foot ona sales floor. With the purchases made online they can have the products shipped to their homes, or they can choose in-store pickup (which is free) where they have the option to possibly get the product that day if it is available. The third distribution strategy is the Best Buy vending machines found at Airports and major hotel chains. These vending machines will hold small electronics for customers to purchase.They can hold many things such as gift cards, pre paid cell phones, ear phones, mp3 players, and even movies. What is important about these is it will provide a strong advertisement for the Best Buy brand for new customers traveling the world, who might not know what Best Buy is or experienced one yet. The biggest change that needs to be made with the Best Buy distribution strategy is how many physical stores there are in America. Back in 2006 Best Buy was on top of the world when it came to consumer electronics and we over expanded in America.As the recession hit like everyone else profits began to drop. By having too many stores costs were now a lot higher and revenue was a lot lower. So in America we should actually be closing down stores that do not have enough of a demographic to keep them running and profitable. But the international expansion should continue as a slow and steady process. This way we can find out where our company works and where it doesnt. The biggest area of need in our supply chain is how fast we can get produ cts to our store that are shown online, but are not physically in the store.There are many customers who see a product on the website but do not purchase it there because they want to actually see the product ahead the purchase is made. It is important to be able to get that product to the store as soon as possible to help the customer make their purchase. To do this we have to have a distribution center that can process our request that minute so we can get the product to the store within the next day. The best way of doing this is running a real time processing program that is connected to all the distribution centers.When the order is placed the program will find the product and the fastest way it can be shipped to the store. Advertising and Promotion Our Best Buy advertising message is Help you get more from your technology. This message best conveys the image of our company. Best Buy focuses on providing the best customer service possible, through training. Our employees acqu ire a vast knowledge of the different technology in the store, so they can better assist customers and help them get more from their technology. We also assist our customers through our technology and repair department, Geek Squad.Geek Squad offer services such as TV and computer home setup. The goal of our company is to help customers choose the right technology based on what they are looking for. For example there are a large number of customers coming in our store looking to purchase a computer but they do not know exactly which one to get. Our employees help them identify the right brand and model, based on their interest and taste. The advertising Medias that we have chosen are Television, Newspaper, Internet and direct Mail. Each of these mediums have specific characteristics that make it suitable for meeting specific objective. 1.Television offers a mix of visual and auditory techniques and it provides a wide reach. Television advertisement allows us to both show our products and verbally talk about it. Best Buy has a wide reach they can reach usual customers as well as potential customers. TV helps us catch the attention of the audience and then reinforce their retention rates by repeating the message. TV has a mass appeal, individuals watch television for different reason to watch a movie, the news or any other sports. People from different segments watch TV, which helps you reach a large variety of individual with different background.Moreover, well done TV ads are appealing to the audience. For instance, every super bowl viewers not only looking forward to watch the games, but also the commercials. They want to witness the latest creative Super manger commercial, it can help build up a loyal customer base. 2. Newspapers offer flexibility, they are seasonable and help you localize a precise segment. Newspaper Ads can easily be modified to adapt to changes. They are also timely which means they are more affordable deals than TV Ads, since they are us ually advertised once in a while.Newspaper Ads allows you to target a certain segment of customers. There is a certain demographic that reads the Newspaper such as older adult or intellectuals. Moreover, most people expect advertising in the newspaper, some even purchase it for the advertisement and the deals they offer. Newspapers allow you to communicate certain extra information such as a telephone numbers or price. It also helps you offer deals such as coupon which couldnt have been possible on TV. 3. Internet can be linked to detail content.An internet Ad on any webpage will link the customer to the website of the company if he clicks on the Ad. It allows the company to provide more information about the product to the potential customers and promote other products or just the company itself. Internet offers a vast reach it allows a company to promote their product on a wider market. A good medium would be social network website, such as Facebook or twitter. These social networ ks provide the ability to reach an international market. Moreover, social networks allow a company to interact with their customers.They can post feedback on the company Facebook wall or send word ideas on their twitter page. Internet also offer flexibility, you can change an Ads any time or add extra information. Internet advertising offer targeting method that allows you to reach a specific segment, those who see your ads are the ones most likely to buy. 4. Direct mail is highly targeted, it focuses on a specific segment, mainly the consumers who purposively signed up for them or are frequent costumers. It is a useful medium to send sale advertisements to customers and promote new products as well.The company has a direct control over who they are targeting and which product they are offering. A letter can be personalized via mail-merging techniques and you can also use a more informal language in writing your Ad. The company can develop graphics and design the way they want, the y dont have to go through newspaper regulations. Best Buy chooses to focus more on reach. Reach allows a company to build product awareness. Since Best Buy is a retailer of consumer electronics, we get different electronics coming from different companies on a regular base.These different items include new models of the previous technology. We need to inform costumers of the new product entering the market. Most of the companies that come up with a new product, do not want to spend a lot of money on advertising the product on the different advertising Medias, therefore Best Buy is the one who was to promote the new product. The goal of our company is to reach a broad audience as a result we promote our new product during major sporting events and holidays. During a major sport event, such as the super bowl, there are a large number f people who turn in to watch the game. And as we said earlier some are as eager to watch the commercials. Holidays are also a perfect time to promote a new product because people are looking for presents to give to their loved ones. Consumers are looking for inspiration everywhere, mainly through TV Ads, magazines, or newspapers. Companies want to persuade the costumer that their latest Smartphone is the best Christmas gift for their teenager, or that the brand new MacBook pro is the exact gift their husband was dreaming of.Costumers are more likely to trust a holiday Ad than any other, they dont have the time to think of an original gift and they broadly speaking believe the Ads stating that this is the hottest items of the holiday, a must have Reach is also useful for a product with long purchase cycle. Since Best Buy sells electronics, all the Items have a long purchase cycle. People buy phones, laptop, TV, video game once in a while. They usually purchase new ones after a year or so. Our main advertising objective is to instigate.Reminder advertising is a communication used to remind or prompt repurchases, especially for pro ducts that have gained market acceptance and are in the maturity dress of their life cycle. According to www. twice. com Best Buy is the No. 1 retailer on this combined list of consumer electronics and major appliance retailers in the United States. Our company has gained a market acceptance coming forrader stores such as Wal-Mart and Sears that are usually known for their low cost. Best Buys goal is not to promote lower cost but quality which is promoted through our customer service.Best Buy believes that customer service is the key to provide a quality service and build up customer loyalty. Therefore our company provides training to all of our employees working on the floor, we teach them how to interact with a customer, and we provide them with the sufficient knowledge about the different gadgets in the store so they can give better advice to the costumer. Our advertisement mainly focuses on the quality customer service that we offer. We want to remind the costumer, why they al ways chooses us first in retail electronics.Best Buy has established an image of professionalism, knowledge and assistance through its customer service. We want the consumer to know that he is in good hands every time he comes to one of our store. Best buy uses information appeal to portray its products and persuade consumers to purchase them. Our company uses factual information and strong arguments to attract consumers. We want our costumer to evaluate our products on the basis of the key benefits they provide. Best Buy offers different high tech products that are sometime really complex, so it is in our best interest to inform our customers on how to use those products.For example, Apple iPhones offer and develop new features that might be too confusing for our regular costumer, so Best Buy develops Ads that explain to costumers how to use them. Our goal is to improve our customer knowledge therefore they can enjoy the entire attributes their new gadget has to offer. Consumers ar e more willing to buy a product that they understan