Vertical and Horizontal Mergers in Apparel Industry Essay

Vertical and Horizontal Mergers in Apparel Industry - Essay Example The essay "Vertical and Horizontal Mergers in Apparel Industry" talks about the vertical and horizontal mergers in the apparel industry. A merger is a company that is formed when two or more companies come together to form a single company. These companies may be dealing with the same or different lines of products but with a common finished product.If they deal in a similar line of product, a horizontal merger is formed. If they deal in a different line of products but with a common finished product, a vertical merger is formed. In the illustrations below, the paper shall focus on vertical merger and a horizontal merger in the apparel industry. To begin with a vertical merger, an analysis of study two clothing industries shall be done. That is the VF Corporation and the Timberland Company. The VF Corporation is an American clothing industry that deals in work wear, jeanswear, underwear, and daypacks. On the other hand, the Timberland Company is equally an American retailer and whole saler of outdoors wear, but with a focus on footwear. As it can be noticed, the two companies deal with different lines of product, but with a common finished product of outdoors wear. In June 2011, the VF Corporation acquired the Timberland Company thus forming a vertical merger. The primary objective of this merger was to make the production process and the distribution process more efficient and cost effective. In the agreement, VF was confident of keeping Timberland going by adding Timberland’s strong brands to its brands.

Types of dementia and common signs and symptoms Essay Example for Free

Types of dementia and common signs and symptoms Essay The term ‘dementia’ describes a set of symptoms which can include loss of memory, mood changes and problems with communication and reasoning. These symptoms occur when the brain is damaged by certain conditions and diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. †¨Age is the greatest risk factor for dementia. Dementia affects one in 14 people over the age of 65 and one in six over the age of 80. However, dementia is not restricted to older people: in the UK, there are over 17,000 people under the age of 65 with dementia, although this figure is likely to be an underestimate. Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease affects around 496,000 people in the United Kingdom and is the most common cause of dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is a physical disease which affects the brain. It was first described by a German neurologist, Alois Alzheimer. During the course of the disease, protein plaques and tangles develop in the structure of the brain, leading to the death of brain cells. People with Alzheimer’s also have a shortage of some important chemicals in their brain which are involved with the transmission of messages. †¨Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease, meaning that over time more parts of the brain are damaged. As this happens, the symptoms become more severe. †¨People in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease may experience lapses of memory and have problems finding the right words. As the disease progresses, some symptoms that a person may experience are: Confusion; frequently forgetting the names of people, places, appointments and recent events. Mood swings; feeling sad or angry, or scared and frustrated by their increasing memory loss. Withdrawal; due to either a loss of confidence or communication problems. Difficulty when carrying out everyday activities; a person with Alzheimer’s may get muddled checking their change at the shops or become unsure how to work the television remote. So far, no one single factor has been identified as a cause for Alzheimers disease. It is likely that a combination of factors including  age, genetic inheritance, environmental factors, lifestyle and overall general health, are responsible. In some people, the disease may develop silently for many years before symptoms appear. Vascular Dementia Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. It is caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain. Brain cells need a good supply of blood in order to be healthy and function properly. Blood is delivered through a network of blood vessels called the vascular system. If the vascular system within the brain becomes damaged and blood cannot reach the brain cells, the cells will eventually die. This can lead to the onset of vascular dementia. †¨Factors that can increase a person’s risk of developing vascular dementia include: A medical history of stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes (particularly type II), heart problems or sleep apnoea (where breathing stops for a few seconds or minutes during sleep). A lack of physical activity, drinking more that recommended levels of alcohol, smoking, eating a fatty diet or leaving conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes untreated. A family history of stroke or cardiovascular disease. An Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Sri Lankan ethnic background as differences in vascular risk factors (such as heart disease) in these communities may contribute to the increased risk. An African-Caribbean ethnic background. There are different types of vascular dementia: Stroke-related dementia, sub-cortical vascular dementia and mixed dementia (vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease). The difference between these types depends on what has caused the damage in the brain and which part of the brain has been damaged.†¨Common signs and symptoms of vascular dementia may include: Problems with speed of thinking, concentration and communication. Depression and anxiety accompanying the dementia. Symptoms of a stroke, such as physical weakness or paralysis. Seizures. Periods of severe confusion. Visual mistakes and misperceptions (for example, seeing a rug as a pond). Changes in behaviour (for example, restlessness). Difficulties with walking and unsteadiness. Hallucinations and delusions. Problems with continence. Psychological symptoms such as becoming more obsessive. Dementia with Lewy Bodies Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a form of dementia which shares characteristics with both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It accounts for around 10% of all cases of dementia in older people and tends to be under-diagnosed. †¨Named after the doctor who first identified them in 1912, Lewy bodies are tiny, spherical protein deposits found in nerve cells. Their presence in the brain disrupts the brain’s normal functioning, interrupting the action of important chemical messengers. Lewy bodies are also found in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disease that affects movement. †¨Dementia with Lewy bodies is also a progressive disease, which means that over time the symptoms will become worse. DLB progresses at about the same rate as Alzheimer’s disease, typically over several years. Symptoms of DLB can include: Problems with attention and alertness, often have spatial disorientation and experience difficulty with ‘executive function’, which includes difficulty in planning ahead and co-ordination mental activities. Memory is affected, although it is typically less so than in Alzheimer’s disease. Slowness. muscle stiffness. trembling of the limbs, a tendency to shuffle when walking, loss of facial expression and changes in the strength and tone of the voice. Experience detailed and convincing visual hallucinations, often of people or animals. Find that their abilities fluctuate daily or hourly. Fall asleep very easily by day, and have restless, disturbed nights with confusion, nightmares and hallucinations. Faint, fall or have ‘funny turns’. Researchers have yet to understand fully why Lewy bodies occur in the brain and how they cause damage. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (CJD) is a rare form of dementia. Rarer forms of dementia account for around only 5% of all dementia cases in the UK. †¨CJD is caused by an infection protein in the brain called a prion. These prions accumulate at high levels in the brain and cause irreversible damage to nerve cells. There are four main types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Sporadic CJD, variant CJD, familial or inherited CJD and iatrogenic CJD. Sporadic CJD, which normally affects people over 40, is the most common form of the disease. It is estimated that the disease affects about one out of every 1 million people every year. There may be many years between a person being infected and the development of symptoms. Symptoms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease include: Loss of intellect and memory. Change in personality. Loss of balance and co-ordination. Slurred speech. Visual problems and blindness. Abnormal jerking movements. Progressive loss of brain function and mobility. Most people with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease will die within a year of the symptoms starting, usually from infection. This is because the immobility caused by the disease can make people with the condition vulnerable to infection.

Analyzing Night By Elie Wiesel

Analyzing Night By Elie Wiesel Using eyes to describe a person, at the beginning of the book, Elie describes how he likes Moishe the Beadles wide, dreamy eyes that gaze off into the distance. These eyes show that Moishe the Beadle has great wisdom, hope, and is a very great being. He seems to be a very humble and modest man. His eyes might also suggest his strong belief in God and hope to get past the holocaust, pain, death, and suffering. But in contrast, when Moishe De Beadle returns from his horrible experience and his witnessing of death and the killing of infants, his eyes are empty and hollow. His eyes no longer show joy, dreaminess, and the hope. Moishe De Beadle no longer even mentions God. His eyes show that he is overwhelmed by fear and horror and that he might have lost all hope. The reason I think Elie Wiesel decided to wait a decade before attempting to express his experience in words was because that he was too afraid to speak out at the time. But I believe that even if Elie Wiesel tried to speak out, his voice would have been silenced along with millions of others. To this day, voices such as Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank are some of the not-so-many and preserved voices we can hear. Even if Elie tried to speak out, there would be no one to listen to him. He could have been killed, beaten, and hurt in the concentration camps just for expressing his thoughts. But I still believe that what he did was wrong. The silence and the victimà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s lack of resistance of what was happening was what allowed the holocaust to continue. Even it meant being killed or beaten, Elie should have tried loudly and boldly to speak of the horrors of the holocaust. It would be a very hard thing to do but it was the right thing to do. Elie had been controlled by fear and kept si lent until the incident was all over. Unable to go back, Elie now speaks out. After his experience in the holocaust, Elie Wiesel lived on and spoke about it so that people could learn from the past to prevent history to repeat itself. He speaks of his memories and experiences so that the world can learn from its past mistakes. Two examples of the theme, emotional death in the story is the way Mrs. Schachter behaves when her husband and two older sons were deported and when Moishe De Beadle escapes from the Galician forest, witnessing the deaths of many. Emotional death can easily allow the reader to understand how terrible the holocaust was and its horrors. Mrs. Schachter had lost her mind, crying and screaming hysterically. Moishe De Beadles eyes had become hollow and he had lost the will to live. Both were not dead yet but something inside them had died and they have lost hope of themselves. The prisoners recitation of the Kaddish prayer as they walk through Auschwitz conveys the theme of struggle to maintain faith by showing that the prisoners are beginning to realize the cruelty and evil of the holocaust. Recitation of the prayer may bring comfort for those who still believe in God. But the prisoners begin to doubt their faith. They wonder if God notices their pain or even cares. Reciting the prayer allows the prisoners to realize that the pain, suffering, and death has yet to be prevented by God. 2. The motif of night is used to explain Eliezers experiences in the camp because Elie Wiesels life could be easily compared to nighttime. At night, it is dark and frightening, just like Wiesels experiences in the camp. At night, there is no sunshine, no light. There is only darkness, just like the way life passed on for Elie Wiesel in those concentration camps. Elie Wiesel explained how he had lost track of time. Nighttime would come every day and the Jews would be afraid if they would live to go through the night and what would happen to them in the next hour. 3. A work of literature that I know that conveys a theme found in Night is a book I read called, The Hunger Games. It is a book about a teenage girl who is thrown into a game where she has to fight to the death against dozens of other teenagers, a show for the whole nation to watch. They both have themes of survival, self preservation, humanity, and hope. In Night, Elie Wiesel witnessed people fighting and beating one another over crumbs of bread and Jews beating and fighting each other for food. In the Hunger Games, contestants have to fight and kill each other until only one remains standing. Both books show the characters struggle against if they should go against humanity in order to save their own lives. Both books show how humans can be some cruel. Part 3 1. The statement, à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Man raises himself towards God by the questions he asks Him.à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Demonstrates the narratorà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s struggle with faith of Rosh Hashanah by showing that Eliezer doubts Godà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s justice and power, seeing that God does nothing to relieve the suffering in the Holocaust. On Rosh Hashanah, Elie refuses to pray, for he feels that God either does not care or cannot do anything about the horrors of the holocaust. Elie also begins to think that man is very strong, even greater than god. This behavior is entirely in contrast to Elieà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s past interest in his Judaism faith. Elie has witnessed so much torture and death that he beings to question God. 2. An example of the theme, self preservation vs. family commitment, is when Mier, a boy killed his father on a train for a small piece of bread. He then found out that his father had saved a piece for him. Mier had lost sight of what was important of him and only cared about saving himself, killing his own father for food. He had become a person without a sense of humanity. An example of the theme, emotional death, is how Elie feels after his fatherà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s death. Nothing matters to him anymore since his fatherà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s death. Elie no longer thinks of anything but the desire to eat. He lives on, but really, he is no longer himself. His fatherà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s death gives him great guilt and depression. He had ignored his fatherà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s call when he was dying and thirsty, guilty how he had felt his father as a burden. He realized that he had lost what he had loved most. An example of the theme, struggling to maintain faith, is the day of Rosh Hashanah where Elie Wiesel is full of anger towards God, refusing to pray for he blames that God has been cruel and uncaring, allowing the suffering and pain to continue. An example of the theme, dignity in the face of inhuman cruelty, is when Juliek was surrounded by hundreds of dead and dying bodies, yet he still played his violin, something he loved. An SS officer had not allowed Juliek to play what he had wanted, Beethoven. The day of his death, although not allowed, he played Beethoven, showing his dignity. 3. Elie Wiesel struggles to live, but also having to care for his father where survival is unbearably difficult. Elie did love his father but to continuously help and care for his father made it harder for him to ensure his own survival. He tried his best not to lose sight of what was important to him, family. But in the end, Elies self preservation behavior took over his commitment to his father. Elie was afraid to get another blow to the head by the officer and ignored his father who was desperately calling out his name, thirsty and dying. With the death of his father, Elie felt that he was finally free at last, seeing his father as nothing but a burden. He feels that his father is better off dead than having to suffer. 4. Based on what I know about history and what Wiesel writes in à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½Nightà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ about human nature is that we are all scared and frightened beings. We can be so selfish, greedy, and we desire so many things because we are human. Humans are so imperfect by nature. Humans have also done the most evil things possible, to such an extent that humans would kill one another. But I think by nature, humans are individual social beings. All humans have lied, been greedy, and have been frightened but humans are able to learn from their past mistakes. Compared to the times of the holocaust, human behavior has gradually improved. 4. I think it was an effective way how Wiesel devoted only a few lines to the events after his liberation. After his liberation, Elie wrote little but what he wrote had very great meanings. He wrote how when he looked into the mirror, a corpse was looking back at him. Elie Wiesel could never forget the look in his eyes as they gazed back at him. This short phrase made me, the reader, have to analyze and comprehend what I had just read. The words spoke for themselves, showing Elieà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s great pain and sadness. I thought the ending was just enough to describe Elie Wieselà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s feelings. Something else that Wiesel might have done was explain how

The Importance Of Marketing Communication Marketing Essay

The Importance Of Marketing Communication Marketing Essay Introduction In this paper, I would like to discuss the problems associated with marketing communication in international markets. When I proceed with the assignment, with relevant examples, I will examine why an integrated marketing communication is essential to the success of a multinational in a highly competitive international market. Marketing communications in international markets needs to be conducted with care. This paper will consider some of the key issues that businesses need to take into account when promoting products or services in overseas markets with different socio, cultural background. The importance of marketing communication Those who practice advertising, branding, direct marketing, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales promotion and online marketing are termed marketing communicators. The communication process is sender-encoding-transmission device-decoding-receiver, which is part of any advertising or marketing program. Encoding the message is the second step in communication process, which takes a creative idea and transforms it into attention-getting advertisements designed for various media such as television, radio, magazines, and others. Massages travel to audiences through various transmission devices. The third stage of the marketing communication process occurs when a channel or medium delivers the message. Decoding occurs when the message reaches one or more of the receivers senses. Consumers both hear and see television ads. Others consumers handle or touch and read a coupon offer. One obstacle that prevents marketing messages from being efficient and effective is called barrier. Barrier is anything that distorts or disrupts a message. It can occur at any stage in the communication process. Marketing Communications are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Marketing communications is the promotion part of the Marketing Mix or the four Ps: price, place, promotion, and product. The primary goal of marketing communication is to reach a defined audience to affect its behavior by informing, persuading, and reminding. Marketing communication acquires new customers for brands by building awareness and encouraging trial. Marketing communication also maintains a brands current customer base by reinforcing their purchase behavior by providing additional information about the brands benefits. A secondary goal of marketing communication is building and reinforcing relationships with customers, prospects, retailers, and other important stakeholders. Successful marketing communication relies on a combination of options called the promotional mix. These options include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, and personal selling. The Internet has also become a powerful tool for reaching certain important audiences. The role each element takes in a marketing communication program relies in part on whether a company employs a push strategy or a pull strategy. A pull strategy relies more on consumer demand than personal selling for the product to travel from the manufacturer to the end user. The demand generated by advertising, public relations, and sales promotion pulls the good or service through the channels of distribution. A push strategy, on the other hand, emphasizes personal selling to push the product through these channels. Traditionally, marketing communications practitioners focused on the creation and execution of printed marketing collateral; however, academic and professional research developed the practice to use strategic elements of branding and marketing in order to ensure consistency of message delivery throughout an organization. Many trends in business can be attributed to marketing communications; for example: the transition from customer service to customer relations, and the transition from human resources to human solutions. How marketing communication become successful? For marketing communication to be successful, sound management decisions must be made in the other three areas of the marketing mix: the product, service or idea itself; the price at which the brand will be offered; and the places at or through which customers may purchase the brand. The best promotion cannot overcome poor product quality, inordinately high prices, or insufficient retail distribution. Likewise, successful marketing communication relies on sound management decisions regarding the coordination of the various elements of the promotional mix. To this end, a new way of viewing marketing communication emerged in the 1990s. It is called integrated marketing communication; this perspective seeks to orchestrate the use of all forms of the promotional mix to reach customers at different levels in new and better ways. Why integrated marketing communication is important? The evolution of the above mentioned perspective has two origins. Marketers began to realize that advertising, public relations, and sales were often at odds regarding responsibilities, budgets, management input and myriad other decisions affecting the successful marketing of a brand. Executives in each area competed with the others for resources and a voice in decision making. The outcome was inconsistent promotional efforts, wasted money, counterproductive management decisions, and, perhaps worst of all, confusion among consumers. Secondly, the marketing perspective itself began to shift from being market oriented to market driven. Marketing communication was traditionally viewed as an inside-out way of presenting the companys messages. Advertising was the dominant element in the promotional mix because the mass media could effectively deliver a sales message to a mass audience. But then the mass market began to fragment. Consumers became better educated and more skeptical about advertising. A variety of sources, both controlled by the marketer and uncontrolled, became important to consumers. News reports, word-of-mouth, experts opinions, and financial reports were just some of the brand contacts consumers began to use to learn about and form attitudes and opinions about a brand or company, or make purchase decisions. Advertising began to lose some of its luster in terms of its ability to deliver huge homogeneous audiences. Companies began to seek new ways to coordinate the multiplicity of product and company messages being issued and used by consumers and others. Thus, two ideas permeate integrated marketing communication: relationship building and synergy. rather than the traditional inside-out view, integrated marketing communication is seen as an outside-in perspective. Customers are viewed not as targets but as partners in an ongoing relationship. Customers, prospects, and others encounter the brand and company through a host of sources and create from these various contacts ideas about the brand and company. By knowing the media habits and lifestyles of important consumer segments, marketers can tailor messages through media that are most likely to reach these segments at times when these segments are most likely to be receptive to these messages, thus optimizing the marketing communication effort. Ideally, integrated marketing communication is implemented by developing comprehensive databases on customers and prospects, segmenting these current and potential customers into groups with certain common awareness levels, predispositions, and behaviors, and developing messages and media strategies that guide the communication tactics to meet marketing objectives. In doing this, integrated marketing communication builds and reinforces mutually profitable relationships with customers and other important stakeholders and generates synergy by coordinating all elements in the promotional mix into a program that possesses clarity, consistency, and maximum impact. Practitioners and academics alike, however, have noted the difficulty of effectively implementing integrated marketing communication. Defining exactly what integrated marketing communication is has been difficult. For example, merely coordinating messages so that speaking with one clear voice in all promotional efforts does not fully capture the meaning of integrated marketing communication. Also, changing the organization to accommodate the integrated approach has challenged the command and control structure of many organizations. However, studies suggest that integrated marketing communication is viewed by a vast majority of marketing executives as having the greatest potential impact on their companys marketing strategies, more so than the economy, pricing, and globalization. The importance of advertising in marketing communication Advertising has four characteristics: it is persuasive in nature; it is non-personal; it is paid for by an identified sponsor; and it is disseminated through mass channels of communication. Advertising messages may promote the adoption of goods, services, persons, or ideas. Because the sales message is disseminated through the mass mediaà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬as opposed to personal sellingà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬it is viewed as a much cheaper way of reaching consumers. However, its non-personal nature means it lacks the ability to tailor the sales message to the message recipient and, more importantly, actually get the sale. Therefore, advertising effects are best measured in terms of increasing awareness and changing attitudes and opinions, not creating sales. Advertisings contribution to sales is difficult to isolate because many factors influence sales. The contribution advertising makes to sales are best viewed over the long run. The exception to this thinking is within the internet arena. While banner ads, pop-ups and interstitials should still be viewed as brand promoting and not necessarily sales drivers, technology provides the ability to track how many of a websites visitors click the banner, investigate a product, request more information, and ultimately make a purchase. Through the use of symbols and images advertising can help differentiate products and services that are otherwise similar. Advertising also helps create and maintain brand equity. Brand equity is an intangible asset that results from a favorable image, impressions of differentiation, or consumer attachment to the company, brand, or trademark. This equity translates into greater sales volume, and/or higher margins, thus greater competitive advantage. Brand equity is established and maintained through advertising that focuses on image, product attributes, service, or other features of the company and its products or services. Cost is the greatest disadvantage of advertising. The average cost for a 30-second spot on network television increased fivefold between 1980 and 2005. Plus, the average cost of producing a 30-second ad for network television is quite expensive. It is not uncommon for a national advertiser to spend in the millions of dollars for one 30-second commercial to be produced. Add more millions on top of that if celebrity talent is utilized. Credibility and clutter are other disadvantages. Consumers have become increasingly skeptical about advertising messages and tend to resent advertisers attempt to persuade. Advertising is everywhere, from network television, to daily newspapers, to roadside billboards, to golf course signs, to stickers on fruit in grocery stores. Clutter encourages consumers to ignore many advertising messages. New media are emerging, such as digital video recorders which allow consumers to record programs and then skip commercials, and satellite radio which provides a majority of its channels advertising free. Marketing communication and public relations Public relations is defined as a management function which identifies, establishes, and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics upon which its success or failure depends. Whereas advertising is a one-way communication from sender (the marketer) to the receiver (the consumer or the retail trade), public relations considers multiple audiences (consumers, employees, suppliers, vendors, etc.) and uses two-way communication to monitor feedback and adjust both its message and the organizations actions for maximum benefit. A primary tool used by public relations practitioners is publicity. Publicity capitalizes on the news value of a product, service, idea, person or event so that the information can be disseminated through the news media. This third party endorsement by the news media provides a vital boost to the marketing communication message: credibility. Articles in the media are perceived as being more objective than advertisements, and their messages are more likely to be absorbed and believed. For example, after the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes reported in the early 1990s that drinking moderate amounts of red wine could prevent heart attacks by lowering cholesterol; red wine sales in the United States increased 50 percent. The other benefit publicity offers is that it is free, not considering the great amount of effort it can require to get out-bound publicity noticed and picked up by media sources. Public relations role in the promotional mix is becoming more important because of what Philip Kotler describes as an over communicated society. Consumers develop communication-avoidance routines where they are likely to tune out commercial messages. As advertising loses some of its cost-effectiveness, marketers are turning to news coverage, events, and community programs to help disseminate their product and company messages. Some consumers may also base their purchase decisions on the image of the company, for example, how environmentally responsible the company is. Direct marketing and database marketing Direct marketing, the oldest form of marketing, is the process of communicating directly with target customers to encourage response by telephone, mail, electronic means, or personal visit. Users of direct marketing include retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and service providers, and they use a variety of methods including direct mail, telemarketing, direct-response advertising, and online computer shopping services, cable shopping networks, and infomercials. Traditionally not viewed as an element in the promotional mix, direct marketing represents one of the most profound changes in marketing and promotion in the last 25 years. Aspects of direct marketing, which includes direct response advertising and direct mail advertising as well as the various research and support activities necessary for their implementation, have been adopted by virtually all companies engaged in marketing products, services, ideas, or persons. Direct marketing has become an important part of many marketing communication programs for three reasons. First, the number of two-income households has increased dramatically. About six in every ten women in the United States work outside the home. This has reduced the amount of time families have for shopping trips. Secondly, more shoppers than ever before rely on credit cards for payment of goods and services. These cashless transactions make products easier and faster to purchase. Database marketing is a form of direct marketing that attempts to gain and reinforce sales transactions while at the same time being customer driven. Successful database marketing continually updates lists of prospects and customers by identifying who they are, what they are like, and what they are purchasing now or may be purchasing in the future. By using database marketing, marketers can develop products and/or product packages to meet their customers needs or develop creative and media strategies that match their tastes, values, and lifestyles. The importance of Sales promotion, sponsorships and exhibitions. Sales promotions are direct inducements that offer extra incentives to enhance or accelerate the products movement from producer to consumer. Sales promotions may be directed at the consumer or the trade. Consumer promotions such as coupons, sampling, premiums, sweepstakes, price packs, low-cost financing deals, and rebates are purchase incentives in that they induce product trial and encourage repurchase. Consumer promotions may also include incentives to visit a retail establishment or request additional information. Sales promotions can motivate customers to select a particular brand, especially when brands appear to be equal, and they can produce more immediate and measurable results than advertising. However, too heavy a reliance on sales promotions results in deal-prone consumers with little brand loyalty and too much price sensitivity. Sales promotions can also force competitors to offer similar inducements, with sales and profits suffering for everyone. Sponsorships, or event marketing, combine advertising and sales promotions with public relations. Sponsorships increase awareness of a company or product, build loyalty with a specific target audience, help differentiate a product from its competitors, provide merchandising opportunities, demonstrate commitment to a community or ethnic group, or impact the bottom line. Like advertising, sponsorships are initiated to build long-term associations. Exhibits, or trade shows, are hybrid forms of promotion between business-to-business advertising and personal selling. Trade shows provide opportunities for face-to-face contact with prospects, enable new companies to create a viable customer base in a short period of time, and allow small and midsize companies that may not be visited on a regular basis by salespeople to become familiar with suppliers and vendors. Because many trade shows generate media attention, they have also become popular venues for introducing new products and providing a stage for executives to gain visibility. When we talk about Personal selling, it includes all person-to-person contact with customers with the purpose of introducing the product to the customer, convincing him or her of the products value, and closing the sale. The role of personal selling varies from organization to organization, depending on the nature and size of the company, the industry, and the products or services it is marketing. Many marketing executives realize that both sales and non-sales employees act as salespeople for their organization in one way or another. Personal selling is the most effective way to make a sale because of the interpersonal communication between the salesperson and the prospect. Messages can be tailored to particular situations, immediate feedback can be processed, and message strategies can be changed to accommodate the feedback. However, personal selling is the most expensive way to make a sale. Marketing communication and Internet marketing Just as direct marketing has become a prominent player in the promotional mix, so too has the Internet. Web sites provide a new way of transmitting information, entertainment, and advertising, and have generated a new dimension in marketing: electronic commerce. E-commerce is the term used to describe the act of selling goods and services over the Internet. In other words, the Internet has become more that a communication channel; it is a marketing channel itself with companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, and others selling goods via the Internet to individuals around the globe. In less than 10 years advertising expenditures on the Internet will rival those for radio and outdoor. Public relations practitioners realize the value that web sites offer in establishing and maintaining relationships with important publics. For example, company and product information can be posted on the companys site for news reporters researching stories and for current and potential customers seeking information. Political candidates have web sites that provide information about their background and their political experience. The interactivity of the Internet is perhaps its greatest asset. By communicating with customers, prospects, and others one-on-one, firms can build databases that help them meet specific needs of individuals, thus building a loyal customer base. Because the cost of entry is negligible, the Internet is cluttered with web sites. However, this clutter does not present the same kind of problem that advertising clutter does. Advertising and most other forms of promotion assume a passive audience that will be exposed to marketing communication messages via the mass media or mail regardless of their receptivity. Web sites require audiences who are active in the information-seeking process to purposely visit the site. Therefore, the quality and freshness of content is vital for the success of the web site. International Marketing Communications and Cultural Issues. There are a whole range of cultural issues that international marketers need to consider when communicating with target audiences in different cultures. Language will always be a challenge. One cannot use a single language for an international campaign. For example, there are between six and twelve main regional variations of the Chinese languages, with the most popular being Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Cantonese. India has 22 languages including Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, and Tamil to name but a few. Of course language choice could affect branding choices, and the names of products and services. Hidden messages and humor would be especially tricky to convey. Famous examples include the Vauxhall Corsa, which was called the Nova in the United Kingdom of course No VA! Would not be an acceptable name in Spanish. A similar problem was left unaddressed by Toyota, with their MR2 in France (think about it!). Design, symbolism and aesthetics sometimes do not transcend international boundaries. For example Japanese aesthetics sometimes focus upon taste and beauty. Also look at Japanese cars from the front they have a smiling face. The manner in which people present themselves in terms of dress and appearance changes from culture to culture. For example in Maori culture, dress plays a central role with everyday clothing differing greatly from ceremonial costume. Whereas in Western business-culture the standard uniform tends to be a conservative collar and tie. Conclusion From the above discussions we can see that marketing communication has become an integral part of the social and economic system. Consumers rely on the information from marketing communication to make wise purchase decisions. Businesses, ranging from multinational corporations to small retailers, depend on marketing communication to sell their goods and services. Marketing communication has also become an important player in the life of a business. Marketing communication helps move products, services, and ideas from manufacturers to end users and builds and maintains relationships with customers, prospects, and other important stakeholders in the company. Advertising and sales promotion will continue to play important roles in marketing communication mix. However, marketing strategies that stress relationship building in addition to producing sales will force marketers to consider all the elements in the marketing communication mix. I hope, In the future new information gathering techniques will help marketers target more precisely customers and prospects using direct marketing strategies. New media technologies will provide businesses and consumers new ways to establish and reinforce relationships that are important for the success of the firm and important for consumers as they make purchase decisions. In the coming years I believe, Internet will become a major force in how organizations communicate with a variety of constituents, customers, clients, and other interested parties.

Rock n Roll :: essays research papers

Rock n Roll has never just been music. Heavy metal, Rhythm & Blues, Art Rock, New Wave, and the rest may be primary styles or genres but as sub-categories of rock, or rockin roll they do not cumulatively add up to the whole. Rock n’ Roll is a movement, a lifestyle, in many ways a belief system and all that Rock n Roll is today it owes to history: two years, no more than three when the fabric of American popular culture was torn apart and rewoven, and a new era explosively began. Rock n Roll started with slavery. To understand we must understand what slavery was and where it left the sons and daughters of African who knew nothing of European rods of American culture. Every society has its indigenous music, which serves as entertainment, story teller, and accompaniment to Ritual and Ceremony. It is not nearly sufficient to identify black musical heritage from slave work songs through Rag Time, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, R&B, and the like, and simple extrapolate the line further to encompass Rock n Roll. Rock n Roll starts from these foundations, but adds more, and what it principally add is white America, both in music and in the audience. White America slowly discovered endearing, inspiring, musical heritage that had become central to African Americans lives, and establishing a tradition that is protected this day, began to imitate and adapt black music. Thus this hub rid forms arrived at one time or another, Rock n Roll has incorporated Country and Western, Swing, Classical, Big Band, Folk, and even Tin Pan Alley musical elements, just as it has incorporated Blues, R&B. It would be wrong, therefore, to claim that Rock n Roll is an inherently â€Å"black† music, although clearly without the presence of although clearly without the presence of African

Carson Mccullers The Member Of The Wedding: Summary :: essays research papers

Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding: Summary The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers is the story of an adolescent girl who triumphs over loneliness and gains maturity through an identity that she creates for herself in her mind. It is with this guise that twelve year old Frankie Addams begins to feel confident about herself and life. The author seems to indicate that one can feel good about oneself through positive thinking regardless of reality. The novel teaches that one's destiny is a self-fulfilled prophecy, seeing one's self in a certain light oftentimes creates an environment where one might become that which one would like to be. The world begins to look new and beautiful to Frankie when her older brother Jarvis returns from Alaska with his bride-to-be, Janice. The once clumsy Frankie, forlorn and lonely, feeling that she "was a member of nothing in the world" now decides that she is going to be "the member of the wedding." Frankie truly believes that she is going to be an integral part of her brother's new family and becomes infatuated with the idea that she will leave Georgia and live with Jarvis and Janice in Winter Hill. In her scheme to be part of this new unit, she dubs herself F. Jasmine so that she and the wedding couple will all have names beginning with the letters J and a. Her positive thinking induces a euphoria which contributes to a rejection of the old feeling that "the old Frankie had no we to claim.... Now all this was suddenly over with and changed. There was her brother and the bride, and it was as though when first she saw them something she had known inside of her: They are the we of me." Being a member of the wedding will, she feels, connect her irrevocably to her brother and his wife. Typical of many teenagers, she felt that in order to be someone she has to be a part of an intact, existing group, that is, Jarvis and Janice. The teen years are known as a time of soul-searching for a new and grown up identity. In an effort to find this identity teens seek to join a group. Frankie, too, is deperate for Jarvis and Janice's adult acceptance. Frankie is forced to spend the summer with John Henry, her six year old cousin, and Berenice Brown, her black cook. It is through her interactions with these two characters that the reader perceives Frankie's ascent from childhood. Before Jarvis and Janice arrive, Frankie is content to play with

Continuum of Strategies Essay

This paper will discuss Chapter 5 and the continuum of strategies using the SIOP model and the appropriate situations to use each within the classroom. It will also discuss when these strategies may be used inappropriately in the classroom.In research literature, learning strategies of three types have been identified, which are cognitive strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, and social/affective strategies. Cognitive strategies assist students in organizing information through learning that is self-regulated. Meta-cognitive strategies use awareness, interaction, and reflection in a manner that is interrelated, integrated, and recursive. Social/Affective Strategies are affective and social influences on learning. Enhanced learning is possible when people interact with each other to clarify their doubts or when they involve themselves in group related activities to solve a problem (Echevarria et al, 2000). During the process of teaching learning, a continuum of strategies occurs from teacher-centered, teacher-assisted, peer-assisted, and student-centered. Through practice with student-centered and peer-assisted strategies, students’ ultimate goal is to develop independence in self-regulation and self-monitoring. However, difficulties are faced by several English learners in initiating an active role in using these strategies. This happens because English learners are required to focus their mental energy on language skills development. It is therefore important that sheltered instruction teachers scaffold English learners by providing them with numerous opportunities to use a wide range of proven, effective strategies (Echevarria et al, 2000).Consider a common sheltered instruction classroom scenario, where a topic is being taught by a teacher. For example, assume that the topic is conservation and preservation of terrestrial resources. A teacher could model and teach several important processing strategies by engaging students in the SQP2RS/Squeepers activity for the expository text selection that include evaluation, self-questioning, prediction, monitoring and clarifying, and summarizing. A teacher could then lead students through the modeled activity, providing support for surveying text, question generation, predictions confirmation or disconfirmation, and information summarization. Added to this, Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy (VSS) could be incorporated. VSS helps students in carefully selecting and discussing vocabulary that is important to the studied topic. Scaffolding can be improved by teachers by incorporating a wide range of  techniques that provide support with the aim of eventually making students independently apply several strategies (Echevarria et al, 2000). During topic instruction, a teacher could use grouping configurations including triads, partners, small groups, or the entire class. Mo deling of strategies for the students can happen more efficiently if a teacher plans them prior to the time they require application. Choice plays a critical role, so a teacher could encourage students to select important vocabulary and homework questions that interest those most. Questioning could be incorporated throughout topic instruction, including debate/discussion questions at varied levels like literal, analysis and evaluation, application and synthesis, and synthesis and evaluation. This way, through SQP2RS activity, the difficulty of text could be effectively reduced and at the same time, it can be ensured that the cognitive demand of the questions is not reduced.Teaching of strategies to students by a teacher can happen in an inappropriate manner if a teacher asks students to make predictions based on the topic title, does not probe into student responses to encourage deeper thinking about the topic, does not ask for other predictions, or does not reinforce and build upon other students’ predictions during the reading of text from the topic. It is often the case that teachers ask students for predictions, accept the responses, and move on further with the topic without actually expanding or revisiting them later in their instruction (Echevarria et al, 2000). Strategies can be used inappropriately if a teacher attempts to scaffold student learning by reading the entire topic orally to the students or by making students read the topic title together. This significantly reduces demands of reading the text. If a teacher reads all of the topic text aloud to the students, then gradual support reduction will not take place, thus making students less likely to become independent. In situations where higher order thinking skills need to applied, strategies could be used inappropriately if a teacher fails to incorporate adequate questioning strategies to engage the thinking of students, probe student predictions for reasons behind their conclusions, or promote inquiry skills in students. Strategies may also be inappropriately used in the classroom if teachers involve students in activities that are removed from the topic at hand.The chances of English learners turning into critical thinkers can be increased by sheltering instruction consistently through strategic teaching,  modeling, appropriate scaffolding support, and questions that require students to apply, interpret, and synthesize what they have learned. References: Echevarria, J., Vogt, M.E., & Short, D. (2000). Making contentcomprehensible for English language learners: TheSIOP model. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.