Globalisation - Challenges and Opportunities in China Essay

Globalisation - Challenges and Opportunities in China - Essay Example It is under the prevailing circumstances that the behavior of Chinese market is studied in context with latest confidence building measures being taken up by the Chinese government, the trend of international investments, views of the international community and the ‘threat’ perception from the cheap Chinese manufacturing sector. Having inspired the marketers, with a vision of billion people consuming international brand in downtown, China is now recognized as a capable global competitor in its own right. And it has ambitious expansion plans - not only for Asia but also for the Europe, United States and elsewhere. Traditionally, the problems of doing business in China, in general, can be categorized into four main categories;It is under the prevailing circumstances that the behavior of Chinese market is studied in context with latest confidence building measures being taken up by the Chinese government, the trend of international investments, views of the international c ommunity and the ‘threat’ perception from the cheap Chinese manufacturing sector. Having inspired the marketers, with a vision of billion people consuming international brand in downtown, China is now recognized as a capable global competitor in its own right. And it has ambitious expansion plans - not only for Asia but also for the Europe, United States and elsewhere. Traditionally, the problems of doing business in China, in general, can be categorized into four main categories.

The Consumer Value from Online Shopping Research Proposal

The Consumer Value from Online Shopping - Research Proposal Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that consumer value basically refers to the satisfaction that the buyers get after purchasing a product. People belong to different localities and different age groups might have different views about the consumer value from online shopping and to prepare a marketing strategy for people of different ages and localities it is crucial to understand the differences in their thinking because an effective and adequate online marketing plan must cover some essential components like market analysis, marketing strategies specifically for internet, Design, and Contents plan for the website and consumer behavior analysis. Along with the spread of internet the trend of shopping online is also rising steadily and in this context, it is very necessary to understand that how much the consumers are getting value for the products that they shop online. The understanding of this issue is crucial because, in the highly competitive marketplace of today, interne t has emerged as an effective marketing tool   but to run the businesses online it is very necessary to have deep insight of the behaviors and psychographics of the online buyers so that marketing strategies could be designed according to the consumer behaviors. Berthon, Pitt, Watson discovered that online consumer is not an easy target for the marketers. and to be successful the marketing plan must possess the value factor as a leading device that should be used in the advertisements, promotional messages, information about the products etc and the value should be expressed in a way that the consumer can notice the value attached with the product. Before designing a marketing plan for online shopping it is again very important that there should be a comprehensive research that unfolds all the issues that how the people belonging to different age groups people view the idea of shopping online, how they are attracted towards products online and how do they view the product value th at they shop online. In this regard, it is also important to understand the thinking style and opinions of the people belonging to different age groups like teen 15-20, 21-29, 30-39, and 40 and above. Hence in this study opinions will be gathered from the people belonging to these different groups so that their behavior could be interpreted in the marketing plan.

A Case Study Of Telenor Management Essay

A Case Study Of Telenor Management Essay 1. Introduction This study endeavors to develop comprehension of how transformational leadership style of top management affects innovation at the organizational level. The topic is of paramount importance because of the ever increasing pressures of modernization and innovation on todays global economy. It has become indispensable to practice a leadership style that makes firms innovative and adaptive to change. Firms are shifting their focus from knowledge economy to creative economy, where corporations will compete on the basis of imagination, innovation and creativity (Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009) Boston Consulting Group Inc surveyed over 900 senior executives and identified innovation as the key driver of top-line revenue. Analysis of firms transforming due to innovation provides evidence for this statement. For example, the highly successful iPod of Apple Inc.s, that earned devastating revenues for the company; the role of Blackberrys success in the transformation and emergence of Research in Motion; process innovation at Southwest Airlines Co. that transformed it as an economical and triumphant airline; and Procter Gamble Co. outperforming its competitors by focusing on design innovation. Innovation aims at bringing about change in the status quo. It can be defined as discovering (creative thinking ideas) and commercializing those discoveries (implementing the creative ideas). Creativity new idea generation alone are insufficient for innovation; implementation is also a cornerstone of the innovation process. (Oke, Munshi, Walumbwa, 2009) Plentiful studies have led to the identification of factors that can stimulate innovation at the organizational level. In broad terms, innovation is the adoption or execution of unaccustomed and convenient ideas by individuals in organizations (Amabile Conti 1999) p.360). Factors that are known to have an influence on innovation include leadership (Mumford Gustafson, 1998; Amabile, 1998), a work environment that is conducive for innovation (Amabile, 1998; Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009), CEO salary (Markman, Balkin and Gomez-Mejia, 2000), organizational culture and climate (Mumford Gustafson, 1998; Jung, Wu Chow, 2008; Oke, Munshi Walumbwa, 2009), environmental attributes (Jung, Wu Chow, 2008), learning capability and intra-organizational networks (Tsai, 2001) and job complexity type of supervision (Oldham Cummings, 1996). Among these abundant factors, the leadership behavior of managers has been spotted as one of the most important of all (Amabile, 1998; Jung, 2001; Mumford, Sc ott, Gaddis Strange, 2002). Leadership was merely a concept before the 19th century and it was in the start of the 19th century that it emerged as a word in English language (Davis Cushing). Over the years, leaders and leadership have been distinctly defined by various scholars. Leadership is a process whereby a leader changes the course of action of another group, due to the interaction of his personality characteristics and those of the group (Bogardus, 1934). Leadership is the direction of human collaborators for the accomplishment of a goal. A leader successfully guides his human assistants for the achievement of particular ends. (Prentice, W.C.H. 1961). Leadership is a goal directed endeavor with the aim to influence the activities of followers through communication process. (Donelly, J.H. Ivancevich, J. M. Gibson, J.L. 1985 Leadership is the situational effort towards goal achievement by the process of influencing the individual or group activities. (Hersey, P. Blanchard, K, 1988). Leadership is the f ormulation of a transparent and complete system of expectations for the purpose of identification, arousal and utilization of strengths of all the resources of an organization, the most important of which is human resource (Batten, J.D. 1989). Leadership is the art of influencing individuals to yield their best output/ performance for the accomplishment of a goal, project or objective. (Cohen, W.A. 1990). Leaders are the people who obtain commitment from a working group of individuals and then motivate them to accomplish the outcomes of a pre-planned direction. (Conger, J.A.1992). Leadership is a process in which a leader sets the goal for an individual or group of individuals and takes all of them together with him or her with proficiency and devotion (Jacques E. Clement, S.D. 1994). Leadership is an unrealizable trait that cannot be distinctly defined. This in fact is a good phenomenon, because if the followers were aware of the definition of leadership, they would probably overr un their leaders. (Scott Adams, 1996). Effective leadership is about enabling ordinary people to deliver extraordinary results in the face of challenge and change and to constantly turn in superior performance to the long-term benefit of all concerned (Charlton, 1993). The more recent definitions conceive leadership in terms of influence relationships, power differentials, persuasion, influence on goal achievement, reinforcement, role differentiation, initiation of structure, and perceived attributions of behavior that are consistent with what the perceivers spotted leadership to be. Recently, many management scholars and gurus have identified adaptive leadership as the key enabler to cope with the ever increasing challenges of the corporate world. (Bass, Avolio, Jung Berson, 2003). So the adaptive leadership behaviors that have proved to be more effective than other leadership styles in organizational innovation have been labeled as transformational. (Lowe, Kroek, Sivasubramaniam, 1996; Gardner Avolio, 1998; Howell Avolio, 1993). Transformational leadership capabilities continue to be the hallmark of innovative firms. Successful leaders like J.R. Immelt, CEO of General Electric; A.G.Lafley, CEO of P&G; Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors Tata Group and Steve Jobs of Apple are the prominent figures who have fostered innovation by their adaptive behaviors. Transformational leadership holds four theoretically discrete dimensions: charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Idealized influence reflects the degree to which followers admire and hold their leaders as role models. Leaders exhibiting idealized influence are ethical, consistent, share risks with followers and prefer the needs of their followers above their own needs. Inspirational motivation points to the degree motivation of followers by delineating new opportunities, providing meaning and challenge to followers work and articulating a strong, realistic and shared vision of the future. Intellectual stimulation refers to the ability of a leader to question the assumptions and thinking of followers, reframe problems, stimulate intellectual curiosity, approaching problems in new ways, soliciting creativity and innovation from followers through novel approaches and avoiding open criticism for individual errors. Finally, leaders who provide individualized consideration pay attention to individual needs for growth, development, support and achievement. They act as coaches or mentors and establish a favorable environment for innovation; where values are diversified and learning opportunities are created (Bass Avolio, 1993) (Some versions of Bass Full-Range Leadership Theory identify 5 components of transformational leadership by breaking down idealized influence/ charisma into idealized influence or attributed charisma. For the sake of simplifying this research, idealized influence and charisma have been grouped together in this study). 2. Research Design 2.1 Main Objectives The aim of this study is to probe the following objectives: To discuss the philosophy, attributes and elements of transformational leadership and innovation To spot the existence of transformational leadership style at Telenor Pakistan To the asses the level of organizational innovation Telenor Pakistan To identify the effect transformational leadership style on organizational innovation 2.2 Hypotheses to be tested The objective of this study is to spot the presence of attributes of transformational leadership i.e. idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and intellectual stimulation, estimate the level of organizational innovation and examine the effect of transformational leadership on organizational innovation. The working hypothesis within this context will be as under: H0: Transformational leadership has no effect on organizational innovation. H1: Transformational leadership has strong effect on organizational innovation. 2.3 Scope of the study The range of application of this study is limited to the telecommunication sector in Pakistan with specific focus on Telenor (Peshawar). Transformational leadership style will be judged on the basis of four dimensions, that is, charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Furthermore, the effect of transformational leadership on organizational innovation will be analyzed. 3. Review of Literature (Burns, 1978) stated that transformational leaders stand above the common place. They indulge in a mutual interaction with their followers that raises the understanding, goals and mission that results in the ultimate arousal and transformation of both the leader and the followers. (Bass, 1985) At the other end to transformational leadership lies transactional leadership; where the leaders try to maintain the status quo. Followers are motivated on the base of extrinsic rewards, such as promotion and monetary benefits. It is an everyday terrestrial transaction of value, where leaders only provide needed value to individuals in exchange for their services. (Jane. M. Howell, Christopher A. Higgins, 1990) The most successful leaders are gifted with qualities of transformational leadership and charisma. They are far more influential and innovative than the leaders having style other than transformational. (David A. Waldman, Bernard M. Bass, 1991) linked the themes of nurturant and persistent leadership with transformational leadership theory. Furthermore, the role of transformational leadership behavior in various stages of successful innovations was clarified and implications were presented regarding the proposed model. (Dougherty Hardy, 1996) Transformational leaders intellectually stimulate their followers. This fosters unaccustomed and creative thinking and working processes that pave the way for new technology and knowledge, which are necessary for organizational innovation. Amabile, Conti, Coon, Lazenby, and Herron (1996) have spotted the damaging effects of transactional leadership on creativity. Bono Judge (2004) have supported this proposition in their recent meta-analysis. (Sosik, Avolio Kahali, 1997) Transformational leaders easily adapt to exploitative and exploratory thinking processes which in turn yield creative ideas and effective solutions to problems. The effectiveness of transformational leadership at stimulating unconventional and innovative thinking of followers is far greater than that of other leadership styles. (Bass, 1985; Gardner Avolio, 1998) proposed that transformational leaders have the ability to create personal and professional commitment from their followers towards satisfying upper-level needs like self-actualization and self esteem. (Oldham Cummings, 1996; Amabile, 1998; Zhou, 2003) added to this research finding by suggesting that this commitment boosts the inherent motivation of followers, which is considered to be an essential driver of individual creativity and organizational innovation. (House Shamir, 1993; Jung Avolio, 2000; Mumford et.al, 2000) Leaders possessing transformational attributes have the ability to regroup the values and norms of their followers in a better way. They encourage the progress of personal and organizational changes and facilitate their followers to go beyond their initial performance expectations. (A.Oke, 2002) was part of a study carried out on the organizational innovation of AXA insurance, Ireland. It was revealed that due to the transformational leadership style of John. ONeil, the CEO, a non-innovative firm was transmuted into an innovative one. To achieve this level of creativity, the physical spaces were decorated with eye catching colors and employees from all levels and functions were made to work together in order to stimulate creativity. The results of this transformational behavior were soon evident in the form of 150 new business ideas during 6 months. (Shin Zhou 2003) found that positive relation was discovered between transformational leadership and creativity of subordinates on the basis of a study conducted on 290 employees and their supervisors belonging to 46 Korean companies. (Jung, Wu, Chow, 2008) concluded in their research that a positive relation has existence between the transformational leadership of CEO and organizational innovation. This effect is moderated by variables such as organizational structure, culture and external environment. These results are agreed upon after testing multi-sourced data from 50 Taiwanese electronics and telecommunications companies. (Oke, Munshi, Walumbwa, 2009) found that transformational style of leadership strongly enhances creativity and innovation regarding exploratory (creating something of a totally new and radical nature) and exploitative innovation activities (incremental improvements and refinements to something that already exists). These leaders have the ability to transform or change, which makes them the main drivers for innovative processes. (Lale Gumusluoglu, Arzu IIsev, 2009) suggested that transformational leadership style has strong influence on both the individual and organizational innovation. Individually, transformational leadership is positively related to the creativity of employees. Furthermore, transformational leadership and organizational innovation are spotted to have a positive association between them. These results are the outcome of a study conducted on 163 managers and RD personnel from 43 Micro and small sized software development companies from Turkey. (Khan, Rehman and Fatima, 2009) studied managers from telecommunication sector in Pakistan and explored the positive effects of transformational leadership on organizational innovation. (Mariana Makri, Terri A.Scandura, 2010) identified the strong relation of operational leadership (the dimension of leadership which reflects the ability of a CEO to refine the existing paths to growth or tapping new paths by reframing and extending the boundaries of the firm to products and markets) and creative leadership (the ability of a leader to contribute to the social, human and knowledge capital of his firm) with the quantity and resonance of innovation. The hypothesis was tested over a sample of 77 high technology firms. 4. Research Methodology 4.1 Sources of data This research will make use of both primary and secondary data. Transformational leadership style will be judged on the basis of primary data obtained through interview and questionnaire. The level of organizational innovation will be assessed by primary data obtained through questionnaire and secondary data gathered from the companys publicly disclosed financial statements. 4.2 Research instruments Questionnaires and structured interviews will serve as instruments of this research. The extent of transformational leadership will be measured using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 1995) (Annexure-A). MLQ is a well validated measure of transformational leadership and has been used extensively in prior research (Awamleh and Gardner, 1999). Each respondent will be asked to rate five aspects of his/her leaders/ top-managers behavior related to each of the four dimensions of transformational leadership (idealized influence/charisma, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation). The responses will be anchored by a 5-point response scale (1-not at all, 2-once in a while, 3-sometimes, 4-fairly often, 5-frequently, if not always). While measuring organizational innovation, a composite measure will be used to capture the broad aspects of innovative activities (Balkin et als, 2000). Two measures will be used to tap into different aspects of innovation. First is the annual RD expenditure as a percentage of sales revenue over three years prior to this study (i.e.2008-2010). This ratio indicates a firms emphasis on innovation (Hitt, Hoskisson and Kim, 1997; Balkin et al, 2000). These figures will be obtained from the companys publicly disclosed financial statements. Second, different respondents actively following the telecommunication industry will be contacted. The reason is to include different fruits of innovation such as process and service improvements. Each respondent will be offered two sets of questions about the sample firm. The first set includes a single question regarding his/her familiarity with the company. The possible answers will be 1-not familiar with the company at all, 2-somewhat familiar with the company, 3-very familiar with the company. Only the respondents with responses 2 and 3 will be considered. The second set comprises of 20 questions (4 questions each for scanning five types of innovative activities i.e. product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation, strategic innovation and organizational climate innovation) in order to rate the level of organizational innovation (Annexure B). The 5-point Likerts Scale (1-strongly disagree, 2-disagree, 3-neither agree nor disagree, 4-agree, 5-strongly agree) will be used to anchor the responses. 4.3 Sampling design (a) Universe / population There are many national and multinational telecommunication companies operating in Pakistan. All these national and multinational firms collectively form the population/ universe of this research. Results will be generalized and recommendations will be forwarded considering all these firms. (b) Sample size and selection This research will adopt a case study approach by focusing on Telenor (Peshawar) as the sample firm. A simple random sample of 30 employees of low, middle and top-management of the company will be selected with the aim of assessing transformational leadership. Furthermore, organizational innovation will be judged by studying a random sample of 30 respondents that are directly or indirectly associated with the telecommunication industry in Pakistan.

Molecular Nanotechnology and Literature :: Cause Effect Science Technology Essays

Molecular Nanotechnology and Literature Imagine a world where you could have anything you wanted. Gold? Here it is. A new car? Presto. Diamonds? Oh, here, please have some of mine, there's more in the back. Of course, this is not our world at the present, but it might be the world of the future. Molecular nanotechnology will be able to provide whatever one needs or wants, for free or for a minuscule amount of payment. However, it will not only affect commercial and material goods. It will affect medicine, war and weaponry, law enforcement, espionage, entertainment, disposal of waste and garbage, and even literature. Literature will perhaps be affected in a greater way than one may think. But before I get to that, let me explain what, exactly, molecular nanotechnology is. In l 959, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman put forth an idea. His idea was that anything could be made from the ground up, out of individual atoms or molecules. This is nanotechnology: the working or manipulation of individual atoms or molecules, one at a time, and positioning and lining them up precisely and repeatedly, until enough accumulated to form a large-scale, usable entity. Feynman didn't name it and outline the science, however. This was done by K. Eric Drexler. In the 1970's, when he was a student at MIT, Drexler came up with an idea of nanotechnology, and outlined the possible uses of it. He thought that if one had the ability or technology to work with individual atoms and molecules, then one could make a box that would transform common materials into beef. It sounds strange, but that was the idea. The idea was that you could open the door, toss in some stuff, work the controls, and two hours or so later: out rolls some fresh beef. It sounds odd because we a re taught that beef comes from cattle, not from a box of grass clippings and old sneaker insoles. But it really does make sense. Cattle use only a few materials when making beef: grass, air, water, sunlight. When they are digesting that junk, they are merely rearranging the molecules to form characteristic patterns of beef. The only real difference between the methods of beef-production of cows and Drexler's box is that cows make beef using enzymes and liquids, where reactive agents randomly collide, and Drexler's box makes beef mechanically. Drexler states that the molecules and atoms would have to be manipulated by tiny, tiny robots, commonly referred to as "assemblers.

Does the Internet have a democratising effect on society? Essay

Internet has revolutionized the way of doing work in today’s modern world. Businesses are increasingly becoming online because of the wide spread of internet facility available every where. Now it is just a matter of click and one gets his order delivered at his door step. Where ever there is computer, there is internet access also available. Today people feel incomplete without computer and internet because internet makes us connected with the world. It provides a social feeling of comfort and togetherness, anyone having internet access is not alone in the real sense. With ever falling computer prices and internet usage rates, now all classes of people are able to afford the computer and simultaneously use internet. (Cavalier , 2005) Any media to which the whole population can access and communicate on just about anything has an over all democratizing effect on that population. The word ‘democratize’ basically means making available to all. So when we talk about the democratization effect of internet, it means that the internet can be accessed by every one. Radios, television, newspapers all make people literate and let information flow to them but internet is not limited to this extent. The percentage of people involved in producing and consuming knowledge is far greater for internet as compared to any other media. Therefore, it is fair and just if we call internet a democratizing agent. (Browning , 2002) There is information available on any topic at all on the internet. People can access online dictionaries, encyclopedias, journal articles, and search on research engines just sitting at their home. This has widened the knowledge base of the people. This huge information available on the internet has rendered it to have a democratizing effect because anyone any where can have access to information available on widest possible range of subjects. People who are illiterate on a certain subject gain information through the internet and are able to give well prepared lectures on that topic. Even people are now able to access internet free of cost at public libraries, universities, colleges etc. This means that internet has actually led to the democratization of information. The world is witnessing high growth rates in the use of Internet at homes as well as organizations. People have 24/7 connectivity available thanks to the developments in LAN and WAN. Moreover, information is available in all major languages over the internet so even non-English speaking people do not face any kind of trouble in accessing information which they require. People are not bounded from expressing themselves and their presented information can circulate to different corners of the world. The democracy of internet has led to an increase in the public awareness on crucial issues and has granted them freedom to express their thoughts openly even against the government which cannot be done in person. With the increased connectivity, more and more people are becoming aware of their environment and what is going on around them. They can discuss political and national issues over the internet with others and share information. Data related to the government as well as one’s country is easily accessed by the people and they get to know their real economic situation. Internet has democratized the politics and media. News is being transmitted through the internet plus political campaigns are also being carried on the websites. An example would illustrate the democratizing effect of internet on political campaigns. Political candidates and parties are raising more and more money through internet in the form of funds and donations. People try to convince others over the internet to donate for political campaigns and internet has increased the number of donors (Shane , 2004). Previously, people were not willing to donate for political campaigns but with the increasing democratizing effect of the internet, politics is gaining popularity and people are getting involved in political discussions and campaigns.

Cowgirl Chocolates Essay

Her product development was based on the input of her friends and family, which represents a skewed and too small sample of the population. In addition, Marilyn is cutting out the biggest portion of her target market by naming her product Cowgirl Chocolates and making the brand label May Lillie. Therefore, the branding is not appealing to men, which constitute the biggest portion of her target market. Before spending money on advertising, a target market has to be defined and the proper channels to reach that target market. Advertising without a clearly defined target market is inefficient and wastes company resources. Giving samples will help establish a base of awareness of her product and the acquired taste but this has an inherent cost involved. Secondary Problems Marilyn’s lack of resources poses a great problem because without sufficient resources she will not be able to expand her business and increase sales. Cowgirl Chocolates lack the resources to become a large company they desire to become. Financially Cowgirl Chocolate does not have the resources to operate at full potential. The company is using revenue generated from Marilyn’s artwork, a small loan, and her personal savings to operate the company. Expenses completely overshadow her revenue of $30,000 while expenses were $50,000. This lack of funds give little to no room for promotional activity, a product that is as unique as spicy chocolates needs to have promotional abilities. Staff resources are minimal; Marilyn is the main source of production of her company. She does everything by herself, from the packaging and shipping the product to design and making the chocolate. This leaves Marilyn little time to expand to bigger ideas and meet with possible investors. She is devoting her time to the tedious work required to produce the product. Positioning of her product is the key to its success. Another problem is the distribution channels that the company uses. The lack of sales deterred Seattle Chocolates from agreeing to manage the wholesale operations for Cowgirl Chocolates. â€Å"They were not interested in taking this on at the present time†¦because they were not really sure where the market was for the product. †Marilyn also knew she had to increase sales before Seattle Chocolates would consider such an arrangement. However, the company is lacking a clear understanding of where the product should be sold, and which distribution channel will bring the greatest sales. Currently Marylin’s strategy is to directly gain placements in retail stores one after the other. Marylin does not have the expertise and connections in distribution to gain product placements in stores. Marylin is currently trying to perform all tasks that a wholesaler would do such as promotion, negotiation, matching, physical distribution and risk taking. A wholesaler would perform those tasks better, cheaper, and more efficient and effective than Marylin ever could. One example of this is Marylin not being paid for her chocolates by a local vendor and having them returned after months. Although the Cowgirl Chocolates website is responsible for a third of total sales, it lacks crucial features. The website does not have the ability to track repeat customers and does not know how customers found her website. Although Marilyn advertises on other websites and portals there is no tracking and she does not know how effective each channel is, and how many customers it brings to the site. There is no knowledge what search terms customers that found her site were using. That way there is no data on whether the Cowgirl Chocolates website is competing with other chocolate companies, spicy foods, or online gift stores. The website would be the cheapest way to gather market research and further identify a target market. An additional problem is Marilyn’s pricing strategy. Cowgirl Chocolate is premium gourmet chocolate in special packaging that makes it stand out from the rest of the competition. Furthermore, it is a new and unusual product. Marilyn states that she is unsure on how to price her product. Cowgirl Chocolate is sold in overpriced spicy food specialty stores, upscale gourmet food stores, and even the grocery stores. Marilyn could not identify a trend on how pricing affect sales. This does not come as a surprise because the product is new and customers are still unaware of it. Cowgirl Chocolates should be sold at a premium price. However, in the current stage of the product cycle the company needs to create customer trial. The way to accomplish this is to offer promotions, for example by offering in store promotions, coupons, coupons and/or mail in rebates. Again, those tasks should be handled by a wholesaler. Furthermore, Cowgirl Chocolates advertising is ineffective since there is no clear defined target market. Marilyn advertises randomly in different magazines using ads created by a friend and not a professional advertising agency. Marilyn is unsure herself if the advertisement will actually increase sales or not, even though it will cost thousands of dollars. Again, market research is missing to direct advertising to the right channels and reach the target audience, with the right ads that will increase customer trial. The company currently advertises the product year round, when it should concentrate more on advertising during the peak seasons of Christmas and Valentine’s Day. The company needs to have more product information in the advertisements. Recommendations To establish a target market we recommend that Cowgirl Chocolate should add more features to the website. The website should be able track how customers found the website, track orders and repeat customers, and gather such information as demographics. By tracking purchases, Cowgirl Chocolates will be able to send out promotional emails, for example customers could be informed about a special sale, given a discount code, or just be informed about new product creations or gift ideas. Additionally, a short survey should be added after the purchase is completed to gather valuable customer information (see appendix for sample survey questions). This would be the cheapest method of doing market research and establishing a target market. By tracking customers, the company will also determine who its main competitors are. Cowgirl Chocolates could be competing with other premium chocolate manufacturers, spicy packaged food, or gift websites. Another advantage of using the internet as a distribution channel is that Cowgirl Chocolates can be sold internationally. Markets in other countries can be entered with little to no initial investment. This will again offer opportunity to feel out markets in other countries that could be physically entered at a future point of time. Secondly, Marilyn should put effort on finding a wholesaler for her product that will take over crucial tasks that she is currently trying to perform all by herself. A good wholesaler will not only take risk of Marilyn’s hands by buying greater quantities at once, but will also fight for placement in stores and offer promotions to boost initial sales. A good wholesaler will select the right distribution channels and retail outlets using years of experience and expertise that Marilyn is lacking. Using a wholesaler will free up some time for Marilyn and allow her to concentrate on other aspects of her business like product creation and design. Half of the product portfolio currently only constitutes for 5% of total sales. These products should be discontinued since a wholesaler will most likely not carry them. Using the market research gathered from the Cowgirl Chocolate website, Marylin can effectively advertise by choosing the right channels and targeting the right customers. An advertising budget can be set apart and adjusted to the seasons with the highest sales. More emphasis should be placed on seasonal advertising such as during Christmas, Easter, or Valentine’s Day to take advantage of the gift aspect of Cowgirl Chocolates. We recommend that Cowgirl Chocolate sell their chocolate to spicy food restaurant for them to give to customers at the end of their meal. This would create more product awareness among consumers who already enjoy spicy foods. In addition to the internet and wholesale business, this can be a third distribution channel. Finally, we recommend that Marilyn should capitalize on effective free marketing, such as a local newspaper or news programs and have them run a story on her product. The cookbook would be a good form of promotion for her product. Marilyn could use it to generate more customer awareness and include recipes for different uses of the Cowgirl Chocolate.

Mr Stephen Bagley

Mr Stephen Bagley Free Online Research Papers Compare the ways in which the poems â€Å"blessing† and â€Å"What were they like?† present culture. The poets of â€Å"blessing† and â€Å"What were they like† use a variety of mediums to portray culture. â€Å"WWTL† depicts a Vietnamese peasant culture; and â€Å"Blessing† a dry African village. The structure and form of â€Å"WWTL† is very outlandish. It is set out in the form of questions and answers. This is an ambiguous opening, and might even suggest naivety; this could reflect the culture’s naivety, and perhaps innocence in its lack of knowledge. Whereas â€Å"Blessing† is set out very simply, with just four plain stanzas, and this might echo their way of life. Also â€Å"Blessing† follows a theme of enjambment; -there is no real punctuation so the poem flows, just like water the subject of the poem. This suggest how impoverished they are if they do not have water, the most basic of resources. Whereas â€Å"WWLT† also depicts the people as leading simple lives â€Å"their lives were in rice and bamboo† but they posses the most basic resources. The language used in the two poems is incredibly emotive and powerful. â€Å"WWTL† portrays the people as leading simple lives, not desiring much. â€Å"stone lanterns illuminated pleasant ways†. This shows that their lives were simple, as they did not use electricity to light their homes etc. Furthermore they did use any special material to make the lanterns in question. They used stone, a very common, rudiment material. But the quote in no way depicts them as leading sad, miserable lives because of this lack of wealth. â€Å"illuminated pleasant ways†. Where they lived was â€Å"pleasant†, not horrible. This suggests that although they are poor they are in no way leading lives under awful conditions. In comparison to â€Å"Blessing†, in which the people are presented as leading poor lives in disgraceful conditions. â€Å"Skin cracks like a pod†. This is a simile that portrays that people have so little water that their skin is cracking o pen like the dry ground; it seems almost inhumane, it creates horrible imagery of pain and suffering. The people in â€Å"WWTL† are poor, but happy whereas in â€Å"Blessing† they are poor and suffering because of it. Also both poems depict the treasures of their cultures. In â€Å"Blessing† water is treasured beyond anything. â€Å"silver crashes to the ground†. This metaphor represents water as silver, a material we consider in our culture to be extremely valuable. This highlights how precious water is this culture. In â€Å"WWTL† rice and bamboo is valued. â€Å"most were peasants; their lives were in rice and bamboo†. This shows how they treasure food and not money nor other items of value. So both poems portray their cultures as valuing the most basic of resources. The mood in â€Å"Blessing† starts of as very sombre, and desperate. â€Å"there is never enough water†. This is just a clear, concise statement, because there is never enough water. But nearer to the end it becomes elated. â€Å"as blessing sings over their small bones†. This leaves the reader with a nice image, a happy ending. But â€Å"WWTL† is quite the opposite. It starts off very pleasantly, â€Å"they gathered to delight in the blossom†, they are portrayed as not having a care in the world. Then very suddenly it turns darker and depressing. â€Å"Bombs smashed those mirrors†. It becomes quite violent and ends very sorrowfully. â€Å"Blessing† depicts their culture as having a lasting hope in spite of their suffering; whereas â€Å"WWTL† the culture was once so beautiful but now it has been destroyed it will never be the same again. In conclusion I find that both poems portray cultures effectively through many methods. Levertov uses form and mood proficiently, to depict the Vietnamese culture as pleasant and agreeable; but also the sadness and cruelty of how it all ended, and how these simple lives were so cruelly and unfairly interrupted by those who did not understand the beauty and simplicity of the culture. Dharker uses form and imagery incredibly well to portray the suffering and poverty of the culture described, and then imagery again to express hope and happiness that the people in the culture experience when their greatest dream comes true. Both poems depict an impoverished culture, but surprisingly both quite differently, each is unique in the culture it describes and does so very effectively. Research Papers on Mr Stephen BagleyMind TravelAnalysis Of A Cosmetics AdvertisementHip-Hop is ArtThe Effects of Illegal ImmigrationAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeComparison: Letter from Birmingham and Crito19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesQuebec and CanadaAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into Asia