Industrial Relations Essay Example for Free

Industrial Relations Essay Industrial relations has three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethical. [9] In the science building phase, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. In this vein, industrial relations scholarship intersects with scholarship in labor economics, industrial sociology, labor and social history, human resource management, political science, law, and other areas. Industrial relations scholarship assumes that labor markets are not perfectly competitive and thus, in contrast to mainstream economic theory, employers typically have greater bargaining power than employees. Industrial relations scholarship also assumes that there are at least some inherent conflicts of interest between employers and employees (for example, higher wages versus higher profits) and thus, in contrast to scholarship in human resource management and organizational behavior, conflict is seen as a natural part of the employment relationship. Industrial relations scholars therefore frequently study the diverse institutional arrangements that characterize and shape the employment relationship—from norms and power structures on the shop floor, to employee voice mechanisms in the workplace, to collective bargaining arrangements at company, regional, or national level, to various levels of public policy and labor law regimes, to varieties of capitalism (such as corporatism, social democracy, and neoliberalism). When labor markets are seen as imperfect, and when the employment relationship includes conflicts of interest, then one cannot rely on markets or managers to always serve workers’ interests, and in extreme cases to prevent worker exploitation. Industrial relations scholars and practitioners therefore support institutional interventions to improve the workings of the employment relationship and to protect workers’ rights. The nature of these institutional interventions, however, differ between two camps within industrial relations. 10] The pluralist camp sees the employment relationship as a mixture of shared interests and conflicts of interests that are largely limited to the employment relationship. In the workplace, pluralists therefore champion grievance procedures, employee voice mechanisms such as works councils and labor unions, collective bargaining, and labor-management partnerships. In the policy arena, pluralists advocate for minimum wage laws, occupational health and safety standards, international labor standards, and other employment and labor laws and public policies. 11] These institutional interventions are all seen as methods for balancing the employment relationship to generate not only economic efficiency, but also employee equity and voice. [12] In contrast, the Marxist-inspired critical camp sees employer-employee conflicts of interest as sharply antagonistic and deeply embedded in the socio-political-economic system. From this perspective, the pursuit of a balanced employment relationship gives too much weight to employers’ interests, and instead deep-seated structural reforms are needed to change the sharply antagonistic employment relationship that is inherent within capitalism. Militant trade unions are thus frequently supported. History Industrial relations has its roots in the industrial revolution which created the modern employment relationship by spawning free labor markets and large-scale industrial organizations with thousands of wage workers. [9] As society wrestled with these massive economic and social changes, labor problems arose. Low wages, long working hours, monotonous and dangerous work, and abusive supervisory practices led to high employee turnover, violent strikes, and the threat of social instability. Intellectually, industrial relations was formed at the end of the 19th century as a middle ground between classical economics and Marxism, with Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb’s Industrial Democracy (1897) being the key intellectual work. Industrial relations thus rejected the classical econ. Institutionally, industrial relations was founded by John R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. Early financial support for the field came from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. ho supported progressive labor-management relations in the aftermath of the bloody strike at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine in Colorado. In Britain, another progressive industrialist, Montague Burton, endowed chairs in industrial relations at Leeds, Cardiff and Cambridge in 1930, and the discipline was formalized in the 1950s with the formation of the Oxford School by Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg. [13] Industrial relations was formed with a strong p roblem-solving orientation that rejected both the classical economists’ laissez faire solutions to labor problems and the Marxist solution of class revolution. It is this approach that underlies the New Deal legislation in the United States, such as the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Industrial relations scholars have described three major theoretical perspectives or frameworks, that contrast in their understanding and analysis of workplace relations. The three views are generally known as unitarism, pluralist and radical. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of unions and job regulation differently. The radical perspective is sometimes referred to as the conflict model, although this is somewhat ambiguous, as pluralism also tends to see conflict as inherent in workplaces. Radical theories are strongly identified with Marxist theories, although they are not limited to these. Pluralist perspective In pluralism, the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful and divergent sub-groups, each with its own legitimate loyalties and with their own set of objectives and leaders. In particular, the two predominant sub-groups in the pluralist perspective are the management and trade unions. Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing and controlling and more toward persuasion and co-ordination. Trade unions are deemed as legitimate representatives of employees, conflict is dealt by collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing and, if managed, could in fact be channeled towards evolution and positive change. Unitarist perspective In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and harmonious whole with the ideal of one happy family, where management and other members of the staff all share a common purpose, emphasizing mutual cooperation. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach where it demands loyalty of all employees, being predominantly managerial in its emphasis and application. Consequently, trade unions are deemed as unnecessary since the loyalty between employees and organizations are considered mutually exclusive, where there cant be two sides of industry. Conflict is perceived as disruptive and the pathological result of agitators, interpersonal friction and communication breakdown. Marxist/Radical perspective This view of industrial relations looks at the nature of the capitalist society, where there is a fundamental division of interest between capital and labour, and sees workplace relations against this background. This perspective sees inequalities of power and economic wealth as having their roots in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade unions are a natural response of workers to their exploitation by capital. Whilst there may be periods of acquiescence, the Marxist view would be that institutions of joint regulation would enhance rather than limit managements position as they presume the continuation of capitalism rather than challenge it Industrial relations today By many accounts, industrial relations today is in crisis. 14][15][16] In academia, its traditional positions are threatened on one side by the dominance of mainstream economics and organizational behavior, and on the other by postmodernism. In policy-making circles, the industrial relations emphasis on institutional intervention is trumped by a neoliberal emphasis on the laissez faire promotion of free markets. In practice, labor unions are declining and fewer companies have industrial relations functions. The number of academic programs in industrial relations is therefore shrinking, and scholars are leaving the field for other areas, especially human resource management and organizational behavior. The importance of work, however, is stronger than ever, and the lessons of industrial relations remain vital. The challenge for industrial relations is to re-establish these connections with the broader academic, policy, and business worlds.

Marketing communication mix

Marketing communication mix ABSTRACT: The whole work revolves around the subject of marketing communication mix. Considered to be derived from marketing mix. Communication mix consists of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing and PR. For I-phones they use caples principle of advertisement. Advertising is effective but expensive Personal selling is expensive but is considered as cost-effective Sales promotion uses pull or push strategy. Direct marketing is common way used now days. To select right communication mix we should always use products life cycle to determine. Should keep a good eye on products sale to find the most effective way for advertisement Characteristic and role of each and every communication mix differ. LITERATURE REVIEW: I followed three different books and used AIDA, john caples principle and example of i-phone in my assignment. Most of the items I used were written by Philip kotler. I tried to use some facts and figures to prove my findings and as books being credible source I tried to use them rather than using internet sources. Mostly pictures are copied from internet only and all the items are referenced accordingly. Dr. kotler is considered one of the worlds leading authority on management and is considered pioneer writer in the field of international marketing and branding. MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX: In this era of digital technology and competition, no one can survive without marketing; either its the product, brand or a service. The best definition of marketing was given by Al Ries and Trout â€Å"marketing is the performance of those activities which seek to accomplish organizations objective by anticipating customer or client needs and directing flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client.†(Source: Al Ries, Trout jack, 2006, marketing warfare, McGraw hill companies. Inc.) MARKETING MIX: Marketing alone couldnt be taken on account to anticipate and fulfill the customer needs. To just check the existence and evidence of presence of marketing communication mix we will look at 7 Ps of marketing. In 1960 Mccarthy came up with 4 Ps of marketing. The marketing mix according to some authors was already used as term before her in 1940s while later in 1980 booms and Bernard came up with 3 more Ps. The use of these 3 Ps is still debatable and is criticized by many people. (Sources: http://www.continuumlearning.com/Customer%20Services_7Ps%20of%20Services.pdf, http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/) MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX AND IMPORTANCE: As from above we have seen that the marketing is not only about promoting your product but also depends other 6 factors but as we are talking about communication mix, it mostly relates to promotion. The communication is required between the customer and the business in order to increase the transactions or to maximize the daily sales of the business. It is important to mention here that the right communication mix is important to be chosen which suites the business needs and is the clearest way for the business to convey the message. Belch, E. and Belch A. describe Integrated Marketing Communications as â€Å"a concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communications impact†.(source: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/MarketingCommunicationsMix/13818.). In 1961 according to the same author Albert Frey was the first one to distinguish between communication tools and offering. Simply saying offerings are the service u offer used e.g. product, price and brand etc while tools you use such as place; promotion etc. so according to him which ever way you take you will use all your approaches for people. (Smith p r, Taylor Jonathan, 2004, 4th edition, marketing communications, Gutenberg press ltd, Malta) From all the discussion above we can conclude that the communication mix tools are as follows: The most common used promoting media used are:Internet, telesales, banners, broachers, radio, TV, telephone, newspaper etc. According to caple principle of promoting or advertising: Get attention Hold attention Create desire Make it believable Prove its a bargain Make it easy to buy Give reason to buy CASE STUDY: From my point of view, I-phone uses this kind of strategy for their sales. Most of the times we see the I-phone holding the whole last page of newspaper and showing what this product can do and the other ordinary phone might not be able to. The product before and after launch is advertised so many times to remind the customer of the phone that a lot of customers are attracted. As result many customers buy the product and we normally see the line in front of apple shops when the product is launched. They use sale promotion strategy for ending line of product. I.e. they used the sales promotion where they were finishing line of 2.5g (1st generation I-phone) where they reduced the price of phone, in order to boost the sale and finish the line of product when it was on declining stage. This helped company to get some potential customers. ADVERTISING: Advertising is said as very simple but expensive form of promotion. Advertising can be different depending on product or media used. For example on TV or it can also be in the form of internet advertisement. But this is considered most expensive because anyone who uses this have to either use large campaigns or use their lots of time in this kind of promotion. Advertising is the form of promotion is considered as non-personal promotional mix because the business doesnt know if their message is received by its customer or not, do people understand the product etc. CHARACTERESTIC OF ADVERTISMENT: According to Kotler characteristic of advertising are Public presentation: advertising is considered as highly public mode of communication and people consider this kind of promotion more because they consider that the offer they have been made through the media is standard. Pervasiveness: it is the medium of communication where a seller can repeat its message many times and this as a result help buyer to compare the sellers product with other competitors or substitute available. Amplified expensiveness: means that if company use little bit of different way or expensive way from its competitor, it might result in getting buyers attention. Impersonality: means that the customer or buyer is not as much motivated to buy the product or service as much as he is through a sales agent. As it is one way communication so the customer might wants to know about the product but cant because he cant speak to advertisement. The most common way of advertisement is TV, radio, newspaper, broachers and magazines etc.The advertisement is really beneficial in creating long term relationship between consumer, product and business. E.g. coca-cola uses all time red color for advertisement of their product and uses same advertisement many times a day to attract customer. PURPOSE OF ADVERTISMENT: The main purpose of advertisement is to get buyers attention, which creates interest and a desire rises in customer following the action (buying). According to the same website UK advertising expenditure in 2008 was  £18.6 billion. Not only that but also if we notice in our daily life routine we might go to some place and pay attention to the product for which we have seen advertisement recently. Sometime on local buses we see some poster and think that do we need the product or not and sometime even though we dont need it we might end up buying it. PERSONAL SELLING: It is considered to be one of most cost-effective kind of promotion. Some books also consider this as the most expensive one as well because of wage cost to the company, travelling cost and the company always have to offer the people with some kind of incentives to boost sales. Personal selling is considered effective because the business can feel the consumers requirement and can make up a package for consumer in order to fulfill their needs. The consumer can also look at the packages that suits best to their needs and can also tell the sales representative about their needs .e.g. British gas etc. Normally we see people from gas and electricity companies doing this kind of promotion. CHARACTERESTIC OF PERSONAL SELLING: According to Kotler(1997) the main characteristics are Personal confrontation: involves consumer and business representative where the need of consumer can be felt by the supplier. They can either come to some point of agreement or the business can offer some flexibility to consumer in order to gain or retrieve a customer. Cultivation: means that the business can adjust their offers according to customers need in order to maintain good relationship between business and customer. Sales representatives mostly use affectionate and friendly kind of approach towards their customers. Response: means that the buyers mostly respond to their seller and their response can be taken in account to increase sale. The response can be either good or bad depending on what customer feels about the product. ROLE: The main role of personal selling is mostly Acquire new potential customers and provide old customers the best service. Try to sale the product efficiently After sale provide them with best services Close the sale If resources or stock become less try to allocate other resources to make sure that customer remain in business with us. Though this kind of selling is decreasing due to presence of media like internet, TV and telephones. The costly method still used but only by some companies. Most of the companies have changed with changing world. SALES PROMOTION: It is normally used to boost the sale mostly at declining stage of the product. It offers the customer with either discounts or some kind of other special offers which results in customer attraction and as a result customer buys the product. Normally business uses coupon, special offers ands discounts etc. This kind of promotion is only good for short term and doesnt lead to long term relationship between business and customer. For example some companies use even ebay to do their promotions by using bid auctions like a company called EOL (end-o-line). Another is example is to supply customer with offers like by 1 and get 1 free etc. CHARACTERESTIC: According to Kotler three distinctive benefits and characteristics are Communication: mostly this kind of promotion gets the customers attention and provides customer with the information which may lead to transaction. Incentives: the business introduces some kind of concession, offers or vouchers to increase the sale temporarily. Invitation: the customers are usually forced to do the transaction soon by saying either till stocks last or till the date. This helps business to get more transactions in the limited time. ROLE: Sales promotion normally uses push, pull. These play an important role in any sales promotion. According to davedolak.com business uses push strategy to get the traders to stock their items and also give good offers, as a result, the trade people put more sales effort in order to maximize their profit. The product might be sold again to one of the wholesalers or end consumers. This is normally used in B2B relationship. The pull strategy is that the consumer is offered a good discount on buying product from the business. Sometime it is also used as a term that the business waits for the consumer to turn up and order the product and is produced, as they cant stock of the products life cycle. This is used for B2C relationship. Normally car suppliers and showrooms use this kind of strategy to promote sale to consumer and finish the old stock. PUBLIC RELATIONS: This kind of promotion is used by company to make their image better in public eyes. There is a different department for this kind of promotion. These departments mostly try to improve their companys goodwill in consumers eye. For example Durex the condom makers donated 50,000 condoms to NGOs in December on world aids day. The other thing they started was that they went to the social networking website â€Å"Facebook† and launched some games in order to increase awareness and sales. The company or business might do some charities or sponsor some kind of good cause. The companies might also use newsletter or news releases to improve PR. CHARACTERESTICS: According to Kortley(1997) role of PR is High credibility: most of the time people trust news or articles more than other like advertisement, personal selling or sales promotion. ABILITY: it is much easier to catch people who avoid personal selling. So the message is read by more people and this might result in more sales. DRAMATIZATION: it also has potential of setting company or product reputation at the level which company is not in real life. This can be the result of advertising as well. ROLES: In normal routine of life these people play an important role in image of a company as they are the one responsible for news releases and the charitable functions. The PR has to make sure that they do their work through the right channel so that it can be recognized by the people. E.g. they shouldnt help the cause of cutting trees as it might hurt many peoples feelings. They should try to reach those people who cannot be reached because they avoid personal selling etc. another thing that they should try to help campaigns with their product rather than money as it will improve the products sale and image. For example IBM provides non-profit companies with discounted price on purchase of their items. DIRECT MARKETING: This type of promotion is used by mails, telemarketing and catalog marketing. This is quite effective way of promotion because the response can be taken on account to increase sale or acquire new customers from other competitors. E.g. sometime we receive a call on our numbers offering different services or products (especially on landlines). Some other schools of thoughts also consider e-marketing as a part of this promotion type like e-mails for promotions or sales. (Kutler, 1997). CHARACTERESTICS: According to Kutler(1997), there are four types of direct marketing. Nonpublic: the letter or e-mail or telephone is for specific person who have subscribed to some offers. Customized: normally can be different for two different customers depending on their buying history. Up-to-date: offer can be prepared delivered quickly using e-marketing or telesales. Interactive: customer can be offered with much more different choices in this kind of promotion. ROLE: Normally companies use bombardment of e-mail to many customers and wait for their response. This way have been used a lot now days and is becoming less effective as people always consider them as junk e-mail. Another way of e-marketing is using social websites like facebook to introduce or advertise the product. E.g. durex used this kind of strategy and introduced some games on social networking website to increase the sale. Another way is cataloging, where the businesses send the people to drop the catalogue and the consumer can call and order the product. Last but not least now they use special television channels and phone calls to inspire and get some business from the potential customers. CRITICAL ANLYSIS: As from all the information we have seen the characteristic which are most probably advantages while in introduction of ever kind of promotion I have discussed some disadvantages as well to make sure that the business using any kind of this can know the harmful and useful points of their promotion and the role tells us the importance of the particular communication mix. IMPORTANCE: The importance of marketing communication mix can also be felt when we see that it is connected with the marketing mix. The research on this started from 1940. It flourished with the entrance of new media. Businesses always try to use communication mix to get the share and attention of market. Due to increased competition level we can use one of the tools to acquire new customers in the market. Right communication mix can be used by realizing right target customers. SELECTION OF RIGHT COMMUNICATON MIXES: As we discussed earlier about the I-phone, we will now see how the product should be advertised through out its life cycle to make it a success. PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE: First stage is pre introduction stage where we use very small amount on advertising and just to let people know that we are launching some new product. On 2nd stage i.e. introduction we use PR and advertisement. On3rd stage of growth we need heavy amount of money to be spent in order to make product successful in the market. At maturity level we use less advertising as a tool but now we use more and more sales promotion and PR. At the decline we use sales promotion but some company might use direct marketing as a tool as well to provide customers with good offers. The first and foremost thing for any campaign is that it should know who their target market is and what age group they are looking for. Then depending on their objective they can use one of the models to solve their problem. COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE: Depending on market type the company or business should enter in, the business should decide their communication objective depending on their product and policies. Depending on your product, target market and business you can select the model and decide what should be the strategy from pre introduction stage till the decline stage. For example in case of an innovation free trial is important. Apple used this kind of strategy when they allowed people to take computers, pc or laptops to home and could use it over the weekend as trial and can buy it after they think the product is efficient enough for use. COMMUNICATION LANDSCAPE: According to Kotler (2008) businesses are moving towards the focused marketing rather than mass marketing. The businesses use the tool of advertisement and promotion in the places where they should and only focus on their target market and people rather than the old technique of sending their message to many people which may result as one of the do the transaction. People do not pay attention to ads and promotion of the product they might not be interested in, most of the time they try to skip the section of advertisements and breaks while watching TV. So it is important to have the right focus group now days to increase sale and transactions. Kotler and his fellow writers used word of broadcasting which is to play the advertisement for mass media thinking that it might result in transaction. The other word he used was narrowcast where only interested and potential customers are target. He used these terms in his â€Å"shifting marketing communication model†. According to them due to change in ICT and presence of internet people are motivated to use online sources to watch their favorite programs and skip the ads in between the breaks. Only few people might watch those. Although mass media like TV and radio is evergreen but is decreased because of presence of internet. An average person spends 5 times more time on internet than TV. Thats why companies now use their ads on internet and use social networking websites for publicity etc. e.g. companies like Cadbury uses the statement on their website â€Å"find us on facebook†.(source: kotley Philip, armstrong garry, wong veronica, saunders john, 2008, principles of marketing, fifth edition,pearson education ltd. ) CONCLUSION: All the companies or businesses have to spend in this field to make sure that they get the expected results from the product and the business. If the company fails to use right communication mix at the right time, their product will be a waste for them and might result in little sale. All 5 communication mix together can lead to a good business, as they all can be used depending on life cycle of the product. The communication objectives should be kept in mind for a successful business. Depending on the product the message should be designed appropriately to reach to the audience. RECOMMENDATIONS: Businesses should identify their needs first. Businesses should try to fix the budget for promotional and advertising purpose. Businesses should allocate resources in case of no resource available to keep the campaigns going. Business should also allocate fixed amount of money or products to PR as well. Sales promotion times should not be fixed on introduction time. The message should be designed professionally and to the perfection. For the products affordable method should be chosen. The business should try to use same logo or slogan for their products. PR should try to use news release and other form of media to improve reputation of the company. Checks on sale should be carried out by the business in order to find most effective communication mix for their company. REFRENCES: BOOKS: Al Ries, Trout jack, 2006, marketing warfare, McGraw hill companies. Inc. Smith p r, Taylor Jonathan, 2004, 4th edition, marketing communications, Gutenberg press ltd, Malta Kotler Philip, 1997, 9th edition, marketing management, prentice hall international inc. kotley Philip, armstrong garry, wong veronica, saunders john, 2008, principles of marketing, fifth edition,pearson education ltd. WEBSITES: http://www.provenmodels.com/files/123ef9407d8e6d92371d23abbff78ac3/aida-sales-funnel.gif http://www.adassoc.org.uk/aa/index.cfm/adstats/ http://www.davedolak.com/promo.htm http://www.emeraldinsight.com/fig/0350470802001.png http://www.davedolak.com/promix.htm https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2R4EhN5sKYZSg5ryXnLCVPMky_P0q4BAwY3UcAQSuRlu1BfehFbTuxCCmlnoVbBL7vvHgUyMqZDED7vDnIl5mAZBpHRdKgDGOLdjw8YV12_h9rh9CstwASTylkmxjUfUKzsjI0eY1TcDT/s400/promix.gif http://www.davedolak.com/advtg.htm http://www.sales-and-marketing-for-you.com/images/marketing-mix-structure.jpg http://www.continuumlearning.com/Customer%20Services_7Ps%20of%20Services.pdf http://www.netmba.com/marketing/mix/ http://www.oppapers.com/essays/MarketingCommunicationsMix/13818 http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/promotion_personalselling.asp http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/hardware/archives/page9665.cfm http://www.jobbankusa.com/career_employment/public_relations_specialists/job_descriptions_definitions_roles_responsibility.html http://www.erdm.com/USPS_White_Paper.pdf

Analyze The Haagen Dazs Marketing Essay

Analyze The Haagen Dazs Marketing Essay Through this assignment we are going to analyze the Haagen Dazs ® brand and the strategy that theyre adapting, in order to achieve and maintain the luxury image of this product. The interesting thing with this brand is that it belongs in one of the most valuable brands, despite the fact that it belongs in a very difficult industry for luxury brands, as the ice cream industry which is considered as a low cost industry. But Haagen Dazs, by continuing its excellent job in quality and launching of new unique flavors, is still enjoying its premium brand position as well as high price and profit margins. This story will prove us how a brand in a low price selling industry and specific target group directions can differentiate its position and build a luxury brand icon and targeting in customers that are willing to pay premium price in order to taste the world best flavors. We will also notice that too much advertising in TV, Radio is not the key marketing issue, since Haagen Dazs has bee n mainly developed as a luxury ice cream due to the world of mouth advertising. It is impressive that this brand has made its first advertising TV campaign in 1983, after almost 60 years and having already being famous for its luxurious positioning and well known as the creator of the luxury ice-cream category. Haagen Dazs started its history in early 1920s, thanks to the dream of the young Reuben Mattus. Mr. Mattus was working in a family business, transferring with his bicycle ice creams to their customers in the streets of Bronx in New York. This small family business was developing business in the same local way until 1960. It was then that Mr. Mattus took the big decision, supported also from his wife, to change the function of the business and targeting in further development of their products. He set up the brand name Haagen Dazs and the company begun with three basic flavors, focusing always in premium quality production. This was the reason that the ingredients were only coming from their country of physical production. Dark chocolate from Belgium, vanilla beans from Madagascar, macadamia nuts from Hawaii. In contrast with other ice cream producers, Haagen Dazs is using a high percentage of milk and cream, to create an original and more dense ice cream. Fresh cream and egg yolk wer e used to give the ice creams a rich creamy flavor and fresh skimmed milk was used for the body and texture of the ice cream http://www.icmrindia.org, (viewed 21 March 2011) . Having reached the premium quality the product became famous very quickly, and the demand started growing due to the mouth advertising only. In the start, Haagen dazs ice creams were only placed in luxury shops in New York and after were further distributed in the southern coasts of United States. By 1973, the brand was further distributed in the entire cities of United States. The first Haagen Dazs shop has been opened in 1976, by Mr. Mattus daughter, Doris. This strategic move was resulted of a huge success and as a result Haagen dazs products were spread in all United States. In 1983 Haagen Dazs brand was sold in Pillsbury Company and then in General Mills group, since Pillsbury was acquired from General Mills in 2001. Pillsbury was truly committed to the dream of Mr. Mattus and the ice cream remained in the same quality level with a large variety of unique flavors, spreading the variety in more than 100 flavors, including ice cream, ice cream bars, ice cream cakes, frozen yogurts, sorbets. General Mills group is operating in a global level and has reported in 2009 $14,7 billion turnovers and net profits of $2,6 billion. (According to General Mills annual report, 2009). Untitled.png 2. Brand Analysis 2.1. Positioning Haagen Dazs is positioned, mainly based on its products and service differentiation. As we have referred, they are trying always to maintain the quality due to the special selected ingredients coming only from their physical country of origin. In addition the high cream density, with no excess air is offering truly unique ice cream experience. In order the quality to be ensured, the company is strictly testing daily not only the suppliers, but also all the phases of manufacturing processes. The company fulfills its brand image with a big variety produced only by the best ingredients around the world. Its position is also based on their image differentiation following always a luxury brand strategy. There is a specific logo with golden colors and black fonts in order to pass the luxurious icon. The logo is also accompanied with the moto made like no other ®. All the advertisements are focusing in highlighting the luxury flavors of the products and the unique exotic tastes. 2.2. Target Group Haagen Dazs has differentiated its target group from the start of its growth. While the ice-cream industry was considered worldwide as a low price industry and mostly targeting in small ages, haagen dazs has from the start been focus on adults, who love the luxurious ice cream flavors. An important reason for taking this choice, has been their premium price strategy, since only the financially independent adults could spend more money for high quality ice creams. The second target market, are the health conscious adults, who are interested in desserts but they prefer natural ingredients and low fat substitutes. Focusing only on these two target segments, they might have a small market potential, but the profit margins are much higher. With this differentiation Haagen dazs is playing alone in this interesting market field. 2.3. Segmentation Haagen Dazs is segmenting in its business according to three major segments. These segments are, demographic, socio-cultural and psychographic. Looking on demographics, the company focuses on adults who have higher income and could spend in luxuries as for example premium price ice-creams. But beside of the age, they often tend to approach couples, by relating many flavors with romance advertising and pleasure that can be earned when a couple tastes a haagen dazs dessert. The second one is the socio-cultural segmentation. Intercultural management has been very successful by the haagen dazs marketers. Big variety of flavors can cover any need according to each countrys habits. For example, Europeans have some preferences in alcohol drinking, while Asian people have preferences in teas. Islamic countries are negative in romance images, while western populations are more enthusiastic on that. The third segment is according to psychographic characteristics. There are many people who love luxurious brands and need of being members of this brand category. Usually they feel more special, different and in higher quality level than the others. These category of people are too emotionally linked to brands and since branding is mainly emotional based, this target segment is very important for Haagen Dazs. Thus, in the haagen dazs shops the company tries to train the franchisers to focus on a high quality service, behavior and keeping the products within a way that they can be always fresh and delicious. 3. SWOT Analysis Strengths Well known brand synonymous with a history of luxury, premium ice cream leader producer. Strong market position. Intelligent market targeting and segmentation. Weaknesses High distribution cost. Bad image of many franchise shops, non related with the brand image. Opportunities Ice cream market is growing. Outside lunching is increasing. Development of other markets, BRIC markets. New trend in creams placement, i.e. cinemas, ho.re.ca. Threats Ben Jerrys competition. Nestle integration in the premium price ice cream market. Increase of ingredients price, oil price, distribution cost. 4. Marketing Mix Product As we have referred the production of the product is based on high quality ingredients and rich creamy taste. The packaging is also important, having a specific protective cap to assure the material in each pot. The products are categorized by size, in individual cups, family caps, bars, sundae cones, and high weight packages for mass sales. (5kg, 10kg, etc). Very special flavors are often produced in limited quantities and higher prices, reminding the luxury brand strategy. Place Haagen dazs is directly distributed with refrigerated vehicles to the customers. Customers might be super markets, high class shops, high class restaurants, hotels, food industry chains, i.e., pizza hut, simply burgers, movie places, i.e. cinemas, movie selling shops, other known chains, i.e. IKEA, cruise boats and finally to the haagen dazs franchise shops. Price The brand is characterized of a premium price, which is excused due to the ingredients and the high taste quality. Price varies among the several flavors. Haagen dazs is still the price leader and the competition as for example Ben Jerrys, follows H. Dazs strategy. Promotion The product is not so much advertised in mass media as are TV, radio. It is mainly advertised in printed themes. All advertisements targeting in express the product quality and the differentiation against competition. Trade marketing is more developed than other means, sponsorships and events are also usual methods. Advertising is mainly focus in haagen dazs credentials. 5. Evaluation of H.D. brand Strategy -Recommendations Haagen Dazs is a very well established brand in the ice cream industry and has been successfully placed in many countries worldwide. Focusing on the adults has been a brilliant idea, because of income advantages, high tighten-emotional relationships with brand lifestyle. This generation is much more recognizing and desire high quality, in comparison with the youngest one, who looks more as turn around consumers. The company should continue targeting on the adults, but they must not forget that the younger generation is also growing. It might be a good period in start searching their mind and introducing the brand value to this generation as well. Romance flavors might not be so successful, because they are mainly addressed to younger ages. So, H.D. should also start target the younger couples, but with the appropriate advertising messages through different civilizations, ethics and moralities. For example, if you want to address in younger couples, advertising should have more sexy and funny images, but you have to pay attention in the different moralities. Nevertheless, if the company will develop such campaign, they should take in consideration that it has to be does with a much more spread advertizing messages depending on the country. The company is correct based on the original ingredients and this fact has given them the premium quality awareness worldwide. But taking in consideration that the population is growing rapidly, the brand might be prisoner in its own choices. The demand might not be able to be covered from the existing ingredient quantities, since they are reduced a lot every day. Reducing might also create price increases and then the brand could face many difficulties in remaining in the market. It might be the ideal time to rethink again their production recipes, or invest in ingredients production worldwide, which will offer them a competitive advantage. Resources and capabilities must be planned in a better way in order to face the future with more power. In order to develop internationally, they have to focus more in the exclusive haagen dazs shops, who are expressing the brand icon in the several markets. H.D. looks weaker in this development in international field and competition in many places is more powerful. They can train their franchisers, or establish Franchise supervisor managers and trainers. Personal relationship and selling must also be more developed in this sector of exclusive shops. The development of the Brand internationally and premium price strategy has been enough successful, but in many countries as China, the brand is luxury, but so luxury that is placed only in too much luxury places. After a research in the web, I found a very characteristic statement of Mr. Eddie Lu, marketing manager of H.D. in Shanghai, which signifies this problem: In Beijing, freezers selling Haagen Dazs stand proudly in the lobbies of five star hotels. The price for a pint of Swiss vanilla: $10, compared to $3 in the U.S. However people dont mind paying for prestige items, especially if they are foreign. This issue has to be serious taken under consideration, since Middle East and the BRIC countries are the most potential markets and you cannot leave them outside of your growth strategies. After my research for this assignment, I have realized that H.D. has a very small market share in many countries of Middle East. They have for example to invest more in finding flavors more suitable to these populations. 6. Conclusion Ice cream is a very dynamic industry, which is growing every day. Haagen Dazs is at the moment the global leader in this field, but no one is certain that they can be always in this position. Time passes, lifestyle changes, leading markets are changing and this fact means that marketers of Haagen Dazs should work a lot in adjust their strategy in the new challenges that are in front of us. The brand is dominating the ice cream market for many years, but external and internal factors should be reconsidered in order to face future with success. The marketing mix of haagen dazs is really impressive and offered to the brand, the luxury image and brand equity for years. By continue being committed in their ingredients strategy, correcting things that we referred as logistics, production, resources, growth gaps, attention to intercultural ethics-morals, norms, franchising strategy improvement, Haagen Dazs can definitely continue being a golden brand and situated always ahead of competition as they have been doing for many years in the past.

tennis paper -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several different aspects of playing and improving your tennis game. Different strokes, rules, boundaries and many other aspects make up the game of tennis. Over the next few pages, I will do my best to explain the forehand and backhand stroke, the serve and volley, the rules of tennis, and without a doubt the grandslam.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The forehand stroke is the most popular in tennis. Stand facing the net, knees slightly bent, weight evenly distributed and forward on the balls of your feet. The racket is held in front of your body, elbows in close and parallel to the ground. The racket is supported with your free hand. From the turn position, the racket goes back until it is parallel to the ground- the angle between forearm and racket still remaining the same. The butt of the racket is pointing toward the net and the racket is on edge. The ball is contacted opposite the left leg, approximately waist high; the arm is relatively straight and the wrist firm. The follow through is a long, continuous sweeping motion finishing high with the racket butt opposite the left eye, (for right handers). The backhand is for the most part very similar just reversed. Tilt the face of your racquet down more on your backswing. Your racquet face naturally opens up (tilts upward) as you swing forward. You need to start your swing with it facing somewhat downward in order for it to end up at vertical as it meets the ball. Hold your racquet face vertical at the point where you normally meet the ball, then, without turning your wrist(s), pull the racquet back to your normal backswing position. It should face somewhat downward, and that's the angle you want at the start of each swing. The serve is, to me, the best way to take advantage of your opponent. For players of average height, hard, flat serves have to just barely clear the net, or they will go long. Only very tall players can get hard, flat serves in consistently enough to make them pay off. Adding some topspin will increase your margin of clearance over the net to several times larger. The most preferred power serve among advanced players has a mix of topspin and slice. On the serve, the feet are flat, the ball is tossed slightly over the head and out in front of the body. The forehand motion is used only straight over the top of your head. The volley becomes most ... ...1988) are the only three women's tennis players to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one year. Pete Sampras is tennis's all-time biggest money winner with over $40 million in career earnings. Helen Wills Moody, whose serious demeanor on the court earned her the nickname â€Å"Little Miss Poker Face†, finished the year as the no. 1 ranked women's tennis player nine times, including seven years straight from 1927 to 1933. In 1997, 16-year-old Martina Hingis became the youngest women's tennis player to be ranked no. 1 in the world since the rankings began in 1975. One of the most difficult accomplishments in professional tennis is winning all four of these tournaments. These tournaments are therefore known as the Grand Slam tournaments, and rank as the most important tennis tournaments of the year in the public mind as well as in terms of the ranking points and prizemoney awarded for performances in them. Though it may seem like tennis is entirely too complicated, it can be one of the most fun sports to play. Even if you’re not that good at the game, you still get great exercise, keeping you in shape. If you’ve never played tennis, start. And if you’ve played before, don’t ever stop.

Utilitarianism Essay -- criticisms of utilitarianism

This essay will present the key features of Utilitarianism and identify the problems of Utilitarianism to the extent to which they make Utilitarianism unacceptable. Jeremy Bentham founded Utilitarianism. He lived at a time of great change. With revolutions in France and America, demands were being made for human rights and greater democracy. Bentham worked on legal reform. Utilitarianism is associated with the principle of utility. Utility means the amount of satisfaction or pleasure that somebody gains from consuming a commodity, product, or service, i.e.; useful. The hedonic calculus, which is his system for measuring how good or bad a consequence is: At the time Bentham put forward the theory it was instrumental. It changed the way society was run and the way society now thinks for the better. It dramatically made changes to the poverty in Britain positively. Theories that are interested in the ends are known as teleological. Telos is Greek for the end. Therefore teleological means that the ends justify the means, utilitarianism follows this rule. Utilitarianism is the greatest goodness for the greatest number of people. The rightness of actions depends on their utility, and the utility is measured by the consequences, simply meaning the greatest good by moral actions. If the consequences are good, then the moral actions are not as relevant. A positive example is â€Å"Lucy wins the lottery. Instead of keeping it all to herself, Lucy decides to share it out with some of her friends, because she thinks it will make them happy.† Lucy is doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people and is doing it using goodness ... ...people’s common agreement about what is pleasure and what is pain. There are problems concerning what some people would consider pleasurable and what others would consider not pleasurable. Problems arise such as taste in music, hobbies and beliefs. In conclusion Utilitarianism has its political benefits, but is not clear enough with some aspects. It doesn’t show what is unacceptable in utilitarianism. Utilitarianism doesn’t have the flexibility of considering individual circumstances and moral values have no consideration in this theory. Utilitarianism is focused on quantity rather than quality. It seems rather a simple theory ‘the greatest good, for the greatest number of people’, however when you delve into the theory it becomes rather too complicated. For people to live by a theory it needs to be simple and clear.

Argumentative Against Death Penalty

Abolishment of Capital Punishment Capital punishment should be abolished for the following reasons. 1) It violates the Eight Amendment of the use of cruel and unusual punishment, for which the Supreme Court has vacillated. 2) It is a form of premeditated murder. 3) It promotes racism. 4) It can be administered to innocent individuals through tainted evidence. 5) The death penalty does not deter criminals from committing violent crimes. The death penalty is a form of cruel and unusual punishment that violates citizen’s Eighth Amendment which has forced the Supreme Court to step in and evaluate this form of punishment.The death penalty has not always been practiced in the United States; however, there have been about 13,000 people who have been legally executed since colonial times. In 1972, the Supreme Court effectively nullified the death penalty. However, in 1976 another Supreme Court found capital punishment to be Constitutional (White 1). One must wonder why they made this decision. In 2007 the court put executions across the country on hold for eight months while it examined whether lethal injection, the most common means of executing prisoners, violated the Eight Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment (Lacayo).How can they not see this form of punishment as cruel and unusual? Individuals are killed by electricity seeping through their bodies, or drugs that cause their organs to shut down one at a time. It’s difficult to unerstand what the government perceives as cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe to them this would mean lining individuals up and killing them at point blank range. What could be crueler than strapping individuals to a chair and sending electricity through their bodies essentially cooking their insides, or putting a lethal dose of drugs into their body that causes organ failure.The method of taking another human’s life is cruel no matter how it is achieved. This gives too much power to individuals in society. The death penalty is a form of premeditated murder. According to dictionary. com, murder is the killing or slaughter of an individual inhumanely or barbarously. What gives the state or normal everyday citizens the right to determine whether or not an individual lives or dies? This is essentially doing what the criminal did and justifying it by hiding behind the law. Murder is murder whether it is committed by the drug dealer on the street or y the executioner who administers the lethal dose of medication into the inmate’s veins. Some individuals feel that the death penalty gives way to racism and class oppression. African Americans and Latinos represent the majority of inmates on death row. Because of this, executions are exclusively for the poor. Ninety percent of those awaiting execution cannot afford to hire a competent trial attorney (â€Å"Reasons to Abolish Death Penalty,†). Too often those convicted are unable to afford a dream defense team and must set tle for court appointed attorneys.These attorneys are often overworked and underpaid. In many cases the appointed attorney has little at stake regardless of the outcome. The biggest problem with the use of the death penalty is that often innocent individuals are sentenced to this heinous form of punishment. There are a staggering number of cases where individuals have been wrongfully convicted. Over the past few years, there have been several stories of individuals who have been convicted of horrific crimes and been sentenced to death only to be freed years later by DNA evidence. Here is a prime example of one of those individuals.Earl Washington spent almost ten years on Virginia’s death row. He was exonerated by DNA evidence and pardoned by the governor. The same DNA test that cleared Earl, implicated a known serial rapist, yet law enforcement and prosecution continue to claim Earl guilty, apparently believing that Earl raped the victim leaving another man’s sperm. N ationwide over 100 condemned Americans have been exonerated since 1976 and walked off death row as free men (Ballard). Even though we have come a long way with DNA there will always be police officers who are pressured to solve cases too fast.Some may use whatever tools are necessary including planting evidence or falsifying documents to establish guilt. As with the case above most police officers, as well as district attorneys, do not want to admit when they are wrong, even if it spares the life of an innocent human. It is heard time and time again that capital punishment helps to deter similar crimes. Evidence does not support this claim. Representative Maxine Waters stated that she does not believe you deter the taking of lives by others by having a death penalty.She went on to say that in the final analysis it does not work fairly if there’s any such thing as being fair about killing people (â€Å"Reasons to Abolish Death Penalty†) Society tends to follow the trend s and mindset of those around them. They often feel that since the Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty, it does not violate the rights of those citizens who have been tried and convicted of crimes that warrant this type of punishment. They presume that justice is being carried out in accordance with the laws that the United States government has set forth.Then there are those who feel the death penalty is an appropriate means of punishing individuals who commit heinous crimes. Many people often refer to this biblical verse, â€Å"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand and foot for foot† (King James Version, Exodus 20:28). Too often they feel that this gives them the right to take justice into their own hands. Some individuals feel as though criminals should die by execution if the crime fits the punishment. Talk show host Larry Elder stated that society has the right to judge who lives and who dies.He says â€Å"criminals have made the ultimate sin against societ y and society is making a moral statement about your conduct† (Ballard, 2003). People who support the death penalty laugh at the notion that they are promoting racism. Statistics about race indicate that 90% of crimes are committed against whites. The study also stated that African Americans committed 7. 5 times more violent than whites (Sheehan, 1995). The conclusion is drawn that they are not targeting race as a factor when handing out death penalties, they are punishing the perpetrator of the crime without taking the race of the individual into factor.The fact that innocent people are placed on death row has not deterred judges from handing down this punishment. Many do not discount the fact that several people have been placed on death row only to be exonerated. The justice system allows every individual convicted of a crime so many appeals before the sentence is carried out. To the supporters of the death penalty this allows those wrongfully convicted the opportunity to p roduce evidence that will exonerate themselves. Supporters of the death penalty feel as though this helps to deter other criminals from committing the same act.According to a dozen studies, execution saves lives. The study stated that for each inmate executed three to eighteen murders are prevented (Liptak, 2007). Two law professors from Harvard also agree that the evidence of deterrent effect from capital punishment seems impressive. They seem to agree that capital punishment will save lives. After examining the information available for both the supporters and the non-supporters of capital punishment, it is clearly evident that capital punishment should be abolished. This form of unishment is cruel and unusual. It also allows our peers to commit murder by standing behind the law, which is no different than the criminals that are being put to death. Too often this form of punishment is passed down to innocent individuals who spend years trying to clear their name, and often do not get the chance to do so. Furthermore, there is not enough evidence to support that the death penalty deters other criminals. After all, there are better ways that tax money could be spent on individuals who commit crimes against society.The question that the government needs to ask themselves is if this form of punishment is worth the cost of innocent life that comes with it. Works Cited â€Å"Another Reason to Abolish the Death Penalty. † Workers. com. 2009. 11 Mar. 2013. . Ballard, Scotty . www. findarticles. com. 2003. 11 Mar. 2013. . Lacayo, Richard . â€Å"The Tide Shifts Against the Death Penalty. † www. time. com. 3 Feb. 2009. 12 Mar. 2013. . Liptak, Adam . â€Å"Does Death Penalty Save Lives?A New Debate. † The New York Times. 18 Nov. 2007. 12 Mar. 2013. . Sheenan, Paul . â€Å"The Race War of Blacks Against Whites. † heretical. com. 20 May. 1995. 11 Mar. 2013. . The Holy Bible, King James Version. New York: Oxford Edition: 1769; King James Bible Online, 2008. http://www. kingjamesbibleonline. org/. White, Deborah . â€Å"Pros and Cons of Death Penalty and Capital Punishment. † About. com US Liberal Politics. 12 Mar. 2013. .

Businesses and the Environment: Roles, Obligations, and Implications

Hundreds of individuals are being killed from the repercussions caused by the lack of concern towards the welfare of the environment. In fact, the drastic changes in the weather, the increase in occurrence of natural calamities, as well as the rise of sea level, are just a few of the well documented changes to the planet that are currently posing risks against mankind.In this sense, it is not refutable that businesses, due to the general goal of raising income, have in a way contributed to the occurrence of such environmental problems through various means.Therefore, with the global trend of addressing these environmental concerns through the individual level, I believe that businesses must also take part in the effort through lowering the ecological footprint of their operations. The term ecological footprint pertains to the overall usage of resources as well as release of byproducts which may be applied at the business level (Global Footprint Network [GFN], 2009). Businesses consum e and pollute at an elevated rate gains a greater ecological footprint which means that the business significantly adds to environmental damage.Hence, in order for businesses to gain a lower ecological footprint rating, examples of what can be done including the use of alternative power sources, taking consideration of harvesting and fishing limits, shifting or imposing more efficient trade routes, and using more energy efficient processes or machinery. It is apparent that adopting a business practice that places the welfare of the environment into consideration may not be as complex as commonly thought of.In fact, some of the practices might even lead into bigger savings, as the use of more efficient devices most commonly results in the reduction of operating costs for example.Aside from benefits that businesses must consider, the most important idea that business leaders must keep in mind is that if in the future the environment worsens further to the point of humans being elimina ted, then such a future will indeed be not good for business. Reference Global Footprint Network. (2009, April 27). Overview. Footprint Basics. Retrieved June 8, 2009, from http://www. footprintnetwork. org/en/index. php/GFN/page/footprint_basics_overview/.