Discussion Questions Essay Example for Free

Discussion Questions Essay DQ #1: Select a small business that you may want to start. What is strategic management and planning? Why would a strategic plan be important to the success of this business? How are the four functions of management relative to creating and implementing a strategic plan? I want to start an e-commerce sales business. The strategic management and planning guidelines for this kind of business include the following: Planning As an owner, I will analyze the direction the organization will go and create core objectives for the business. The objectives will help the company stay on track and assist in any unexpected developments that may arise down the road and short-term and long-term goals are designed. Organizing We will analyze our resources and determine the volume of products to purchase and the individual cost to generate profits. We will also review how many employees will be needed. Directing Our managers will be tasked with the responsibility of encouraging positive behavior from employees to create production that leads to higher profitable margins. Managers will implement a reward system for consistent high producers. Controlling The entire team will survey the operation and gauge areas that may require improvements or adjustments to maximize sales volumes. The team will also use the same goals and objectives that were previously established to review any issues or concerns and confirm that any negative feedback that may have been received is addressed. A strategic plan would be very necessary and important for this business to solidify a position in the e-commerce industry where customers can shop for quality products and the company will earn profits, while instilling great customer service. The four functions of management are relative to creating and implementing a strategic plan so all areas are balanced and functioning in conjunction with the expectations of the business. DQ #2: What is the difference between mission and vision statements? What factors must be considered to produce an appropriate mission and vision statement for an organization? Vision and mission statements various phrases that a company uses to describe or state their values, direction, integrity position, beliefs and style. The difference between the vision and mission statement is that the mission statement defines the purpose, goals and objectives of a business. The mission statement also explains the impact the business will have on the community. The vision statement speaks more to the values of the organization, explains the purpose of the achievements, and outlines how things should be done as the goals and objectives are being followed. In order to produce an appropriate mission and vision statement the business should focus on elements that build trust among potential consumers that will help them to understand the primary facets from which the business plans to operate. Some key variables are the quality of products and services that will be delivered, the contribution to the community, and the ethical position that will be the foundation of good business behaviors

The Comparison and Feature Similarities Essay Example for Free

The Comparison and Feature Similarities Essay Now comes the interesting part, distinguishing how two completely different advertisements use similar features and techniques to sell products and also compare their varied approach to the reader first lets just pick out the similarities and discuss why these similarities may have occurred;  Use of images, very common, both have images present and also bold fonts and titles that stand out against their background colour  Use of beautiful people both people used in the adverts have white teeth are not over weight etc  Both contain the logo of their product somewhere in the advert, and also the logos both seem to be situated towards the end of the advert  Both people in the image are in their natural state for that particular time, in the morning for breakfast, and at night ready for bed, the attire of both people is nothing exceptional and this will relate to all the ordinary people reading the advert. We can see that these similarities mainly relate to the images and the people in the images. This is because the editor needs to make the reader feel special and no different from the any one else and that what Ruby Wax or the lady from the Kelloggs advert does can be done by the reader in just the same way, whether it means having the same furniture, or eating the same cereal, people always find celebrity related products make them exceptional from the others. Comparison  Now lets compare the few features that are in both and see how they differ and why this may be;  There is a lot less colour used in the Kelloggs advert compared to the MFI one, this maybe because in the furniture world colour schemes play a big role and the last thing people want is the wrong colour couches for example. Whereas in the world of cereal colour is not such a big issue whereas taste would be the same thing for Kellogg but the other way round, but colour attracts attention when reading a magazine so this may be a flaw to the Kelloggs advert or maybe the MFI just has too much colour it depends. In the MFI advert there is far less text involved that in the Kelloggs one, this is because the main feature of furniture is how it looks, and the best way to sell furniture is to picture it, in full colour and matching its surroundings whereas in terms of cereal factual information such as nutrition details are required and the effects of the cereal, and time periods before you can see the results all add to the better chance of selling the product. Both adverts include a logo at the end of the advert so to speak, and this is a shared feature, they will both want the same result, this is for the reader to remember the name of the brand over all so at least if the name is remembered then all the details will follow when the person sees the name again.  Both scenarios are perfect all the place is tidy and matching in the MFI advert, and the same in the other not that there is much to be messy but the people are all clean, hair done brilliant smile etc, this adds to the attraction and also allows the reader to associate themselves with these people via the product. In both the adverts the positioning of the wording has to be just right, this especially true in the Kelloggs advert as I had identified that mapping theory, this would not be effective at all if the wording was not correctly positioned and also in the MFI advert, if the text was bang in the middle then that would spoil the view of the immaculate bedroom which is the MFI adverts key feature for attracting readers. So the text is place in the corner out of the way giving the main image plenty of space to be recognised. Conclusion So now after analysing two separate adverts we can get quite a clear image of how advertising works and how all its little features add up to successfully sell their product to the wide range of viewers out there, of course there are many different ways of selling a product and to be sure, we have only covered a small amount of the advertising world but from this assignment we have certainly understood how advertising works and the many ways there are to sell something and the many ways people can play with your mind to make you want what they are selling.

Attitudes and behavior

Attitudes and behavior ABSTRACT The paper focuses on attitudes and behavior on the concept of the youths buying behavior towards branded sports shoes, different consumers have got different decision making process. The buyers ultimate goal is to buy the product of qualitative, quantitative with low/best affordable price. In order to identify different kinds of consumers behavior towards buying of different branded shoes and Nike sports shoe. I have carried out buying behavior of youth and different kind of consumer behavior models, literature and theory of consumer behavior; finally, I analyzed and concluded with research based on questionnaire of Nike shoes and case studies of Nike sports shoes at Halmstad University. 1. INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND Introduction: Why studying youth buying behaviour? Youth is perhaps the most difficult demographic group to communicate with. Not only they have a short attention span, they are also elusive in media consumption, fickle in brand preference, and simply challenging to engage and entertain. Marketers spend millions in marketing research every year trying to predict, or anticipate, changing youth behaviours. With the continually proliferating choices of sports shoe, not only does this group embrace technology at an early age, it quickly becomes the early adopters of all new trends and convergent platforms. One can argue that whatever youth does today foreshadows what older demographic groups will adopt in the near future. All this makes it extremely difficult to understand and target their behaviours. Background Consumer has been elated with the kind of reception; they are getting from various companies these days. The reason behind a drastic change in consumer behavior is because the consumer is no more treated as a hire purchaser but, he is treated as the decider of the companys fortune. Companies or marketers cannot hire any fortuneteller to guess the consumers attitude. Guessing or measuring the consumers attitude is not a cake walk but this is because predicting consumers attitude is as tough as predicting consumers mind (Bheri, 2004). Consumers are continuously choosing among the various products though they are not aware of the products and usage, even though they are intentionally purchasing the various new brands without any knowledge about the new products, furthermore if new company enters into the market, for every consumer it is very difficult to understand the features of the news products and this makes confusion among the consumers to obtain the information. For example: If one local company enters into the market then to gain the knowledge about the features of the new product, it will take long time for the consumers to understand (Nelson, 1970). The term consumer can be described as a person who acquires goods and services for self satisfaction and his often used to describe two different kinds of consuming entities: the personal consumers and organizational consumers. The personal consumers buy goods and services for his/her own use. In this context, the goods are bought for final use by individual, who are organizational consumers, they encompasses for profit and not for profit business, government agencies, institutions, all of them must buy products, equipment and services in order to run their organization (Hawkins, Best and Coney 1998). The consumer will respond according to the product quality and reliability, the fundamental understanding of products is necessary to understand the product features, products reliability and product benefits (Baker, 2004). The consumer is the end user for the product; consumers buy the products in market; in order to perform successful sales operations in the market an effective distribution channel and networks are required for the organizations. Distribution channels and networks play an important role in the consumer goods industry. Consumer is the ultimate user of every product, without any consumer there is no market as such (Baker, 2004). Every region wise the different consumers are using different kind of products. Every consumer has their own tastes and preferences. So, every consumers opinions and preferences are different from one another. The local marketers have good idea about, what the local consumers are using (region wise). For example: The south Indian food habits and tastes and preferences are different, when compared to north Indian food habits (Thomas, 2004). Based on above paragraph, direct marketing activities have big impact on every consumer, because through direct marketing every company knows about the behavior of every consumer in the market. Manufacturing companies, retailer and suppliers do not have an idea about the consumer behavior in the local market. So, author suggested that direct marketing activities should be left to the local market leaders, because the local market leaders have best idea of local market and local consumer behavior. This theory helps for the organization and sub-organizations to know the consumer behavior in different market environments, taste and preferences of the consumer behavior (Thomas, 2004). McDonalds would not have made a big impact in the Indian market had it persisted with its U.S. product line that included beef products, moreover, McDonalds repositioned the brand as family-oriented and children-friendly, catering the traditional Indian middle- class segment that finds pride in its family culture and is especially conscious of childcare. So in this point of view Mc Donalds have approached differently, because they identified that, which they followed earlier that will not get good impact on their business so, they immediately changed the business line to achieve the targets, thus, this is one kind of business strategy to achieve the set goals in huge populated countries (Dash, 2005). For perspective of globalization we can not change the system of tastes and preferences of Consumers. Another instance demonstrating the ignorance of local tastes in the wake of globalization features the multinational mobile phone makers, Nokia had tasted success with its soap-bar designed phones and ceased producing the flip phones that consumers found irritating to use (Zaccai, 2005). The Chinese business people are giving importance to Chinese traditional, patriotic values; the business people are running their businesses by showing their traditional, patriotic advertisement and promotional campaigns to get the business from the Chinese people. The Chinese consumers perspective, by assessing their preferences amongst a host of advertisements and promotional campaigns, later on the business people are started the global Advertisement campaigns with status and social appeal, they sought immense pride in clinging to the traditional, cultural and patriotic values through the local campaigns, with this theory helps by knowing the Chinese consumer behavior and also they are giving same importance to traditional and patriotic values in the name of advertisements. Finally, they want the advertisements with traditional and patriotic values of Chinese culture (Zhou and Belk, 2004). The consumers mind is different from one another in this as author said in the definition that according to the human psychology, demographical differences, age sex and to understand people needs. (Kotler, 2004), to assess the influences of every consumer approach is different, in theory explained that consumer is treated as decider of the company, what ever the product comes to the market, the consumer is the ultimate purchaser for every product, some times the consumers are choosing, selecting and going for family decision making to choose differently, in one point of time the consumers differentiated and explained that they are going for personal and some of the them are using products for profit. Demographical differences make new food habits for every consumer. The choice of variation for every consumer (Kotler, 2004). The example of above paragraph, two countries, therefore Chinese consumers are giving respect to traditional and patriotic values, where as Indian consumers are more religious when they are using the products. These are influences that make the consumer to purchase different products; mostly those influences are more related to the physiological, demographical, social, cultural, economic, family and business influences. According to Kotler (1994), consumer behavior is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It is a subcategory of marketing that blends elements from psychology, sociology, socio psychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people needs. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from group such as family friends, reference groups, and society in general (Kotler, 1994) for example while consumers purchase the shoe, then they go for family decision, comfort, satisfaction, price and quality. Every family member doesnt have the same opinion to buy the same product; different family members have different choice to buy the product. So, in one family consumer behavior is different (Kotler, 1994). 2. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better knowledge of consumer buying behavior towards purchasing the sports shoes. The aim of the thesis is to find out the factors influencing the youth in purchasing sports shoes. The purpose of the study could be expressed by the following research question. Assessment factors, which influence the youth to buy sports shoes? 3. LITERATURE REVIEW The Definition: Consumer-buying behavior according to Kotler (2004, p.601) is defined as The buying behavior consumers individuals and house holds who buy goods and services for personal consumption. the term consumer can be described as a person who acquires goods and services for self satisfaction is often used to describe two different kinds of consuming entities: the personal consumers and the organizational consumers. The personal consumers buy goods and services for his/her own use. In this context the goods are bought for final use by individual, who are organizational consumers, encompasses for profit and not for profit business, government agencies, institutions, all of them must buy products, equipment and services in order to run their organization (Kotler, 2004). Peter and Olson, (1993) mention that interactions between the peoples emotions, moods, affection and specific feelings is called consumer behavior, in other words in environmental events which they exchange ideas and benefits each is called consumer behavior . Buying behavior of people, who purchase products for personal use and not for business purposes (Peter and Olson, 1993). The Physical actions of consumers that can directly observe and measured by others, by influencing behavior profit can be earned (kotler, Armstrong and Cunningham, 1989). The study of consumer behavior has evolved in early emphasis on rational choice (microeconomics and classical decision theory) to focus on apparently irrational buying needs (some motivation research) and the use of logical flow models of bounded rationality (Howard and Sheth 1989). The latter approach has depended into what is often called the information processing model (Bettman 1979). The information processing model regards the consumer as a logical thinker who solves problem to make purchasing decision (Holbrook and Hirschman 1980). Compares the four major approaches to create successful inter-organizational relationships and integrates them into a single prescription for managing important inter firm relationships (Palmatier, Dant and Grewal, 2007). Service fails, in satisfying the customers and developing customer loyalty over time in business to business markets. Cyert (1956) may have been the first to observe that a number of managers in addition to the purchasing agents are involved in buying process, and the concept was labeled buying behavior and popularized by Robinson (Faris and Win 1967). Webster and Wind (1972) famously identified five buying roles, they are: 1. users 2. Influencer 3.buyer 4. decider and 5 Gatekeeper (Webster and wind, 1972). Further categories have been suggested as the initiator (Bonoma, 1981), and the analyst and spectator by Wilson (Wilson, 1998). The product purchase decision is not always done by the user. The buyer necessarily purchases the product. Marketers must decide at whom to direct their promotional efforts, the buyer or the user. They must identify the person who is most likely to influence the decision. If the marketers understand consumer behavior, they are able to predict how consumers are likely to react to various informational and environmental cues, and are able to shape their marketing strategies accordingly (kotler, 1994). The consumer behavior influences are follows: The consumer behavior influences in 3 aspects, they are acquiring, using and disposing. The acquiring means that how the consumer spends money on the products, such as leasing, trading and borrowing. Using means some of the consumers use the high price products and some of the consumer sees the quality. Disposing is nothing but distribution, order or places a particular product (Hoyer, Deborah, 2001). By understanding consumer behavior deeply, different authors have given different information about the consumer behavior, how consumer buys the products, it involves four steps they are: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase behavior, the marketer can pick up many clues as and how to meet the buyer need and develop an effective program to support an attractive offer to the target market (Kanuk, 1990). According to Kotler (1994), the Consumers buying decision process is influenced by four steps those are as follows: Types of consumer buying decision behavior: Consumer buying behavior decision-making varies with the type buying decision. There are different types of buying behavior decisions. Complex buying behavior: Consumers undertake complex buying behavior when they are highly involved in purchase and complex buying behavior and perceive significant difference among the brands. Consumers may be highly involved when the product are expensive, risky, purchased in frequently and are highly expensive (Kotler, 1994). Dissonance Reducing buying behavior occurs when consumers are highly involved with an expensive, infrequent or risky purchase, but sees little difference among various brands (Kotler, 1994). Variety Consumers undertake variety seeking buying behavior in situations characterized by low consumer involvement, but significant perceived brand difference. In such cases, consumers often do a lot brand scrutiny (Kotler, 1994). 4. THE BUYING DECISION PROCESS Introduction of buying decision process Consumers make many buying decisions every day. Mostly large companies do extensive research on consumer buying decision, to answer questions like what does consumer buy, where they buy, how they buy, how much they buy, when they buy and why do they buy a product, for this question to reorganize the decision different stages needed they are, information search, and evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and post purchase decision etc., The consumer passes through all five stages with every purchase, but in more routine purchases, consumers often skip or reverse some of these stages (Hawkins, Coney, 1998). The buying decision process The buying process starts with need recognition, where as buyer recognize the need. The buyers decision is depending on his/her internal external stimuli of consumer behavior. The internal and external stimuli of consumer behavior means that the consumer, which product should purchase, how much wants to purchase and externally which products are more reliable and usable. According to this internal and external stimulis the buyer will take the decision (Hawkins, Coney, 1998). The consumers are searching the information from the various sources those are information search, personal source, commercial sources, public sources and experimental sources; this is also process of the buying decision process before purchase of the product (Hawkins, Coney, 1998). Information search: The consumer can obtain information from any of several sources, which includes: Personal source: family, friends, neighbors, acquaintance etc. Commercial sources: advertising, sales people, dealers, packaging, displays. Public sources: mass media, consumer-rating organizations etc. Experimental sources: handling, examining, using of the product. Consumers receive most of the information about a product from commercial sources, which are controlled by the marketer. The most effective source however tend to be personal. Personal sources appear to be even more important in influencing the purchase. Evaluation of Alternatives: The consumer evaluates all the alternatives available to him/her to arrive at a brand choice. The consumer will see the product as a bundle of attributes with varying capacities, which satisfies his or her needs. The consumer will pay more attention to those attributes connected with their needs. The consumer is likely to develop a set of brand beliefs about, where each brand stands on each attribute. These of beliefs held about the particular brand is known as brand image, according to the beliefs and preferences of the consumer, evaluates the alternative products instead of using existing products (Kotler, 2004). Purchase decision: In the evaluation stage, the consumer ranks all the brands and makes a purchase intention. Generally the consumer purchase decision is to buy the most preferred brand, when purchasing a products, consumer will think about two things, which can be, purchase decision and purchase intention. The attitude of others and unexpected situation factors both directly or indirectly effects the consumers final decision to buy a particular brand. (Kotler, 2004). Post purchase behavior: The buyers job does not end when the product is brought. After purchasing the product, the consumer will be satisfied or dissatisfied and will be engaged in post purchase behavior. The satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the purchase of a particular product depends on the relationship between the consumer expectation and the consumer disappointment, if it meets the consumer expectations, the consumer can get satisfied. And if it exceeds he/she is delighted (Gilly and Gelb, 1986). 5. THEORETICAL FRAME WORK Consumer Involvement Theory The consumer involvement theory means that, how the consumer involving the purchase of various products in the market, after purchasing the product, how the consumer responding towards the products called consumer involvement theory. The consumers get the information through advertising, for that they purchase, use, and react that they see and hear about the products that they buy (Barry, 1987). Level of involvement an individuals intensity of interest in a product and the importance of the product for that person, those are enduring involvement and situational involvement (Homewood IL Irwin, 1987). Routinized response behavior is that the process used when buying frequently purchased low-cost items that requires little search- and decision-effort (Homewood IL Irwin, 1987). The consumer involved in purchasing of products and usage and, also, various aspects like high involvement and low involvement in process of purchasing of products. The consumer some times involves high and low in purchasing products, so, theory of involvement is explaining that the consumer recognizes the importance of the purchase and it considers that the degree of perceived risk, moreover, it reflects on self image perhaps information processing may be different from one another (Ray, 1973). The low involvement theory is explaining that the consumer would accept wide range of products with positive attitude with do-feel-learn strategy, firstly the consumer select any kind of product, use the product, if they are not sure about how to use the product, and they learn how to use the product. To purchase a new computer in market and using of the computer, if they are not satisfied then they go for learning of how to use the computer. The low involvement of consumer will be in manner that do-feel-learn strategy (Ray, 1973). In one of the consumer article author explained about the consumers, are influenced by television commercials and their relationship effectiveness of advertisements (Krugman 1987). High involvement theory is rational and emotional, and it is explaining about the consumers participations in the context very actively without any hesitation, moreover, they look after extensive problem solving. In this theory of involvement the consumers learn about the product, use the product, if they are feeling that the product is comfortable to use it, and then they go for buying the product, so this is called high involvement because after usage, they definitely buy the products. The high involvement theory is reversible order to low involvement theory like learn-feel-do strategy (Debruicker, 1979). How the involvement theory is useful, the emotions, specific feelings, learning of every product and involves when they want to use it and when they want to purchase it. So, this theory helps when the consumer purchasing any kind of product or after using the product. 6. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR MODELS Introduction Intergradations of three models There are three types of models, which will explain about consumers process of basic needs to selecting one particular product, In order to process consumer behavior the following three models are important, the first and foremost model is that the Hierarchy model of consumer behavior, in this model the author said that, without any basic needs the consumer can not survive, so, the consumer should have some basic needs, which have been explained below, secondly the consumer behavior model. In this model author mentioned about research and planning, in this process, the researchers are taking samples from consumer before manufacturing the new products in the market. Finally, lens model has been explained that in order to choice/select a product by the consumer. Most early psychologists studied people who had psychological problems, but Maslow Hierarchy needs tells us about the needs of consumer behavior. Hierarchy needs of consumer behavior model (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987) Maslow believes that people seek to fulfill five categories of needs. (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987) Maslows given the hierarchy needs for consumer behavior, before starting about the consumer behavior, the consumer needs are important; usually every consumer have some hierarchy needs, they are; self actualization needs, esteem needs, belonging needs, safety and security needs and psychological needs (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). The self actualization needs: The term actualization means that the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is called self actualization needs. For example: one can play the music, he is called musician or artist, and one can paint the art is called painter, one can write the poems, is called poet. For surviving in competitive world one profession is important, this profession is not only for surviving, but also one kind of need for human being. In small words to understand simply one individual potentiality develop him by doing something; it is called the self actualization (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). The author suggests that the self actualization need is important when the consumer wants to survive, consumer came with new professions, and it is one kind of need, it will help the consumer to survive in this competitive world (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). Esteem needs: The term esteem means that need for things that reflect on self-esteem, personal worth, social recognition, and accomplishment, for example one can travel in the bus, motor bike, and car respectively, depends on his/her financial position they can travel. In this case travel is a need, so, in smaller words, if one can economically sound, then he/she arranges the esteemed need according to their financial possession (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). The author said that, if she/he needs the esteem needs, then they should have good economic possession, if not no necessary to maintain the car or motor bike, it is very easy to use the public bus or walk (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). Social needs: The social needs includes love of family or friends, for example, the boy loves his girl friend, the relationship between husband and wife, one child belongs to one family This is called belongingness or love (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). This is one kind of need for every consumer, because every consumer has their personal belongingness and love. Safety needs: The safety might include living in an area away from threats. This level is more likely to be found in children as they have a greater need to feel safe. For example one wants to live safe and secure life in the society. Finally, always consumer wants to live a life, which is safe and secured (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987). Physiological needs: It includes the very basic need air, warmth, food, sleep, stimulation and activity. People can die due to lack of biological needs and equilibrium common needs like food, water, oxygen and other common minimum needs are wanted for every one to survive in the world. This is also a basic need of consumer (Simons, Irwin and Drinnien, 1987) Consumer behavior model The concept of consumer behavior model is that, all the consumer minds are not the same, because every consumer thinks in different manner and purchasing of products also different. The below figure is saying about the research and planning, now a days the products are many, the consumer is attracting towards new products and its features. The manufacturing companies are designing the products, before manufacturing of new products the researchers are taking the samples for research from the consumers, after taking the samples from the consumers, researchers are doing the research about the products, it encourages companies to constantly innovate better ways to serve the consumer needs (Yeowzah, 2003). The research planning depending on product design, insights and action. As author saying about the design, if products designs are good then every consumer attracted towards purchasing of new products, the product design is possible only by doing research. The insights is nothing but the product features, the product features are depend upon good research and planning, without any research and planning there is no product as such. In between these two aspects the action takes place to do good research and to get good results in the market (Yeowzah, 2003). 2. Consumer behavior model (Yeowzah, 2003) http://www.yeowzah.com/consumer_behavior_model.htm The significance of consumer behavior decision theory in some cases consumer has clear and strong choice or preference for particular product to purchase. According to the customer preference, companies can increase their sales to develop the 4 Ps marketing to affect the customer preference and test. Company can design the product to attract the customer to make the better sales. To analyze the competitor activity and make the most battle plan to fight in to the market (Hauser, 1993). Lens Model Product Features Perceptions Preferences Psycho-social cues Availability, Price Choice Lens model (Hauser, 1993) Description: The above lens model says that, the product features and perceptions are inter dependent, because the consumer see the product features before purchasing any product in the market, the product features arrow showing towards perception, the perception is nothing but understanding of the product, in this process consumer will understand about the product, after understanding the product, the perceptions is going to be preference of various products (Hauser, 1993). In this process of preference product, the consumer prefers the products, after preferring the product, consumer select the particular product that is called choice. The final arrow showing towards choice, but this whole process depends on consumer psycho-social cues and availability price of the products in the market (Hauser, 1993). The second way is that the psycho-social cues and perceptions are also inter dependent with the help of these two terms the consumer prefers the product and finally choose/select the product (Hauser, 1993). The third way is that the consumer chooses the product with the help of psycho-social cues, which means psychological influences, understanding of the product and availability price of the products (Hauser, 1993). NIKES INTRODUCTION (NIKES CASE STUDIES) The company was established in 1968. Philip H. Knight is the chairman and CEO of the company. The first idea was given by Philip knight to manufacture the shoes, the idea behind this concept is that, when he was studying MBA in Stanford University in USA, he completed the course and he was trying to do the project in different marketing contexts, for this project, he went to Japan to do project in tiger shoes in Japan, it is one of the best shoes brands in Japan, at the same time he presented himself as an American representative and started manufacturing of shoes and he has given name for that company is blue ribbon sports company later on he has changed the name Nike. Later he started manufacturing shoes, apparel and equipments and he renamed his company name like Nike hope for the best to happen after some time he turned in to his coach Bill bower man in his school for what to do next in this industry. So, Bill bower man came up with new idea. In 1979 the Nike was the worlds top companies in the world. Nike mainly concentrated on athletics, the main competitors was Reebok and Adidas. Now Ni

Creative Play: A Royal Life :: essays research papers

Creative Play: A Royal Life LAUREN: Good after noon, I am lady Lauren and this is Lady Jadie. JADIE: 'Ello LAUREN: We are ladies of the royal court of beef-a-lot, and we do anything we like with our time. Being pampered royalty is so much fun. And we have our father king Edward to take care of the political matters, so we can spend our lives in bliss. JADIE: I personally enjoy painting, horseback riding and learning, especially languages. This whole "rebirth" movement is very intriguing. It all started back about 1500 or so, with people, for one reason or another beginning to learn and care about what happened to them. They realized that they controlled their own destiny. LAUREN: I feel the same, with all the new inventions, it possible to learn at an amazing rate. Moveable type printing presses, Indoor chamber pots, new dyes to make everything around very pretty. This is a very enjoyable time for me. JADIE: Yes, Yes, how true. Especially the pretty things. Our dresses are brightly colored and extremely detailed, as that was the movement in fashion of our time. These things are very expensive and only royalty such as ourselves can afford such a luxury. LAUREN: Say, do you know what's for dinner tonight? JADIE: Silly girl! Its what we have every night in the castle Ingvey, Everything! A feast of huge proportions. Bread, cheese, meat, fish, vegetables†¦ all made fresh by the peasants this morning. Yes, what a glorious time to live. LAUREN: And you people (looking at the class) would you care to join us in our feast? THE PEASANTS LIFE: BEEF: This is what most of the people in the renaissance lived like, poor in spirit and in health. I am a day laborer, as is my friend Sonic. We awake at dawn and work in the fields till dusk. We return home to our wives and many children. Tonight is a special night for me, as I get to dine on meat, which is rare in my life†¦ but then again so is bathing. (smile) Typically we eat vegetables which our wives have grown in the meager gardens behind our houses. My personal favorite is carrots, I like carrots. (smile again) What about you? SONIC: Broccoli. BEEF: We are dressed in large, baggy pants, made out of cotton. Our shirts are of linen, and are large enough to keep us warm during those cold winter nights. The large baggy pants serve the same purpose, to keep us warm. We don't have enough money to buy the brightly colored clothes that our Queen, Lady Lauren has.

Intention Consists of Belief, Intention Does Not Entail Belief :: Philosophy Essays

Intention Consists of Belief, Intention Does Not Entail Belief In this paper, we will discuss both Gilbert Harman’s and J. David Velleman’s theories of intentions. The central dispute between their two theories of intention is that Harman holds that intention entails belief, while Velleman holds that intention consists of belief. Velleman constructs a model of intention in which intention consists of belief in order to explain the apparent spontaneity of an agent’s self-knowledge. Harman, on the other hand, rejects the thesis that intention consists of belief because of an example involving an insomniac. My goal in this paper is to show how Velleman’s theory of intention can avoid the problem posed by the case of the insomniac. The conclusion will then be that Velleman’s theory is more plausible than Harman’s, because it is able to successfully explain more about our commonsense observations of agents, namely, how an agent’s self-knowledge is spontaneous. In Harman’s model, intention entails belief in that when one intends to A one believes that one will A. According to Harman, intentions are the result of practical reasoning and beliefs are the result of theoretical reasoning. For example, if I intend to write this paper, I must know that it is within my power to write this paper. Since knowing involves believing, I therefore must believe that I will write this paper in order to intend to write this paper. Thus, one comes to have a belief that one can do something, such as the ability to write a paper, as the result of theoretical reasoning, while one comes to have an intention, like writing a paper, as the result of practical reasoning. Simply put, the process goes as follows: practical reasoning forms intentions dependent upon the conclusions (beliefs) of theoretical reasoning. Now that we have an understanding about how intentions are formed in Harman, it is necessary to discuss what he thinks makes an intention an intention. According to Harman, an "‘act’ of forming an intention is always a means to end" (Harman, 157). Stated another way, an intention is always a way of doing something else. This feature of intentions is what leads Harman to conclude that intentions are self-referential, in the sense that one must intend to intend. That is, one always forms an intention intentionally. An important feature of intentions that Harman derives from this observation is that intentions are a means of guaranteeing that an agent will act in a particular way.

Music Censorship Essays -- essays research papers

Marilyn Manson, The Beatles, NWA, Garth Brooks, and the king, Elvis, What do all these people have in common? Well, yes, they are all musical groups, but there is something more. Marilyn Manson is a heavy metal group who worships Satan, the Beatles were one of the greatest Rock N’ Roll bands of all time, and NWA was a hard-core rap group from the 80’s. Garth Brooks is a country singer and greatest selling performer of all time, and well, Elvis is the king of Rock N’ Roll. So what do they all have in common? All of these artists have or had songs with indecent or obscene lyrics.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since the dawn of musical expression, there have been people trying to stop or hinder the constitutional right to listen and enjoy music of all forms. There were ordinary, everyday people during the infancy of Rock N’ Roll in the 1960’s who made it their mission in life to stop so-called â€Å"obscene† music like the Beatles song â€Å"Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds,† from polluting our airwaves and minds. These groups succeeded in banning some songs from the radio, but most of their actions were for naught, because there was no real punishment for radio stations playing those songs labeled â€Å"obscene.† By 1985, many people wanted to cleanse the music industry of its â€Å"indecent† music, so the most prominent group in the history of music censorship was started: The Parents’ Music Resource Center (PMRC)-(A Brief†¦). This was just the first of many groups who made it their business to decide what the America n Population should or should not listen to. These censorship groups have also been able to get government money in order to fight, lie, and bribe their way to censoring music. The PMRC and other organizations have also convinced government organizations like the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) to regulate what music is played on the radio. Places like Target, Disc Jockey, and other local record stores are also forced to label music that the PMRC and other censorship groups find obscene (A Brief†¦)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Who is to say that what is obscene to someone might not be seen as obscene to another person? This question, as well as many others, brought forth many anti-censorship organizations who fight to give the people of America the right to listen to whatever music they want to, indecent or not. The First Amendment from anyone who tries to cen... ...ment and all the music censorship organizations to deny musicians and the public our constitutional rights? And why do we pay millions of our tax dollars to try and undermine what our whole country was built upon over two hundred years ago? We must acknowledge that ratings systems of any kind can do and result in censorship. And we all must fight to preserve free speech for everyone regardless of whether or not we agree with the message. (National Campaign†¦) When politicians and religious leaders call for censorship because they personally find the message objectionable, or you wonder why you should join the fight against music censorship, please consider this quote be Martin Niemoeller, a Lutheran pastor who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938. He said, In Germany, the Nazi’s came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.

Comparing For Profit and Non for Profit Colleges Essay

Colleges and university have slowly become one of the stepping stones into the working world today. People go to colleges for higher education with the intention of earning degrees in which they can use in their respective fields. Some example degrees that people pursue are Medical, Law, Business, Accounting, and Science Degrees. Through the years the idea of college was that it was optional and it was a door for better life and job. However in the modern times, it become a necessity. It all started when the colleges once single- gender institutions target specific students in their respective demographics. Today, the college market has now been divided into two major categories: Not-for-Profit Colleges and For-Profit colleges. Not-For-Profit Colleges are institutions that are interested in serving the student’s needs by providing necessary education to the student. The Not-For-Profit organization are tax exempt and have a board of trustees that makes decisions. For-Profit Colleges are run like a business in which their goal is to generate income for their owners and shareholders. There are no board of trustees at For-Profit College and the owner and shareholders control the decision on which is best for the institution. Although the objective for both Not-for-Profit Colleges and For-Profit College is to provide their students an education in which they can use for their future, both institution have great differences in which their organizations are run. Although the primary objective For-Profit colleges is to provide an education, they are merely a business in which their goal is to earn a profit. Like any business, the For-Profit Colleges can be setup as a sole proprietorship, partnership, or even a subsidiary of a larger company. The For-Profit College can also be setup as a corporation that have stocks traded on the stock markets. They will try to bring earnings and a return on investment for all their shareholders and investors. They can have great flexibility because at the end of the day, the goal for the For-Profit College is to make money and only that. The instructors that are hired at For-Profit Colleges usually have a very different approach to their teaching compared to Non-For-Profit Colleges. Usually they are merely there to carry out the lesson plans in which was designed by the institution. Majority of the lesson plan given to each student is standard which means the instructors do not have the liberty to create their own curriculum or lesson plans. This is also due to the purpose of the education given is to assist the student in getting specific jobs with specific job functions. The courses at the For-Profit college is to help the students get better jobs in the market while the courses at Not-For-Profit College intend to allow the student learn and grow within their respective fields. Students that enter For-Profit colleges already have a plan in terms of type of jobs they would like to pursue and they enroll in the necessary courses while some students at Not-For-Profit College have no idea which career that they would like to pursue. Not-For-Profit college help you learn and gain the knowledge in the field that you’re interested in while For-Profit colleges prepare you for the specific job that you want to do. The admission process for For-Profit schools are not as selective as the one in Not-For-Profit College. There isn’t much prior evaluation of the student since their main goal is to make a profit. They tend to be more flexible in terms of their requirements and appeal to students of all ages and races. Modern day classes can be taken online and at more convenient times such as nights and weekends to accommodate students that work full time. Online has also been the new trend because of the lower overhead costs for the For-Profit institution. For-Profit institutions tend to not have a campus like the Not-For-Profit colleges do. For-Profit colleges classes is usually at their own building or leased space. There isn’t any services such as on-campus food or housing that is available to the students at For-Profit institutions. The college provides students with the education that they need for their desire jobs rather than a college experience that a Not-For-Profit college can provide. For Profit institutions conduct their accounting the same as any regular business would do. Their main goal is to make a profit just like all businesses would do. For-Profit institutions must comply with the Federal Accounting Standard Board. The tuitions are recorded as revenue while the expenses include leases, staff, and maintenance expenses. For-Profit colleges budget system must include tools to forecast budgets, manage variance and generate financial reports. The budget forecast is designed to estimate revenue and expenses to its income center, administrative cost structure, and its academic schedule. The income center budget includes enrollments, revenue, and expenses by academic period. Administrative expenses include administrative costs per student and personnel pay ranges. The budget should also include financial report to show if the institution is profitable. Statements such as cash flow statements, net income, and balance sheet should all be included. The budget must also be flexible enough in case that their projections aren’t accurate. They should be easily accessible so that managers can routinely check if their performance is above, below, or even on target. To determine if the institution is on track with its budget and strategic plans, they would measure their six categories in their budget to get a better picture of the institution’s performance. They are new students, enrollment, cost performance, revenue, net income, and cash flow. This way they would also be able to measure the efficiency of their institution also. The goal for Not-For-Profit Colleges is to provide students with higher education and help them advance in a particular field. Not-For-Profit Colleges are traditional college such as community colleges, state universities, and liberal arts colleges. These institutions gain funding to provide their services from the government subsidy, tuition fees, and donations. All the income that are received is strictly used for institution purposes. Some examples are professors, staff, maintenance, utilities, or even computers that the school needs and student needs. All the money is given back to the institution in some way. The professors hired at a Not-For-Profit College design their own courses and create their own course curriculum and lesson plan. They can provide the education in their courses with their own individual styles and lesson plans. The professors are under the guidance of the Board of Trustees, which is composed of different representatives that make decisions for the college. Not-For-Profit colleges are mainly to provide education for the student who are enrolled in their institution. The classes are usually on a campus in which the student spends a majority of their time at. The board of Trustees focuses on improving their campus for the student. The Board of Trustees is constantly making decisions from an academic, campus, and efficiency perspective in order to provide the best possible service for their students. Not-For-Profit Colleges select their students through a vigorous and selective process. Students usually express interest in attending the college and then the college decides if the student would be a good fit for the college. After being accepted, the student would be able to earn a scholarship to help with the room and board that the college charges. Not-For-Profit Colleges are selective of the students since they strive to serve students who would fit the reputation of the institution. This selective process allow college to focus on the needs of the students that are a good match for the college. From an accounting perspective Not-For-Profit colleges follow the rules of Governmental Accounting Standards Board who is responsible for Generally Accepted Accounting Principles used by the United States. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board issues statements that deal with the accounting principles and financial reporting rules of government and other Not-For-Profit organizations. Like all Not-For-Profit organization, these college contribute without expecting commensurate returns. Their main purpose is to provide education to the students that enroll in their school. Most of their income for these colleges come from the tuitions and fees they receive from their student. Other income comes from donation and government subsidies. When a Not-For-Profit College receives tuition payments and fees in full from students the college is supposed to record it at a gross amount, as any revenue would be recorded. If a student meets certain criterion that allows them to attend a publicly funded not-for-profit institution, tuition may be waived in the form of a tuition waiver. Tuition Waivers are reported as a contra-revenue account reducing the revenue account. If the college has any debts, they are recorded just as businesses record them as the debts are recorded with institutional support expenses. Students may pay for college with scholarships which are essentially amounts contributed for the education of a selected individual. Scholarships are given for a range of reasons including high academic standing, membership in certain societies, or awards. However there are two main sources of scholarships which are an outside donor or the scholarship is awarded by the college itself. If the scholarship is from an outside donor the not-for-profit college simply collects the amount receivable from the donor. If the scholarship is awarded by the college itself the accountant reduces the college’s accounts receivable. This reduction in the accounts receivable is recorded as an expense to education and general student aid. Certain expenses of a not-for-profit college are unrestricted net assets classified as instruction expense, research expense, public service expense, academic support, student services, institutional support, operation and maintenance of plant and student aid. Not-For-Profit Colleges cannot operate on tuition fees alone as all the money is immediately put into the school. Fortunately as a Not-For-Profit organization these colleges may receive governmental subsidies as support revenue. There are two types of government subsidies classified as unrestricted and restricted. Unrestricted subsidies are intended for the college to use in general operations. The Board of Trustees also has the power to decide whether a subsidy is unrestricted. Restricted subsidies can be split into either temporarily or permanently. These subsidies often are given for a certain purpose such as an expansion or special project. The restrictions on these subsidies refer to the amount that can be spent and when it can be spent. Sometimes the government may also provide students with grants, which are similar to scholarships in the sense that they are provided to help students reach their financial needs for school. Government grants can both be state or federal and come from government programs such as Pell or the Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant. Similar to scholarships the college may either distribute the cash to the proper students or receive the amount that is to be distributed. If the college decides to receive the grant then it is recorded as a liability in the â€Å"Grant Funds Held for Students† account. Not-For-Profit colleges usually also have an endowment fund which is used to help finance the operating expenses of the organization. Aside from the general endowment the institution may also have restricted endowments intended for specific purposes such as professorships, scholarships or fellowships. For cash received from permanent endowments it is recorded as a contribution and the income is restricted to student aid. Any income received due to an endowment is temporarily restricted and the cash is meant to be spent on student aid. The other services that a Not-For-Profit College provides are the Auxiliary Services. The Auxiliary Services are the services and amenities of the campus. Examples of such services are residence halls, food services and the college athletic teams. These services are classified under unrestricted revenues and expenses. The total of the accounts from the auxiliary services are reported on the Statement of Activities for the College and subsidiary records are also kept. The Statement of Activities for the Not-For-Profit College will usually list the Revenues combined with Total Net Assets Released from Restrictions for Operations to get the Total Revenues and Reclassifications. The next section is usually the Expenses section followed by any Net Change in Unrestricted Assets, Temporarily Restricted Assets and finally Permanently Restricted Net Assets. The Statement of Activities is then followed by a summary on the Change in Assets for the past year. Even though the main purpose of both For-Profit and Not-For-Profit is the same, the way that they function aren’t necessary the same. The accounting standards and rules that they follow both are very different. Also the rules that both colleges follow are extremely different. Both colleges have their strength and weaknesses in their way that they serve their students. The student should chose the type of college they want depending on what their needs are. If the student is looking to advance their education they should be looking for a traditional Not-For-Profit College. If they are trying to land a job that has technical skills which are required, then the For-Profit College is a better option.