Advantages and Disadvantages of Television Essay

In today modern world television is the most popular and recognized from of media and most homes in the western and developed worlds own one. That small (in some cases rather large) box sitting in your lounge is your connection to the outside world. It is an indispensable item and many of us cannot imagine life without it. As with everything there are advantages and disadvantages with the television. The main advantage is televisions ability to bring you news as it happens. A second advantage is the fact we are using more than one sense when viewing. The final advantage in this essay is the vast amount of information and documentaries available for viewing. However the first disadvantage is the amount of time spent watching television is often considered a waste of time. The second disadvantage is the fact that families may be in the same room but with the television on may not even acknowledge each other. The final disadvantage illustrated in this essay is that young children are of ten being exposed to sex scenes and scenes of violence. Read more: Television advantages and disadvantages essay Firstly, for many of us the television is our first or only source of news and current events. Most channels have news updates up to four times a day and current affairs programmes which take a deeper look at the news that has affected the world that day or week. Theses programmes are often family friendly and are sometimes the only form of media available or easy to understand for children or non-speakers of English. These news shows keep people up to date on the outside world it is possible to know everything that happened in a day without even going outside. However these news shows can try and monopolize people’s opinions and be a bias to one political party or one side of a war. Secondly, what many of us do not realise is that we use at least two senses to enjoy television. We use our eyes to watch the television screen and the visual on the screen. We also use our ears or hearing to listen to the dialogue and noises on the screen. Compared to other forms of media which usually involve only one sense e.g. the radio only requires the hearing sense and a book only requires sight. Even though the television lets us see and hear things it can cause eyesight problems and many people turn there televisions up which can cause hearing problems. The final advantage is the vast amount of educational programming available for viewing particularly on channels like the discovery channel and national geographic which can educate and stimulate people and wet every audience member’s appetite. It is also the fastest way to improve your knowledge and help you learn something completely new. Where else can you learn about Marylyn Monroe and Winston Churchill in the same afternoon? Many people who cannot afford university or night courses or simply just want a basic knowledge of one particular subject or event. Use documentaries to quench their thirst for learning. The first disadvantage is that many people do not realise how much time they spend watching television if you spend one hour a day watching television. That is 365 hours a year and 3607 hours in ten years. You can only imagine what you could do with that time, it is possible to learn a language or do a university course. Many value their television shows over exercise or physical activity which can lead to obesity and ‘couch potato’. Many people also feel the desire to watch a favourite television show every day or every week and neglect social commitments and therefore becoming anti-social. A second disadvantage is that many people neglect their families so they can watch television. A family may be in the same room but would not say a word to each other or acknowledge each other. Many families now also eat dinner in front of the television which means normal dinner table conversation is lost. Most large families also have multiple televisions so that each member can watch the programme they would like to watch this means that some families may spend less than an hour in each others company before going to bed. A final disadvantage of watching television is the violence and sex scenes that young children are often exposed too. Many of us find shows with crime or violence entertaining but these are not suitable for children of young ages. These scenes are practically common on crime dramas. Children may not intentionally be being exposed but by simply being in or near the same room as an older child or adult watching the programme. With children being exposed to these scenes it can corrupt there innocent minds leading them in some extreme cases become violent to other children. It can also lead to more permanent problems such as violence or evil thoughts well into adulthood. Fortunately this can be easily avoided or reversed by not allowing young children to view these programmes by placing them in a different room from the television or sending them to bed. In conclusion television is perhaps the world’s greatest invention though it is possible it will one day be replaced by something resembling a computer it is still indispensable devise that takes up our time to exercise or our family time it can also have scenes that corrupt young minds. As Winston Churchill once said ‘the best things are either immoral or bad for you’ television is best in moderation. So next time you’re bored don’t turn on the television go out and play some sport. in todays modern world. Television however has advantages and disadvantages as illustrated in this essay. It can be an educational, multi-sensory communication

Philippine Airlines Essay

Philippine Airlines, Inc. (abbreviated as PAL and also known historically as Philippine Air Lines) operating as Philippine Airlines, is a flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered at the Philippine National Bank Financial Center in Pasay City,[2][3] the airline was founded in 1941 and is the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name. 4] Out of its hubs at Ninoy Aquino International Airport of Manila and Mactan-Cebu International Airport of Cebu City, Philippine Airlines serves twenty destinations in the Philippines and 26 destinations in Southeast Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Oceania and North America. [5] Formerly one of the largest Asian airlines, PAL was severely affected by the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. In one of the Philippines’ biggest corporate failures, PAL was forced to downsize its international operations by completely cutting flights to Europe and Middle East, cutting virtually all domestic flights except routes operated from Manila, reducing the size of its fleet, and laying off thousands of employees. The airline was placed under receivership in 1998, and gradually restored operations to many destinations. PAL exited receivership in 2007. Philippine Aerial Taxi Company  On November 14, 1935 Philippine Congress approved the franchise of Philippine Aerial Taxi Company, Incorporated (PATCO) to provide mail, cargo and passenger service particularly in the island of Luzon. The company then had scheduled Manila-Baguio and Manila-Paracale flights. [6] The company became dormant for six years on its scheduled passenger operation under its assigned routes. [4] Philippine Air Lines On February 26, 1941 Philippine Air Lines, Inc. y a group of businessmen led by Andres Soriano – hailed as one of the Philippines’ leading industrialists at the time,[7] who served as general manager, and former Senator Ramon Fernandez, who served as chairman and president. Philippine Air Lines, Inc. acquired the franchise of Philippine Aerial Taxi Company, Incorporated, thus the birth of Philippine Airlines. The airline’s first flight took place on March 15, 1941 with a single Beech craft Model 18 NPC-54 on daily services between Manila (from Nielson Field) and Baguio. [7] On July 22 the airline cquired the franchise of the Philippine Aerial Taxi Company. Government investment in September paved the way for its nationalization. Entry of San Miguel Corporation (2012-present) On April 4, 2012, San Miguel Corporation bought a 49-percent stake in Philippine Airlines for $500 million as part of a strategy to move away from its beer and food businesses. San Miguel, one of the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates, said it planned to help modernise PAL’s aging fleet and rejuvenate Asia’s oldest commercial airline, which has lost its status as the nation’s top carrier in recent years. San Miguel president Ramon Ang said the $500-million investment had bought his company a 49-percent stake in PAL and its low-cost offshoot, Airphil Express (AirPhil). â€Å"The new investment will allow the two airlines to strengthen operations and stay competitive with the implementation of PAL and AirPhil’s fleet modernization,† said a joint statement from PAL chairman Lucio Tan and San Miguel. Ang also stated that they are planning to join a global airline alliance. Billionaire Tan, the country’s second-wealthiest man, is PAL’s controlling shareholder. 34] DestinationsPhilippine Airlines operates two hubs in Manila and Cebu. Virtually all PAL routes are operated from its hubs, with the majority of routes operating from Manila. Domestically, PAL flies to major Philippine cities from Manila and Cebu. It flies between Manila, and Cebu to a lesser extent, and cities in Asia-Pacific, the western United States, Canada and Australia. Many destinations served by PAL, especially destinations in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and Hong Kong, are areas with large overseas Filipino populations. citation needed] PAL currently operates three non-hub routes, Bangkok-Delhi, Singapore-Jakarta and Sydney-Melbourne. In the past, PAL operated a number of domestic and international non-hub routes (most notably Iloilo-General Santos, Vancouver-New York, Vancouver-Las Vegas and Zurich-Paris), as well as non-stop services to destinations in Europe and extensive domestic operations; those services were discontinued in light of the Asian financial crisis. Some of its previous domestic operations, namely, service from Manila to Naga, Tuguegarao, and more recently, Ozamiz have been taken over by Airphil Express, while services to others were stopped altogether. In addition, services to Legazpi City, Puerto Princesa, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato City, Dipolog, Zamboanga City, Dumaguete and Tacloban, while retaining the â€Å"PR† flight codes, have been operated by Airphil Express on behalf of PAL since 28 October 2012. Service to the Middle East continued after the Asian financial crisis; however, that was also eventually discontinued due to high fuel prices and an oversupply of seats, as well as intense competition from Middle Eastern carriers. PAL discontinued service toRiyadh, its last Middle Eastern destination, on 2 March 2006, and re-introduced flights again in 2010 but discontinued once again in April 2011. PAL maintains code-share agreements with carriers based in that region, specifically with Emirates to Dubai, Etihad to Abu Dhabi, Gulf Air to Bahrain, and Qatar Airways to Doha. After exiting from receivership, PAL has expressed interest in increasing its frequencies to Canada such as an expansion to Toronto and Montreal, introducing flights to Dhaka, Guangzhou and Mumbai, and expanding its presence in the United States by commencing service to Saipan, Seattle, Dallas, San Diego, and Houston, as well as restoring service to Chicago and New York,[51] and restoring service to India and Europe,[52][53] as well as the Middle East. [54] The downgrading of the Philippines’ aviation status by the Federal Aviation Administration however, has prevented PAL from expanding its coverage in the United States. PAL commenced Manila to Toronto service effective November 30, 2012 with a stop-over in Vancouver(YVR) on the Toronto-to-Manila leg. On 15 October 2010, Philippine Airlines announced that its Manila–Brisbane services will be suspended indefinitely as of October 31, with Melbourne-bound services reduced from 5 flights a week to 3. The company cited marketing considerations for the suspension of Brisbane services. [55] However, more recently, the airline has since recommenced a daily frequency to Australia: Sydney is served four days a week and Melbourne three using a B777-300ER plane. The former triangular routing that served both Australian cities on one flight was discontinued in favour of direct flights. The carrier re-introduced flights to New Delhi after decades of absence in the Indian subcontinent; there were initially three direct flights while three other flights stopped at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport. [56]However, as of 18 March 2012, Philippine Airlines discontinued it direct flight to New Delhi and retained the thrice-weekly New Delhi via Bangkok flights. On 28 April 2012, Philippine Airlines re-established its direct air links between Manila and Bali, Indonesia’s prime holiday destination, via twice-weekly flights departing Manila every Wednesday and Saturday. It is the airline’s second destination in Indonesia, following Jakarta, the country’s capital, where the flag carrier flies five times a week direct from Manila and four times a week via Singapore. [57] On 23 July 2012, PAL announced that it will launch non-stop flights to Toronto on November 30, 2012. [58] The Philippines’ flag carrier is also planning to launch direct flights from Manila to New York and some key cities in Europe. However, PAL is being prevented since the FAA made PH under category 2, which prevents PAL to expand its U. S. network, and blacklisting PH aviation by EU, which stops Philippine Airlines in restoring its previous European routes. [59] Philippine Airlines (PAL) has filed with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) permit to start flight to Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport in Russia Capital starting September 2013, using the high-gross variant of Airbus A330-300 aircraft 4 times weekly. Moscow flight leaves Manila on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays, with Turkey flight leaving Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. It is the second destination in Europe to be flown by PAL after announcing flights to Turkey beginning August 5. Both destinations are outside the European Union. PAL is also slated to fly daily services on the Manila-Kuwait route by April 2013 usingAirbus A330-300, while daily flights to Darwin, extending 3 mornings a week to Brisbane and 4 mornings a week to Perth commence on 1 June 2013 using Airbus A320s. [60] Philippine Airlines soon to launch flights to Sao Paulo, Brazil with stopovers on Los Angeles. [61] A codeshare agreement, sometimes simply codeshare, is an aviation business arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code. The term â€Å"code† refers to the identifier used in flight schedule, generally the two-character IATA airline designator code and flight number. Thus, XX123, flight 123 operated by the airline XX, might also be sold by airline YY as YY456 and by ZZ as ZZ9876. It allows greater access to cities through a given airline’s network without aving to offer extra flights, and makes connections simpler by allowing single bookings across multiple planes. Most major airlines today have code sharing partnerships with other airlines and code sharing is a key feature of the major airline alliances. Under a code sharing agreement, the airline that actually operates the flight (the one providing the plane, the crew and the ground handling services) is called the operating carrier. The company or companies that sell tickets for that flight but do not actually operate it are called marketing carriers.

Burglary Criminal Data Comparison

The year 1929 marked the conception of the Uniform Crime Reporting program (UCR) by the chiefs of police international association to gather for the required reliability and homogeneous crime data for the country. The mission of collection, publication and archiving of this information was rendered to the FBI in 1930. At present, numerous yearly statistical data such as â€Å"Crime in the United States† is published from information provided by approximately 17,000 U. S. law enforcement organizations. UCR Program later formulated the NIBRS-National Incident Based Reporting System as an answer to necessitate the want for in-depth and flexible data.Crime Indicators In a period not less than 30years the United States has had two national crime indicators: the UCR program and the NCVS-National Crime Victimization Survey that gathers a statistics from a nationally balanced representative sample of persons 12 years and above who produce crime estimates independent of the recorded pe rformances of the criminal justice organization. Information from both is normally used jointly to present a more inclusive evaluation of crime in the United States. BurglaryBurglary as defined by the Uniform Crime Reporting program is the illegal entrance into a structure to commit an offense or theft. For an offense to be classified under burglary the use of force to attain entry is not a must. The program has 3 subdivisions for burglary: entry by force, illegal entry without use of force and attempted entry by force. The same applies to the UCR’s classification of structure which includes barn, apartment, and houseboat or house trailer is used as lifelong residence, ship vessel, office, railroad car excluding automobiles.Legal enforcement urgencies in 2005 reported an approximated 2,154,126 burglary crime which represents a 0. 5% rise from the 2004 figures. An assessment of decade trends shows a 1. 8% rise in burglary rates in comparison with the 2001 approximation, and a 14 % decrease from the 1996 figures. Based on the table’s approximation of committed property crimes, burglary accounted for over 21 percent of the total with an average dollar loss of 1,725 USD.Statistics show that of the residential burglary offences that occurred in 2005, a majority 65% took place during daytime, however for nonresidential structures most burglary offences (58 percent) happened in the night- that’s between 1800hours and 0600hours. This information can aid one on drawing trends of burglary offences considering the population, form of life and city structure. New York Metropolitan Area In recent years police survey information show that burglary in the core counties of the New York Metropolitan region’s core counties has been on the decline.And as anticipated the UCR burglary rate was lower than the NCVS total burglary rate, this is attributed to the reluctance of victims to report with only about 61% of burglary incidences recorded by the poli ce. Most occurrences were reported from lower class residential areas with high unemployment rates with the offenders being violent youths mostly. Chicago Metropolitan Area Police and survey estimates agree of decline in burglary incidences since 2000 but still the NCVS rate was higher than the UCR with only 52% of burglary incidences reported over this period.Rates were high in suburban areas of Illinois and generally performed during the day but not violently. Its noted that the offenses were executed mostly by men but some of them usually nonviolent were an act of the female gender. Conclusion It should be noted that most of those local state agencies with the interest to review rates or crime trends, classically draw analysis about felony in their regions basing singly on police statistics. This study has examined the comparison of police figures to victim survey information on burglary and other crimes for the big cities in the country.Gender ,age and class form the most notewo rthy burglary variables compounded with the effects of class i. e. unemployment and location. Unlike men, females have a tendency to start burglary in their later stages in life with lower/ underclass females involved than young women. References Maston, C. and Klaus, P. (2006). Criminal Victimization in the United States, 2005 statistical tables. Violent Crime since 1993, US Department of Justice. http://www. ojp. usdoj. gov/bjs/glance/tables/4meastab. htm. Retrieved on March 13, 2009.

Accounting Basics for Managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Accounting Basics for Managers - Essay Example In the financial year 2012, Home Depot shows impressive growth both financially and operationally. In the financial year 2011, Home Depot revenue increased by 3.53% to a striking $ 70,395 million which has resulted in the operating profit increased by 14.08%. Following its operational growth strategy, Home Depot has introduced diversity in its business. The company is showing interest in covering all the horizons of the globe by opening more and more stores in various areas of the globe as it planning to serve a diverse range of customers. Gross profit margin is one of the key profitability ratio indicators which indicate how well a company is in the process of utilizing its working capital in earning the desired level of profit. In order to calculate the gross profit margin ratio, the gross profit (i.e., sales less the cost of sales) is divided by the revenue of the company. As apparent, the gross profit of the company has increased slightly from the previous financial year which co uld be due to the fact that the cost of sales of the company increased with a bigger percentage as compared to the percentage of the revenue of the company. This could be due to increased raw materials prices from the supplier which the company could not recover from the customers through increased selling price. The next profitability indicator is the net profit margin. The net profit margin is calculated by dividing the net profit (i.e., gross profit less administrative and selling expenditure) with the total revenue.

The Managerial Venture and Successful Marketplace Case Study

The Managerial Venture and Successful Marketplace - Case Study Example Final considerations are related to the company’s capacity to assess a best practice to cope with the ethical standard, with an eye on the success stories within major knowledge-intensive industries, together with a primary analysis of the macroeconomic conditions in an industrial perspective as well. This work is based on considerations and evaluations for a business emerging in the United States, that aims at developing a comprehensive software in order for a small enterprise to enter the gambling market on an accurate and feasible way. A family run- small business is, therefore, analyzing on a strategic, financial and regulatory perspective the major elements and factors that may impede the business growth, together with a comprehensive evaluation of the intrinsic characteristics of the business that is being designed in this sense. Major focus will then be dedicated to the business capacity to meet all the existing regulations and recommendations that govern the industry in which the software is expected to operate, while on the other side major elements that may impair the software spread will be also related to the managerial ability to cope with internal regulations and with Ethic practices. A comprehensive and integral evaluation of this case will, therefore, cover the business impact of stakeholders, the international code of ethics characteristics, the ethical framework together with a final individual opinion in this sense. The development of this business requires a preliminary accurate and extensive understanding of all the possible stakeholders that are considered for the analysis of a business and ethical perspective: A major preliminary stakeholder is a government. The capacity to cope with all the ongoing regulations and laws governing the gambling business is in this sense a proof of its importance in this field.

Mangment 3000 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Mangment 3000 - Essay Example Another factor which can motivate me is the rewards and complements. I always like to deliver 100% in my profession. But if my efforts gone unnoticed or unrecognized, then my enthusiasm might gradually decrease. On the other hand if my outstanding works were properly rewarded or complemented, I will definitely increase my productivity knowingly and unknowingly. I would like to build up my career in my organization and all my efforts were primarily focussed on attaining higher places in my organization. So promotion is the best way of rewarding me for my outstanding performances. I know it is impossible for an organization to reward me with promotions always. Incentives, complements, nice words etc can also motivate me. Managers should have some idea about the motivating factors of their employees. Some employees may be satisfied with incentives or cash rewards while some others may need complements or recognitions. The awareness about these individual differences in motivating factors of the employees will help the manager to make custom made strategies for motivating his subordinates. My perceptions about my profession and my organization are very clear. I work for contributing something meaningful to my organization and for that purpose it is important for me to attain higher places in organization. Moreover, I would like to utilize all my talents for the growth of my society through my organization. I have lot of ideas and perceptions about the changes needed in my organization. I would like to participate actively in my organization’s policy making and decision making bodies. I know very well that I can contribute a lot to my organization if I attain higher places in my organization. I know very well that it is difficult for an organization to reward each and every outstanding works. For example, while working in a group, collective efforts are often required

Choose a Print Advertisement of your choice and write a three-part Essay

Choose a Print Advertisement of your choice and write a three-part analysis of its message and how it attempts to persuade - Essay Example (Ten Arguments in favor of Baygon, n.d) Now, the branding and advertising department of Baygon needed to push the envelope in creating an ad that would exaggerate its effectiveness and strength with a new age, hip and comic way to appeal to the customers. At the same time, there had to be an element the product could relate to. They couldn’t show Baygon taking out a dinosaur or a crocodile, the product is made for insects and such a concept would be wrong and disturbing at the same time. It could cause negative effects. Since the world is moving towards a more superhero trend with movie remakes and the new found craze, Spiderman is one of the most popular of all time movies with an enormous fan base (Spider-Man Official Site, n.d). Now an ad needed to be created that would not be offensive and would be funny and persuasive. Baygon decided to make Spiderman its victim, a superhero that was a result of a mutant super spider bite and had amplified super spider like abilities that even the toughest villains couldn’t combat against. It may seem that Baygon would favor the bad guys but the ad creates a funny feel. The advertisement image they decided upon was Spiderman knocked out, lying unconscious and displaying a Baygon spray can at the lower right corner. Pretty simple but the message is hilarious, appealing and strong. As mentioned earlier, customers buying insecticide sprays needed to be persuaded with the spray’s effectiveness. The ad does that in a superb and comic way. The advertisement is bound to make anyone laugh out at first sight. No doubt it is unrealistic but the approach is very effective. Of course the customer knows the spray could never take out Spiderman, and that Spiderman doesn’t really exist, but that’s a different story. The idea of an insecticide sends an important message the same way Popeye the sailor did with spinach. Eating a single can would

Haven't decided yet, need professional advice for it Dissertation

Haven't decided yet, need professional advice for it - Dissertation Example The researcher has used qualitative research methodology in order to address the key research problems. Theoretical arguments of various research scholars have been used in order to develop theoretical argument in the paper. Market research report on Chinese consumer behaviour towards Smartphone and previous research works on the topic have been used in order to conduct the qualitative data analysis. The researcher found that individual attributes such as cash back offer, EMI schemes, wide screen size, touch sensitivity, HD quality movie watching facility, gaming options, availability of applications, metallic body, practical usable functions in Smartphone can influence purchasing decision and brand loyalty among Chinese Smartphone users. Lack of use of primary data to analyze consumer behaviour regarding particular product attribute is major limitation for the study. Findings of this research paper can be used by future Smartphone marketers in order to enhance brand loyalty among Ch inese customers by influencing their purchasing decisions. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Chapter 1: Introduction 7 1.1. Purpose of the Research 9 1.2 Research Questions 9 Chapter 2: Smartphone Industry in China 10 Chapter 3: Literature Review 11 3.1 Introduction 11 3.2 Price 12 3.3 Design 13 3.4: Applications 15 3.5: Flexibility 17 3.6 Motivation 19 3.7 Conclusion 21 Chapter 4: Research Methodology 22 4.1 Introduction 22 4.2 Research Approach 22 4.3 Research Strategy 22 4.3.1 Phenomenology 23 4.3.2 Ethnography 24 4.3.3 Grounded Theory 24 4.3.4 Case Study and Literature Review 24 4.4 Philosophical Underpinnings 25 4.5 Qualitative Data Analysis 27 4.6 Ethical Consideration 27 4.7 Conclusion 28 Chapter 5: Analysis and Interpretation 28 5.1 Introduction 28 5.3 Price Benefits 35 5.4 Superior Design 36 5.5 Application and Flexibility 37 5.6 Motivation 40 5.7 Conclusion 41 Chapter 6: Conclusion, Recommendation and Limitation 42 6.1 Managerial Implications 44 6.2 Future Recommendati ons for Researchers 45 6.3 Limitations 45 Appendices 54 Appendix 1: Gantt chart 54 List of Figures Figure No. Figure Name Page No. 1 2004-2010 Sales of Smartphone in China 30 2 Smartphone OS Market Share in China-2011 31 3 Business Performance of Chinese Carriers 32 4 Mobile Phone Market Share in China 33 5 Smartphone Market Share in China 33 6 Smartphone Price Decline in China 34 7 Flexible Smartphone Use by Chinese Customers 39 8 Location wise Smartphone Use by Chinese Customers 40 List of Tables Table No. Table Name Page No. 1 Star Tinji i9300 versus Samsung Galaxy S3 38 Chapter 1: Introduction In recent times, advent of latest technologies have completely revolutionized the mobile phone manufacturing industry, marketer’s perception regarding use of mobile phone as potential marketing tool and most importantly consumer’s perception about mobile phone applications (Wei and Lo, 2006). According to Wei and Lo (2006), mobile phones manufacturers have transformed the mob ile phone from being a device for communication to a device which is capable of virtual mobility, able to personalize social interaction and able to offer multiple applications which can help customers to perform their task in more responsive and customized manner. From the technological perspectives, transformed version of mobile phones which is basically a multimedia machine is known as Smartphone. Wei and

Patient education Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Patient education - Assignment Example Nurses have significant roles in educating the public on the five components as needed by the agreement on stroke presentation measures. They include lifestyle risk factors of the disease, signs and symptoms and how to access emergency medical services, medications, stroke prevention and follow-up. Furthermore, they can embrace educational techniques to address the modification of the five educational components after a patient has recovered from a stroke. There is no single perfect teaching method than the other for all patients suffering from stroke. Whichever technique is selected, it will normally be the most operational if it is applied with other instructional methods to improve the process of learning. The decisions on what approaches will be applied will be centered on aspects such as the teaching setting, ideal learning style, educational background, age, culture, size and audience. Common approaches applied to provide educational interventions are simulation and gaming, dem onstrations and return demonstrations, lecture, private teaching, group discussions and lectures (Hauer & Quill, 2011). Nevertheless, lively teaching involving multidisciplinary health care practitioners (HCP), family members and stroke patients interactively are more beneficial instead of passive education. Lecture is a greatly structured approach through which HCP’s or nurses transmit information verbally to stroke patients in a group with the aim of instructing them. Audio-visual assistances can be through drafted materials like a pamphlet or booklet in an acoustic form like audio compact disk or visual compact disk. However, teaching approach is not so much effective in teaching the stroke patients because it does not sustain much inspiration for patients with stroke and restricted chance for learner involvement. Additionally, the audio-visual is ineffective as the patients can sleep off while watching. It is recommended to complement this

Insurance Industry in Australia and Acts of Parliament Essay

Insurance Industry in Australia and Acts of Parliament - Essay Example In essence, the insurance industry in Australia offers insurance services to Australians in three major categories, which are: health insurance, life insurance and general insurance. Moreover, the insurance industry in Australia falls under the financial services sector. The above three categories of insurance are regulated by different acts of Parliament. In accordance with Australian pieces of legislation, the major Acts of Parliament that regulate the insurance industry are: (i) The Life Insurance Act (1995), (ii) The Insurance Act 1973 and (iii) The Corporate Act. The government bodies that enforce the above Acts are: â€Å"The Australian Taxation Office (ATO)†, â€Å"The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)†, â€Å"The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT)† and â€Å"The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)†. This paper provides a report on how the insurance industry in Australia is regulated by the relevant Acts of Parliament. A law in Australia entails an Act passed by the Federal Parliament as stipulated in the Australian Constitution, Acts passed by Legislative Assemblies and State Parliament, Ordinances created in relation to territories, Australian common law and statute laws (Australian Governement Comlaw 2009: 1). General insurance in Australia The main legislation that regulates general insurance in Australia is â€Å"The Insurance Act 1973 (Cth) (Insurance Act)†. General insurance in Australia is divided into: (i) liability insurance, and (ii) property insurance. A further categorization of liability insurance has the classes of: worker’s compensation, motor insurance (better known as Compulsory Third Party (CPT)), public liability insurance, insurance for business and professional indemnity. In addition, a further categorization of property insurance has the classes of: travel insurance, home and contents insurance, and motor vehicles comprehensive insurance (Gray 2010: 1). Life insurance in Australia In the Australian insurance industry, life insurance is basically divided into the categories of: superannuation investment, life insurance and disability income insurance. The major acts that govern superannuation investment in Australia are: (i) The Superannuation Industry (Supervision) ACT 1993, and (ii) Financial Services Reforms Act 2002. The â€Å"Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993† is legislation on all the rules of compliance in the insurance industry. In essence, the Act looks into issues that involve: fund accounts and administration, enquiries and complaints, investments, fund management regulation and operation of the vast superannuation funds and setting up penalties for insurers who do not perform in relation to the rules stipulated in the Act. This Act registers all the superannuation trustees in Australian insurance industry. Additionally, all the trustees who seek registration must be qualified in risk management, financial and technology issues and have skills in management profession. On the other hand, the â€Å"Financial Services Reform Act 2002† is an Act that provides standardization in the insurance industry in relation with the financial industry. Essentially, it determines if a license to operate a fund should be given a particular superannuation fund trustee. The major roles of the â€Å"Financial Services Reform Act 2002† are, firstly, providing license to dealers who are to provide insurance services or products; secondly, determine

The U.S. has only 2 major political parties, Democrats & Republicans Essay

The U.S. has only 2 major political parties, Democrats & Republicans. While there are a number of smaller parties, only those 2 - Essay Example This paper shall consider the strengths and the weaknesses of this two-party system in America. It shall also consider why this is the case and whether or not such system is good or bad for the country. This essay is being undertaken in order to establish a comprehensive and academic discussion of the issue while considering all the relevant elements which impact on the governance and politics of this country. Discussion America’s history has had a major influence on its current two-party system. As was mentioned, this system traces its roots back to the American Civil War when the Federalists and the anti-federalists were at opposite ends of the political continuum. From then on, although its application has not been as extreme as was seen during the years preceding and those following the civil war, the two-party system became the dominant political belief system of the US. The people widely accepted this system and as years, many elections, and political regimes passed, cha nging such system became an unthinkable consideration (Wood and Sansone, 2000). The belief system in the US has also been largely shared and supported by the people. Where other countries have a wider range of beliefs with more disagreements in between, America has mostly considered two major parties. These parties were considered in the elections, but it has not negated the existence of other viewpoints. â€Å"The broad ideological consensus in the United States encouraged just two large parties – with overlapping points of view-whose main focus is to win elections, not to represent vastly different sets of beliefs† (Wood and Sansone, 2000). The two-party system has been the norm in the United States because its electoral system has been traditionally run as a winner-take-all system, not so much a proportional representation system (Janda, Berry, and Goldman, 2008). In this case, the winner is the candidate who gets the most number of votes, not the candidate who wins the majority vote. In the elections, one person can represent people within a small area or district and no matter how many representatives run, the candidate with the most number of votes still wins (Janda, Berry, and Goldman, 2008). For parties with smaller members and supporters, they often end up losing the elections and have a hard time making any kind of difference in the electoral process. Third parties have tried to penetrate the two-party system in the US, however, only few have made any lasting impact on the political system. The winner-take-all system has mostly left them no chance at winning any seat in the elections (Schmidt, Shelley, and Bardes, 2008). These parties have included the Free Soil party, the Know Nothings, the Liberty party, the Greenback party, the Populists, and similar minimal and almost inconsequential parties (Wood and Sansone, 2000). Other democratic nations have allowed as many candidates to run for office, and as many of them who win proportional votes can later be considered as representatives in office. In the United States however, these various interest groups and candidates have been encouraged to â€Å"work within the two major parties, for only one candidate in each race stands a chance of being elected under popular voting† (Janda, Berry, and Goodman, 2008, p. 245). This political system has worked well for the United States since it has ushered in many

Free

Free Will Philosophy Essay I strongly believe that W.T. Stace is correct while arguing for the view of soft determinism, also known as compatibilism. Stace believes in compatibilism, which states that determinism is true, but free will still does exist. He puts both views together by studying the definition of free will. Stace asks, â€Å"How can anyone be punished or rewarded for his or her actions if they have no control over their actions?† That statement seemed extremely convincing to me because both d’Holbach and Chisholm supported one side of the argument. d’Holbach and Chisholm argued that we are either strictly determined by the laws of nature and physics or that we are not determined, rather being we have the power to do as we choose. Stace on the other hand, put both positions together and made them work together. He explained that the laws of nature and physics do have an impact on our choices, but we do have the ability to choose what we want to choose when making a decision. Outside forces may push on our decision, but we are the ones responsible for choosing what we want to choose. He persuasively defends his view of soft determinism by explaining the definition of free will. He states, â€Å"In order for one to define free will, one must look into how the phrase is commonly used.† The way a philosopher interprets free will is different than the way a common person will do so. Stace defines free acts as acts that are directly caused by a person’s internal thoughts or desires coming directly from the person. Not free acts are those that have outside forces pushing a person to do something a certain way such as a threat or harm. This was very different from what other philosophers have stated in the past. By providing examples of free will, Stace points out that free will clearly does exist. It wouldn’t make sense for free will not to exist since it is compatible with determinism.

History of Domestic Violence and Legislation in the UK

History of Domestic Violence and Legislation in the UK Literature Review Definition of domestic violence Domestic Violence is a phenomenon affecting many societies directly and indirectly around the world; and somehow, after many years of research not a single definition describes this phenomenon adequately yet. Defining domestic violence can be very difficult, as it is a broad term used to describe a range of behaviours and has a multiplicity of meanings to different people in different contexts (Burton, 2008). Domestic violence usually begins as an isolated abusive incident, however, when the abuse is repeated and becomes a constantly abuse, it is defined as â€Å"battering† (McCue, 2008). Physical is not the only form of domestic violence. Psychological and emotional violence are common forms of domestic violence as well (Lowenstein, 2005) and therefore the government has widened the definition of domestic violence to cover psychological intimidation and controlling behaviour and at the same time, recognising that domestic violence occurs in younger people’s intimate relationships (Walker and Gavin, 2011), applying to victims under the age of 18 as well: â€Å"any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality†. This includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional abuse (Home Office, 2013). The new Home Office definition express controlling behaviour and coercive behaviour. Controlling behaviour is a reach of acts intended to make an individual subordinate or dependent by separating them from any kind of support, not allowing them to obtain personal gain by controlling and regulating their everyday move and behaviour. Coercive behaviour is an act of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim (Home Office, 2013). As an example, The Supreme Court held in Yemshaw v. Hounslow London Borough Council [2011] that domestic violence was not confined to physical violence but extended to threatening or intimidating behaviour and any other form of abuse being applied directly or indirectly (Miles, 2011). Domestic violence and abuse is not regarded of age, class, wealth, education, gender, race or any other determinant. Domestic violence is as likely to be happening to a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, or even a police officer (Gaz, 2012). History of domestic violence Domestic violence has existed for many years and has very long historical roots and it has been establish in the inequality between men and women in society (Hague and Malous, 1998). Historically, abuse to wife has been viewed as normal which was part of marriage, something that women should expect and tolerate when being married (Erez, 2002). In the mid-1800s most legal systems accepted wife beating as a valid exercise of a husbands authority over his wife, using the â€Å"rule of thumb† established by Sir Francis Buller, known as ‘Judge Thumb’ meaning that a husband could beat his wife with a stick not thicker than his thumb (Women’s aid, 2008) and it was allowed by the old British Common Law (Dipty, 2009). Only towards the end of the twentieth century, in the 1970’s, that domestic violence had been defined as a crime, justifying intervention by the criminal justice system (Erez, 2002). Legislations Pre-1970s In the 1500s, â€Å"the Golden Age of the Rod† had been used against women in the United Kingdom who were taught that it was their sacred duty to obey the man of the house and during this time, violence against wives was ample. Mid-1800s, the Code of Hammurabi decreed that a wife was subservient to her husband and that he could inflict punishment on any member of his household for any transgression (WomenSafe, 2002). Around the same time in Britain, a husband had absolute power to chastisement his wife in order to implement domestic discipline (ICADV, 1999). During that time, there was no laws to criminalize violence against wives regardless of such assaults being included within the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, the judges did very little and sometimes did nothing to address chastisement of wives (Summers Hoffman, 2002, p.31). In the late 1800s, having the Queen Elizabeth in the throne, new reforms for women were established, some of which included that wives could no longer be kept locked and beatings that could cause life threatening were treated as a ground for divorce (Cumbee Center). The introduction of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1878 helped victims of violence in marriage to obtain separation orders if their husband was convicted of aggravated assault (Summers Hoffman, 2002) and in 1882, the Woman’s Property Act, allowed wives to obtain full control over their own money and property (Parliament). Second-wave feminism In 1960s and 1970s, there was a massive comeback of feminist activity, in conjunction with the womens liberation movement. This period has been called the Second Wave of feminism, having the first wave from 1848 to 1920, when women won the right to vote (Cree, 2008). The Second Wave of feminism developed in the United States, West Europe, Australasia and Japan. However, it started in small local female groups in the United Kingdom, aiming to campaign similar private problems they all shared ( ) such as equal rights in employment, education, public and private lives and of course campaigning against rape and domestic violence (Cree, 2008) and it was then when domestic violence started to emerge as a significant issue, being recognised as a major social problem needing for political response and remedies (Summers Hoffman, 2002). The great movement established networks for support, analysing and comparing womens roles and relationships in society and defined a set of demands for the social and economic equality for women (Mendes, 2009). The women’s movement campaign was so successful that women were able to gain a stronger voice and become a strong image for the public eye, therefore a series of laws were introduced to aid women equality, such as the Equal Pay Act 1970 granting equal wages for both women and men (Mendes, 2009). Post-1970s The women’s movement was so successful that it helped with several legislations development (Hughes, 2010). There has been considerable changes in the national policy of domestic violence in the United Kingdom in the past 30 years (Matczak et al, 2001) made by the local government authorities which began to undertake and develop actions on domestic violence, and it was all mainly in response to the high demand from groups and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for the housing, social services and court and police protection for domestic violence victims (Ashworth). Some of the legislations development included the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 which was passed outlawing sexual discrimination in the workplace and the Domestic Violence Act was passed in 1976 allowing married women to access court order to prevent further violence and to have the right to stay at home without the abuser (Hughes, 2010). Womens Aid was also developed as a result of the womens liberation movement and as all women gathered together, the big concern of violence at home as well as other types of abuse, including sexual abuse became highlighted. Before Women’s Aid, the organisation was the first Womens Aid federation which was set up in 1974, to provide practical and emotional support as part of the different services available to women and children experiencing violence (Women’s Aid). The 1970s brought three vital items of legislations, the Domestic Violence Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976, which provide the police with powers of arrest for the breach of injunction in cases of domestic violence and allowed women to obtain the right to stay at the matrimonial home, the Domestic Proceedings Magistrates’ Courts Act 1978, which amend the use of injunctions to prevent further violence in the home and the law relating to matrimonial proceedings in magistrates’ courts and the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977, which refers to persons who are homeless or threatened with homelessness which helped domestic violence victims with re-housing (UK Legislations). The acts were meant to produce legal remedies, however, the ways in which they were enforced meant that battered women continue to be inadequately protected leaving criminal law broadly untouched in terms of the protection of victims and the punishment of perpetrators of domestic violence (Summers Hoffman, 2002). However, in 1993 the Crown Prosecution Service, published a comprehensive guide for all staff to be able to deal with domestic violence cases adequately even is a victim decides to withdraw the request for prosecution which tends to happen occasionally as a result of intimidation or fear by the abuser (Ashworth). Furthermore, legislative reforms took place in the 1990s, Part IV of the Family Law Act 1996 being the most significant one which improved the protective orders available to domestic violence victims under the civil law (Burton, 2008). The Family Law Act 1996 Part IV which is now the main piece of legislation providing remedies under the civil law for victims of domestic violence (Burton, 2008) provides the victim with a statutory ‘home right’ meaning the victim cannot be evicted from the home unless there is a court order (Welstead Edwards, 2011). Throughout the period between 1997 and 2010, the principle arrangement of policy and legislation on domestic violence was being enforced based on prevention, protection and justice and allowing support to victims of domestic abuse to be established at local and national level (Matczak et al, 2011). Up to dated In 1986, the Home Office published the first circular regarding domestic violence called â€Å"Violence against women† which made it clear that it was obligatory for the police to ensure the safety of women and children at domestic deputes (Applegate, 2006) but it wasn’t until 1992 that both the Home Office Circular 60/1990 and the Association of Chief Probation Officers declared domestic violence to be a crime, given law enforcement agencies the power to punish the abuser (Kury Smartt, 2006). However, it did not make much of a change to the policy (Applegate, 2006). It was not until 2005 when the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 was introduced, that put some of these issues addressed by the criminal law and when some changes to the policy where actually made. The Act aims to increase the safety of domestic violence victims by providing the police with enormous power to approach and deal with domestic violence in better ways, establishing a new offence called â€Å"familial homicide† which provides the power of arrest for minor offences of common assault and linking some criminal and civil remedies (Women’s aid) and for the criminal justice, there is a statutory code of practice to ensure they provide support and protection to victims of domestic violence (Applegate, 2006). While the law itself does not distinguish between a domestic violence victim and a person who gets attack by a stranger in the streets, in practice the victims of domestic violence rarely obtain the law’s protection (Elliot Quinn, 2012). Unlike in some jurisdictions from other countries such as the United States, there is no specific offence of domestic violence in the United Kingdom, instead, there are a variety of criminal offences including sexual and physical assault, harassment offences and the crimes related to homicide, which can be applied in a case of domestic violence (Paradine Wilkinson, 2004) Today, the government is fully committed to tackle domestic violence in the United Kingdom in every possible way by allowing violence and abuse to be treated seriously by courts and the criminal justice system (Summers Hoffman, 2002). The government’s strategy to tackle domestic violence is based on three elements; prevention, protection and justice, and support (Blunkett, 2003). The government provides some of these elements by implementing local domestic violence conventions where the police, social services, housing services, probation, health services, legal professionals, and many other voluntary agencies gather and work together to tackle domestic violence at local level (Matczak et al, 2011). Although, there have been implementations of local domestic conventions and domestic violence units as well as many multi-agencies that work together to tackle domestic violence and changes in legislation and police policy, there are still some major concerns of how domestic violence is being dealt today. In 2012, around 1.2 million women suffered domestic abuse, over 400,000 women were sexually assaulted, less than 1 in 4 suffered abuse from their partners (Home Office, 2013) and on average, two women are being killed a week by a partner or former partner (CAADA, 2013). Furthermore, the police have been majorly criticised for failing to respond to domestic violence properly by not recording incidents as crimes (Paradine Wilkinson, 2004) with a 30% of domestic violence incidents reported to the police but not taken into actions and only 4% of reported incidents resulting in a conviction (Women’s aid) and they have been also criticised for not making arrests and failing to enforce civil injunctions (Paradine Wilkinson, 2004). For these reasons, in September 2013, the Home Secretary has commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to carry out an inspection into how police forces are responding to domestic violence and the review will be exanimating the performance of all forces around England and Wales and report back to the Home Office in April 2014. In the meantime, chapter 2.4 and 2.5 will be looking at the reporting and non-reporting of incidents and how the police is responding to domestic incidents after the establishment of domestic violence units were introduced across the country, and assess the changes in police policy and practice over the past years including the ‘pro-arrest’ policy which aims to reduce the number of domestic violence cases discontinued by the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (Hoyle Sanders, 2000). References Applegate, R.J., 2006. Changing local policy and practice towards the policing of domestic violence in England and Wales. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies Management. 29 (2): 368 – 383. Blunkett, D., 2003. Safety and Justice: The Government’s Proposals on Domestic Violence. Home Office. Norwich. Burton, M., 2008. Legal responses to Domestic Violence. Oxon: Routledge-Cavendish. CAADA (Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse). Key statistics on the prevalence of domestic abuse [online]. Bristol: Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse. Available from: http://www.caada.org.uk/policy/statistics.html. [Accessed 17 January 2014]. Cree, V., 2008. Feminism: Past It, Lost Cause or Unfinished Revolution? [online]. University of Edinburgh Social Work Seminar. Available from: http://www.socialwork.ed.ac.uk/events/lecture_notes/feminism_lecture. [Accessed 6th February 2014]. Cumbee Center. History of Domestic Violence [online]. Cumbee Center to Assist Abused Persons. Available from: http://www.cumbeecenter.org/domestic_violence_history.php. [Accessed 6th February 2014]. Dipty, D., 2009. The Three Dimensions of Domestic Violence. Oklahoma: Tate Publishing Enterprises. Elliot, C. and Quinn, F., 2012. Criminal Law. Ninth Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Erez, E., 2002. Domestic Violence and the Criminal Justice System: An Overview. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing [online]. 7 (1). Gaz, LS., 2012. Features: How to stop domestic Violence. Law Society Gazette [online]. 41. Home Office., 2013. Domestic violence and abuse [online]. Home Office. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/domestic-violence-and-abuse. [Accessed 4th February 2014]. Home Office, 2013. Ending violence against women and girls in the UK [online]. Home Office. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/ending-violence-against-women-and-girls-in-the-uk [Accessed 4th February 2014]. Hoyle, C. and Sanders, A., 2000. Police Response to Domestic Violence. The British Journal of Criminology [online], 40 (1): 14-36. Hughes, C., 2010. Second Wave Feminism [online]. Available from: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/academicstaff/jonesc/jonesc_index/teaching/birth/second_wave_feminism.pdf. [Accessed 11th February 2014]. ICADV, 1999. History of Battered Women’s Movement [online]. SafeNetwork: California’s Domestic Violence Resource. Available from: http://www.icadvinc.org/what-is-domestic-violence/history-of-battered-womens-movement/. [Accessed 6th February 2014]. Kury, H. and Smartt, U., 2006. Domestic Violence: Recent Developments in German and English Legislation and Law Enforcement. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice. 14 (4): 382-407. Lowenstein, L.F., 2005. Domestic Violence: Recent Research Part 1. Justice of the Peace [online]. 196 (37). Matczak, A., Hatzidimitriadou, E., and Lindsay, J., 2011. Review of Domestic Violence Policies in England and Wales. London: Kingston University and St George‘s, University of London. Mendes, K., 2009. Reporting the womens movement: A cross-national comparison of representations of second wave feminism and equal rights issues in the United Kingdom and United States daily press, 1968-1982. Cardiff University. Paradine, K. and Wilkinson, J., 2004. A Research and Literature Review Protection and Accountability: The Reporting, Investigation and Prosecution of Domestic Violence Cases [online]. National Centre for Policing Excellence, Centrex. Parliament. Key dates [online]. Parliament United Kingdom. Available from: http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/keydates/, [Accessed 6th February 2014]. Summers, R. and Hoffman, A.M., 2002. Domestic Violence: A Global View. Westport: Greenwood Press. United Kingdom Legislations. Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 [online]. United Kingdom. Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/48/introduction/enacted. [Accessed 11th February 2014]. Welstead, M. and Edwards, S., 2011. Family Law. Third Edition. New York: Oxford University Press Inc. Women’s aid, 2008. Domestic Violence a historical perspective [online]. Women’s aid. Available from: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic-violence-articles.asp?itemid=1815itemTitle=A+historical+perspectivesection=00010001002200410001sectionTitle=Articles:+domestic+violence. [Accessed 4th February 2014]. Women’s aid. Our history [online]. Women’s aid. Available from: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/page.asp?section=0001000100190004 [Accessed 4th February 2014]. Women Safe, 2002. Overview of Historical Laws that Supported Domestic Violence [online]. Women Safe. Available from: http://www.womensafe.net/dv/dvlaws.html. [Accessed 3rd February 2014].

A SWOT analysis of Netflix inc

A SWOT analysis of Netflix inc Netflix provides agricultural products for farmers in the United States and offers its subscribers access to a library of television, movie and other filmed. Nowdays,Netflix reinvented the home video rental model by employing innovative customer service and new technologies. And this gives the company a serious first mover advantage. The outlook of external market conditions is positive. If Netflix decides to stay and compete it needs to (1) keep innovating to maintain its advantage, (2) use subscriber acquisition momentum and build larger customer base and (3) move fast to plant roots into next-generation models of content delivery based on digital technologies. SWOT Analysis Strengths Relationships with studios. Netflix maintains strategic relationships with studios, which is the basis of its rich catalog. Deep and wide library. Netflix currently offers around 25,000 film titles, (arguably all feature films ever published on DVD) spread over 12+ Million disks. Average depth (number of copies of each film) is 480 copies. Recognizable brand. Netflix is the largest on-line subscription DVD rental service in the US. It has a well recognizable brand, which helps in marketing by decreasing customer acquisition costs. Logistical expertise. Launched in 1998, Netflix has developed and fine-tuned its logistical processes for 6 years with the help of internally developed logistical software. Widest delivery network. With 30+ distribution centers spread around the US, Netflix delivers DVDs to 85% of its subscribers the next day. Recommendation engine CineMatch. Netflix utilizes recommendation technology based on user ratings of individual titles. At the end of 2003 Netflix ratings database contained around 300 million ratings (around 15,000 ratings per title and 150 ratings per subscriber). Thus every customer can receive a personalized computer-generated recommendation for a film. Client acquisition momentum. Netflix has a critical mass of over 2 million customers, a number expected to grow in the next 2-3 years. Low price per title. Based on their reported annual subscription revenues for 2003 and reported monthly turnover of about 18 million disks, the average rental price per DVD comes at $1.50 $1.75. According to analysts reports, the average Netflix customer rents between 5 and 7 titles per month. At a monthly subscription price of $17.95, the result is $3.00, which is much closer to the market average of $3.15 $3.79 per title. Still, in the eyes of their customer the possibility to rent unlimited number of titles and thus have a home-made low price is clearly strength. Flat monthly fee, no late fees pricing model. This was a model pioneered by Netflix, which enjoyed enormous popularity among subscribers. Today this model is followed by a growing number of other rental businesses too. Weaknesses Strong suppliers. As discussed above Netflix sources its main inputs from a few and strong players. Films come from Hollywood distributors; all distribution is handled by one service provider USPS, and all payments and made online via credit card payments processed by the four major credit card companies. Volatility in performance. Netflix market performance depends on a number of variables (18 listed in 2003 Annual Report). Additionally demand for the product (films) depends on uncontrollable variables such as taste, recommendation. Finally economic success is very much related to customer loyalty because of the high acquisition costs. Studios define release. Netflix can rent out the DVDs once they are out in the market. This is a decision made by movie studios and their distributors and therefore outside the control of Netflix. As discussed above, the position along the window release continuum might affect the popularity of a title and change the competitive environment. Opportunities Digital delivery. Netflix can take advantage of their knowledge of the consumer tastes (300 million film ratings over a library of 25,000+ titles) and transfer this know-how towards digital delivery. The single most important factor in digital VOD models would be adequate recommendation (the modern version of traditional TV programming) and no other player in feature-film delivery has this expertise. DVD format dominant. Based on the analysis above and the opinion of industry experts and analysts, the DVD format will be the dominant video format in the next at least 10 years. This situation might be challenged by the new digital transmission and HD storage formats, however, this is an issue affecting the whole business model and departing from the physical nature of the medium. DVD installed base grows. With expected penetration of DVD players in 65% of US households, Netflix is positioned favourably to exploit this infrastructural given. Underutilized debt capacity. Netflix balance sheet as of 30 September 2004 is debt free. This gives the company an upside potential to borrow in order to finance its expansion. (Currently unit economics and cash generating potential are believed to be strong and there seems to be no short term need to finance operations.) The weighted average book-debt-to-capital ratios for the internet and movie rental industries range between 9% and 14.3%. Comparison universe WA book debt to capital ratio Movie rental industry peer group (Retail special lines, SIC: 5600) (4 companies) 14.3709% Internet industry (SIC: 7370) (164 companies) 9.0389% Threats Prices of key inputs. As mentioned earlier Netflix is exposed to fluctuations in supplier policies, and specifically prices. USPS, card payment processing companies and film studios can increase their prices, which will affect dramatically the unit economics of Netflix model. Studios may form alliances with bigger players. As competition in the rental segment intensifies, studios might deem it more beneficial to form alliances with bigger players, namely Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, manifested in more advantageous conditions. This will worsen the competitive advantage of Netflix. Studios might not renegotiate revenue sharing agreements. Revenue sharing agreements which shift costs towards the variable end of the continuum might not be renegotiated at less advantageous terms. Although this will not necessarily worsen the economics of the operation, it might significantly increase the working capital requirements (more cash trapped in DVD copies). Given the short time horizon, WCR will have to be financed by debt which will deplete the borrowing capacity at a critical moment when Netflix might need a financing cushion to ward off other adverse market developments. DVD retail prices fall. As discussed above diminishing retail prices of DVD titles might lure customers away from renting and into buying DVDs. A similar tendency was observed in the period 1999 2003 and must not be discounted lightly. New channels of filmed entertainment delivery. New technological solutions and digitalization of TV will enable consumers to get access to filmed entertainment over new channels such as VOD, pay-per-view and Video over IP. Although not expected to gain market importance before 2007, these channels already witness implementation which is well accepted by consumers. Additionally, the increasing popularity of video games also claims part of consumers leisure time. New entrants into the rental market. Already competitive, the rental market is about to see new entrants both from the lower end (copy-cat small-capital companies) and from the big players such as the film studios. Low entry barriers combined with the high stake for film studios (currently 45% of a films revenues come form home-video rentals and sales) will be the drivers for these shifts. Management of growth. Currently Netflix experiences growth which affects its business operations. Successful management of this growth is a critical factor for Netflixs continued competitiveness. I want to work in this company. Because I love movies and have a deep understanding of the film industry. I also love the rich pioneering and revolutionary new industry, NETLIX is a leading new movie rental company, and it is also my ideal place to work. I think NETFLIX suit my taste, I can play in the companys potential and at the same time realize my personal value. So I hope the NETFLIX work. Netflix will be a wise investment. This company created a new movie rental system, as the Internet advances and the development of home audio and video equipment, the cinema picture quality and sound advantages of greatly reduced. Many people began to be more willing to watch more easily at home the latest and most popular videos, add the price on the NETFLIX player has an advantage compare to cinema. This will be popular network industries. So the company is a wise investment. Team6 Tina 23/04/11

Who Controls the Private Sphere in an Archaic Greek Society :: Women Power Greek Greece Essays

Who Controls the Private Sphere in an Archaic Greek Society Abstract: Texts, such as Oeconomicus, reveal that while men in Archaic Greek society had authority over their wives, they were too confident of their control, and once they taught women how to act and behave they granted women authority over the household or private sphere. This segregation of the public and private spheres allowed women control not only over the private sphere, but also some control over her own life. Did women in Archaic Greek society have control over their lives? Today, many would argue that women did not have control, but rather their fathers and husbands controlled them. However, when looking closely at Greek texts, such as Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, one discovers that husbands were so confident of their control that once women were taught how to manage the household they granted women complete authority over the decisions made in the private sphere. Although men still had authority over women, the segregation of public and private spheres gave wives some control over their lives. Initially, when a girl was married, her husband had complete control over her life. A man’s bride was usually a very young girl who was considered an empty vessel because she had no knowledge about how to behave or manage a household. During a conversation in Oeconomicus between Socrates and Kritoboulos, Socrates asked, "Did you marry her when she was a very young girl and had seen and heard as little as possible" (16)? Since girls did not come to a man’s household with any knowledge it was the husband’s job to only fill her vessel with the knowledge that he wanted her to know. In this way, men believed that they had control over their wives’ lives. Although men felt that they had control over their wives’ lives, it seems unlikely that women came to their husbands without any knowledge about how to manage the household. No matter how sheltered a girl was raised she still must have picked up skills from her mother. Therefore, it is safe to assume that girls were deceiving their husbands about the skills they knew and were simply putting on an act of naivete so their husbands believed they were in control.

Mexico City Essay example -- History Geography Mexico Essays

Mexico City Like an enormous living museum, Mexico City provides an extraordinary showplace for the thousands of years of human cultural achievement that Mexico has attained. It ranks as one of the world's great capitals and is a must for anyone craving to understand Mexico's complex past, its fast-paced present, and its ever challenging future. The size and grandeur of the city are staggering. It is not only the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Western Hemisphere, but, by some accounts, has also become the largest city in the world. Before we look at present day Mexico City, let us look into it deep and storied past. La Ciudad de los Palacios   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mexico City was founded over 700 years ago by the Aztecs. Instructed by their god of war, Huitzilopochtli, they journeyed to Lake Texcoco, where they were to look for an eagle eating a snake perched on a cactus growing from a rock or cave surrounded by water. They found this in 1325, and so began the city of Tenochtitlan. Although the land surrounding them was marshy and snake infested, the Aztecs came up with an ingenious way a planting crops. They created chinampas, or floating gardens, by bunching twigs together and stacking mud on top. These gardens were placed in shallow lake areas and rooted down by the crops or small trees planted in the middle. The Aztecs were a very religious people, as well, and built many temples, including the great Templo Mayor. Cannibalism was a key element of their religion, as they believed that it was necessary to feed human hearts to the gods to ensure that the sun would rise everyday. The Aztecs would find these less than willin g human hosts in the numerous battles they fought. Due to an increasing population, estimated to be at 250,000 in the late 1400’s, the Aztecs were forced to expand their empire well beyond the cities original boundaries. As the Aztec warriors conquered these other outlying tribes, tribute payments were gained, leading to the cities massive wealth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Aztecs lived like this for 200 years until Spanish settlers, under Hernan Cortes, came and conquered the Aztecs in 1521. The Spanish were in awe of the cities tremendous wealth, and, thanks to superior weapons and tactics, easily defeated the Aztecs. Upon victory, the Spanish were quick to raze the entire city. The city was rapidly reconstructed as a Spanish city, and in the 15... .... There are small salsa clubs and crowded discos, as well as live concerts featuring the world's most popular stars. Ballet, theatre, folkloric shows, opera and philharmonic orchestras are also common. Boxing and wrestling events are held on most weekend nights. At Garibaldi Plaza the numerous Mariachi bands often play into the wee hours of the morning. Mexico City is very old, the worlds largest city, the financial, political and cultural center of Mà ©xico, the nightlife capital of Mexico, one of the worlds great cities, one of the world's most difficult cities to drive in, filled with exciting things to see and do, and an energetic metropolis as well as an incredible place to visit. This is truly one of the most interesting and diverse cities in the world. Bibliography http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761569238/Mexico_City.html http://www.allaboutmexicocity.com/allaboutmexicocity.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_City http://www.tourbymexico.com/df/df.htm http://www.mexicocity.com.mx/mexcity.html http://www.go2mexicocity.com/ www.wikitravel.org/article/Mexico_City http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=mexico_city%401

Radical Issues in the Colonies :: essays research papers

During the colonial period of America, many colonists struggled with the laws imposed upon them by England. The struggle grew over the years until many Americans had developed a revolutionary attitude toward their mother country. This attitude not only led the colonists into the American Revolution which freed them from the rule of England, but also influenced the ways in which the various colonies chose to govern themselves. The experience of colonial rule caused the new Americans to denounce certain aspects of government which had been a part of their colonial society and, in fact, seemed somewhat radical at the time. However, the most revolutionary act they seem to have accomplished was the war for independence itself.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which served as a basis for many Bills of Rights in state constitutions, laid out basic rights of men as the foundation of their new government. The idea that â€Å"all men are by nature equally free and independent† is then qualified in the document itself by the phrase â€Å"when they enter into a state of society.† The phrase regarding society is intended to exclude slaves from the â€Å"free and independent† status given to all other men. John Ross expanded on this theme at a New York state convention where he stated that blacks are â€Å"seldom, if ever, required to share in the common burthens or defence of the state† and are â€Å"incapable†¦of exercising that privilege with any sort of discretion, prudence, or independence.† Colonel Samuel Young, speaking at the same convention where Ross stated his views, felt that blacks would â€Å"sell their votes to the highest bidder.† The views seem oddly the same, though blacks were no longer slaves in New York at that time. The Pennsylvania Gradual Abolition Act of 1980 started the abolition slavery by laying out the conditions under which slaves and people born into slavery would eventually be free. Basically, it limited the time a person could be held as a slave and granted other rights to â€Å"Negroes and Mulattoes.† In particular, the Act stated that the crimes of Negroes and Mulattoes would be judged and punished the same as crimes of the â€Å"other inhabitants of this state,† but did denote that a slave could not testify against a freeman. This limitation perpetuated the idea that slaves and black people were not on equal footing with white men.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In today’s world, the remnants of a time when blacks were viewed as inferior to whites can still be seen, yet it is difficult to imagine that the statements made in documents which were designed to declare the rights of people in America are so boldly prejudiced.

Pizza Hut Mkarekting Strategy Essay

The journey began in 1958, when two college students and brothers from Wichita, USA, Frank and Dan Carney, opened the first Pizza Hut restaurant at their hometown on June 15, 1958. After borrowing $600 from their mother, they purchased some second-hand equipment and rented a small building on a busy intersection in Wichita. The result of their entrepreneurial efforts was the first Pizza Hut restaurant, and the foundation for what would become the largest and most successful pizza restaurant company in the world. Many people ask how Pizza hut got its name. When Carneys were setting up their first restaurant, the building had sign with room for just nine characters. They wanted to use â€Å"pizza† in the name, which left room for a word with only three letters. A family member suggested the building looked like a hut –and Pizza Hut was born. Pizza Hut: Today Pizza Hut is not only the acknowledged leader of pizza industry worldwide, but it is also the world’s largest pizza chain, with over 12,000 restaurants across 100 countries, employing more than 300,000 people, serving 1. 7 million pizzas everyday to more than seven million customers. Pizza Hut is the high-flying brand of Yum! Restaurants International, which is also the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, A&W and Long John Silvers. Taking other four brands with Pizza Hut, Yum! Restaurants International makes up the world’s largest restaurant group. Pizza Hut in Bangladesh Transcom Foods Limited, a concern of Transcom Group is the franchisee of Pizza hut in Bangladesh. With a seating capacity of 220 persons, the first outlet of Pizza Hut is located on South Avenue, Gulshan-1. Pizza Hut provides the perfect mix of great food, great service and great place at a great value to customers who are looking for a grand experience. We believe in positive intension, and maintain a strong internal environment by developing our competitive work force, which we trust. The latest technological tools along with the best support systems from our franchiser YUM! International is used to ensure easy workflow and to make our restaurants the favorite in the Country. The success of Pizza Hut relies heavily on delighting our customers by ensuring that all their needs and desires are met in every way. Hence, the company give strong importance to marketing efforts to ensure that. Along with customer satisfaction, make sure, that the business makes money! Therefore, the first task is to understand our consumers from every aspect. In this regard, we have tried to gain a thorough understanding of our competitive environment and continuously strive to develop unique business ideas to make our business a success. Thus, Pizza hut has successfully attained a broad range of loyal customers, to whom pizza has gained extreme popularity. In order to expand this range, our marketing team is involved in developing new products and concepts, all the time. Above all, not only do we make GOOD FOOD, we are also famous for providing great service and dining experience, to give our valued customers more reasons, to return. Due to the vast success of our flagship restaurant in Gulshan, and huge demand from consumers, opening of new stores in different cities are already under way. And from this experience marketing team has the recognition and understanding of * cultural influences * governmental and political influences * demographic and lifestyle trends * local and national economic trends. In Pizza Hut the role of operations is to be obsessed with the quality of our pizza and the experience that our customers receive. There are 3 distinct categories of restaurants. Full Service Restaurants These are the traditional pizza restaurants that offers seated service and take-away. Home Service Restaurants Restaurants that offer home deliveries and take-away. Restaurant Based Delivery A full service restaurant in combination with delivery and takeaway service. Currently, they are operating as the first category of restaurant, i. e a full service restaurant, with take-away facility. In the near future we will plan to introduce the other categories as well. All Pizza Hut sites work on the CHAMPS standard Cleanliness Hospitality Accuracy Maintenance Product Speed These six objects define the very core of customer expectations. CHAMPS have become the vehicle, which drives Operations Excellence into our business and is also supported by a reward and recognition scheme for the Team members. The ‘CHAMPScheck’ is a tool used to ensure consistency of service and product quality across the entire Pizza Hut estate; in fact it is used for all the Yum! Brands internationally. Environmental considerations Pizza Hut uses environmentally friendly materials where applicable, e. g. water based paint and recycled Pizza boxes. 2. 1 Environmental forces: Strategies are not and should not be developed in a vacuum. They must be responsive to the external and internal environment. Otherwise the firm become, in effect, the most efficient producer of buggy whips, leisure suits, or slide rules. To avoid such strategic mistakes, firms must knowledgeable about the business environment. Here we analyze the pricing strategies of Pizza Hut. In order to developing the pricing strategies and implementing these strategies into program they must scan the major internal and external factors. a. The Company Pizza Hut is a chain restaurant, operated by Transcom Group in Bangladesh. In designing the pricing strategies, they must take account the other company groups. Top management sets the company’s mission, objectives, broad strategies, and policies. They must work closely with departments. Finance department of the Pizza Hut is concerned with finding and using funds to carry out the long run and short run cost and different promotional program. The R&D department focuses on designing tasty and attractive pizzas. The purchasing and operations are responsible for getting supplies and materials, producing and distributing a desired quality and quantity of the foods. b. Suppliers The marketing manager of the Pizza Hut must monitor the price trends of their key inputs or raw materials such as bread loaf, different meats, capsicums, oregano, different flavor souses etc. Because it charges the price of a pizza that both covers all its costs for producing, distributing, and selling the product and delivers a fair rate of return for its efforts and risk. As cost is an important element in its pricing strategy so they should try to reduce supply cost of the inputs. c. Marketing Intermediaries Pizza Hut uses direct marketing to sell their products. Their cost of serving customers is comparatively high than the others. Besides they uses marketing service agencies such as research and development firm, advertising agencies, media firms and marketing consulting firms to promote their products and target the right market. Developing pricing strategies involve the cost of maintaining these intermediaries to sell their final product to consumers. d. Customers The Company believe that customers estimate which offer will deliver the most value. They face a vast array of product and brand choices, prices and suppliers. Whether the buyers are satisfied after purchase depends on the offer’s performance in relation to the buyer’s expectations. As the customers are the value- maximizers then if the total customer value and the total customer cost doesn’t equal then they become dissatisfied. So it is the most important factor for Pizza Hut to implement effective pricing strategy that match the customers’ expectations to incur in evaluating, obtaining, using and disposing of the given market offering. e. Demographic Environment Pizza Hut chooses Bangladesh to set up their outlets as it is one of the mostly dense countries in the world. Growing population means growing human needs to satisfy. Depending on purchasing power, it also means growing market opportunities. This large and highly diverse population poses an opportunity for them to capture the increasing market share. Pizza Hut established their outlets exclusively at Gulshan in Dhaka, at Agra bad in Chittagong. Pizza Hut divides its population group into six different levels: 1. Preschool 2. School-age children 3. Teens 4. Young adults age 25 to 40 5. Middle aged adults age 40 They provide different offer with changing prices to the customers. f. Changing pricing strategies with changing family structure The traditional family structure is changing with the modern world. The number of working women has also increased. This trend has increased the consumption of convenience foods and services. In order to capture big market share and consumers’ support they must design their pricing strategy that satisfy the consumers’ perceived value. g. Economic Forces Pizza Hut use market skimming as their pricing strategy. They charge high price at the initial stage. It focuses on the changes in income of the consumers, their changing spending patterns. Pizza Hut target the high class people as their potential customers. They also set the outlets exclusively in the city. It also monitors the changing spending patterns of the people. Today people spend more in the foods. h. Natural Factors The deterioration of the natural environment is a major global concern. As a restaurant Pizza Hut should take the pricing strategies that also contribute the improvement of green movement. Recently they use recyclable or biodegradable packaging of their products. i. Technological Advancement New technologies create new markets and opportunities. Developing the pricing strategy, technological advancement should give the priority. Pizza Hut uses internet to serve online orders with the help of Bangladesh, keep account of raw materials, and they use consumers’ database of the regular customers.j. Political Environment Pizza Hut makes their marketing environment in Bangladesh by following the rules and regulation of the government. It considers several laws covering issues such as competition, fair trade practice, environmental protection, product safety, truth advertising, labeling, pricing and other factors in setting their product price. h. Cultural Factors Recently the people of Bangladesh have tried to copy the Western culture. They are becoming interested to the western food like pizza, burger, hot dog, pasta, and so many foods. Pizza Hut uses this changing trend in their marketing as well as a pricing strategy. They spend more funds in product promotional program in this country. They offer Ramadan discounts, Valentines Day offer for the couples, friendship day program and so on. All of these schemes must match with their pricing style. COMPETITORS OF THE PIZZA HUT Today, competition is not only rife but growing more intense every time. In Bangladesh the most dominant competitors of Pizza Hut are the BFC, KFC, CFC, DOMINOUS PIZZA, HELVITIA, SHARMA PALACE, CHICKEN KING, BURGER KING, BELLA ITALIA. As the basic product of Pizza Hut is the different flavors pizza, the other fast-food shop is also serve pizza and may copy the marketing strategy of Pizza Hut. It has a certain cost burden that shares much of its strategic conduct. In developing an effective strategy it makes a clear difference between the market concept of competition and the industry concept of the competition. They analyze their competitors’ base on the following characteristics: a. Objectives b. Strengths and weaknesses c. Reaction patterns International Competitors of Pizza Hut. * Papa John’s * Domino’s * Little Caesar’s Domino’s Pizzas Founded in 1960, Domino’s pizza is the recognized world leader in pizza delivery operating a network of company founded and franchise-owned stores in national and international markets. Domino’s Pizza’s vision illustrates a company of exceptional people on a mission to be the best pizza delivery company in the world. With more than 8000 restaurants and delivery units spread across in 50 countries, Domino’s holds the 2nd position in international pizza market. Domino’s is the world’s fastest pizza maker. It makes 14 pizzas in 2 minutes and 35 seconds. In 2004, Super Bowl Sunday was the busiest day of the year when Domino’s sold close to 1. 2 million pizzas which is approximately 42% more pizzas compared to a normal Sunday. Super Bowl Sunday ranks among the top five days for pizza deliveries annually along with Thanks giving, New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve and Halloween. Little Caesars Little Caesars is 4th largest pizza manufacturer in USA. The company claims to be largest carry-out pizza chain in the world. The company is famous for its advertisement campaign of â€Å"pizza! Pizza! † which was later altered to â€Å"pan! Pan! ’ to promote their pan pizzas. Little Caesars is famous for selling more pizzas at fewer prices. It has notable â€Å"differentiating Strategy† wherein Little Caesars sells â€Å"Hot-N-Ready† pizza for $5. 00 only which means those customers do not have to call before taking the delivery of their pizza. They can just drop in to a â€Å"Little Caesar† outlet and collect their hot-n-ready pizza instantly. Marketing Strategy Pizza Hut follows the following strategy: * Total market strategy: Pizza Hut started with a single product i. e. Pizza but with different segments emerging and the degree of competition increasing, it diversified into several products to serve different segments. It came up with chicken nuggets, wedges, garlic bread, smiley etc. * International marketing strategy: Pizza Hut started with local market strategy in Kansas, USA then moved on to regional markets in and across USA. In 1968, Pizza Hut started its international movement by opening its 1st restaurant in Canada. And today Pizza Hut is world’s largest pizza chain with its presence in more than 100 countries. * Early Entry Strategy: Though Pizza Hut was not the first entrants in the pizza market in USA. But Pizza Hut followed an early entrant strategy. Customers knew what a pizza is but still there was huge potential to tap. In order to become a leader, pizza hut continued to refine their product & develop new product to suit their customer’s changing tastes. Ultimately Pizza Hut with its superior promotion, manufacturing and distribution activities has turned out to be the â€Å"winner†. * Strong Commitment Strategy: Pizza Hut has been operating in the pizza market by realizing all economies of scale in promotion, distribution and manufacturing facilities. If Papa Johns or Little Caesars come out with a new competitive pricing strategy or innovative product, then Pizza Hut quite aggressively fights back by bringing more competitive prices or better innovations in product category. In simple words, Pizza Hut takes all possible measures to defend its leadership position in the market. Customer Focus. â€Å"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production; and the interest of producer ought to be attended to only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the customer†- Adam Smith Frank and Dan Carey recognized that the concept of Pizza was quite new to American. Although frozen pizzas and pizza mixes had entered into the market and started penetrating in non-traditional food market. Initially Pizza sampling was done to test the product and consumer’s preferences about the product. Thus first Pizza Hut was a success. From the very start, Pizza Hut aimed to get pizza’s to the masses. Initially, the entire world was a common market for Pizza Hut until it began segmenting and targeting particular market segments by differentiating and developing diverse products for them. Pizza Hut as a company has always tried to target and satisfy various diverse customer categories in different countries depending upon various factors and situations. Pizza Hut in order to fulfill its marketing objective of maximizing customer satisfaction by providing high quality products, has believed in the following marketing strategy: â€Å"Think Global, Act Local†. In Malaysia for instance, Pizza Hut targeting both urban adults as well as families with pre-teens and teenage children by offering a delicious mix of nutritious Itlaian-Amercian cuisine which includes world’s favorite pan pizza. Pizza Hut Malaysia at the same time offers a cozy, friendly ambience in which to relax and have a great time with family or friends. Pizza Hut Malaysia’s success has been due to imaginative and innovative thinking in continuously developing, marketing and promoting new pizza products with unique and distinctive flavor, taste, style and appeal. In order to target the entire family experience, Pizza Hut launched a Hand Tossed Pizza which was pizza hut’s first step in traditional stuffed crust segment. It offers not-to-thin and not-to-thick crust on which the entire family agrees. To tap the market for young single in-hurry office goers looking for â€Å"fast lunch†, Pizza hut came up with â€Å"personal pan pizza for one†. The Personal Pan Pizza ® revolutionized lunch and became the perfect solution to satisfy pizza cravings in a hurry. Pizza Hut introduced America to the perfect pizza for on-the-go back in 1983. Today, we can find Personal Pan Pizzas ® in airports, college cafeterias and even sports arenas. To satisfy the New York pizza lovers, Pizza Hut introduced a â€Å"The big New Yorker Pizza†. This pizza was 30% larger than pizza hut’s largest pizza. It is New York style pizza at un-New York price introduced in 1999. In some countries, to capture the interest of â€Å"Echo Boomer generation† which the ultimate cheese loving population, Pizza Hut launched â€Å"The Ultimate Cheese† to give them the ultimate pizza experience. As Pizza Hut is the world’s largest Pizza manufacturing company believing in strategy of â€Å"Think Global, Act Local†, somewhere in USA pizza hut introduced variants with extra cheese or large in size, at the same time, when pizza hut to grow in international waters as Asia, it diversified to adapt their cultures and provide their favorite flavors. In order to tap huge spices lovers’ population in India, Pizza Hut recently has launched â€Å"The Great Indian Treat† which is rich in Indian spices and garlic. In order to tap market segment less than 18 years, pizza hut introduced â€Å"Stuff! Under 18 only† in United Kingdom, to tap the kids segment, various â€Å"Value combos† are introduced comprising of a Pizza, Chicken wedges, Fruit drink and ice cream. Whereas to tap the teenage market, Pizza hut introduced different flavors of pizza along with fruit beer was offered. At the same time, Teenagers were lured by promotional schemes as â€Å"DUBIT CARD† which will allow them to take discounts at various entertainment places including pizza hut. In an attempt to target, the people who are young and romantic at heart, whether it is an 18 year old boy friend or 50 year husband, on the occasion of â€Å"Valentine’s Day†, Pizza Hut launched a limited edition â€Å"Sweetheart Pizza† in the shape of heart. In nutshell, Pizza Hut tried to target each and every diverse population segment either on the scale of age (kids, teenage, office goers, senior citizens) or on basis of lifestyle (singles or couples) or special interest groups (celebrations, parties, festivals). Pizza Hut: An Overview of the â€Å"Product Strategy† â€Å"Product Strategies specify a market needs that may be served by different products offerings†. * Product Positioning Strategy: Pizza Hut has always followed â€Å"Single brand positioning† strategy wherein it has positioned only its pizzas. Although the positioning statement has been different in different countries but it has always hovered around its â€Å"PIZZAS†. For instance, in Canada, its positioning statement is â€Å"The best tasting pizzas under one roof† which reflects a great variety of pizza being served , in China it has positioned on â€Å"Dine-in restaurants†, in Australia, it is â€Å"made fresh, served hot and on time† which reflects that best of ingredients are used and pizza is delivered on time. Similarly, in India, pizza hut’s positioning has been â€Å"Good times, Great pizza. * Product-Scope strategy: Pizza Hut follows a â€Å"multiple product strategy† as pizza hut not only sells pizzas, but also deals in a variety of other products as Product-Scope Strategy Soups and Desserts Salads & Pastas Appetizers Pizzas Although all the product offerings in pizza hut are not as fast moving as its pizza, but they usually complement each other. For instance, a family coming for a dinner usually starts with some soup and garlic breads and then moves on to pizzas along with some diet salads. In this way, pizza hut caters to different people with different needs and tastes and preferences. This helps in increasing sales, profitability, market share and above all â€Å"Customer’s Mind Share† * Product-Design Strategy: Pizza Hut follows the strategy of selling Standardized Products with modifications. Pizza Hut mainly sells 4 types of pizzas: Pan Pizza, hand-tossed pizza, stuffed crust pizza and Thin N Crispy pizza. Pizza Hut serves these standard style pizzas everywhere in the world but at the same time, it offers its customers to choose different toppings as extra mushrooms or extra capsicum and onions with extra cheese or chicken toppings like toppings of meat, bacon, fish, ham, beef topping, pork toppings etc. Secondly it offers what is known as â€Å"Value meal combos† wherein it offers a combination of pizzas, appetizers, beverages etc at lower prices. For instance, Pizza hut introduced â€Å"Meal for 2† which offers a medium pan/freshizza pizza, garlic bread sticks with 2 glasses of pepsi. Similarly pizza hut also offered â€Å"Meals for 4† where it offered 2 medium pan pizzas, with one plate of garlic bread and one portion of wedges with 4 glasses of Pepsi/Soup. Pizza Hut by offering standard products seeks economies of scale and by offering modification options enhances customer satisfaction which adds to brand equity of Pizza Hut. * Product innovation strategy: Pizza Hut has been constantly involved in innovating new products. It started as Pizza chain in 1958. On one hand, it offers traditional Italian pizzas while on other hand, it innovated several new varieties as pan pizza, thin n crispy, stuffed crust, the big New Yorker pizza, hand tossed pizza, the edge pizza along with the Sicilian Pizza. Pizza Hut spends extensively on research and development of its innovative products. At the same time, customer’s feedback also plays an important role in preparing new pizzas. For example, The Big New Yorker Pizza. Pizza Hut continued to make innovations as it followed â€Å"International marketing strategy†. In India, Pizza Hut launched international style pizza in localized Indian flavors like Tandori pizza range with Punjabi flavors, vegetarian tama-tam, Murgh Mazedar Pizza etc. Similarly, in China along with traditional pizzas, it served â€Å"Sangria† and â€Å"Escargot†. Along with pizzas, Pizza Hut also innovated beverages and drinks to satisfy the tastes of consumers. For e. g. Pizza Hut in Oman has added a refreshing splash of tropics to their menu with the launch of Monin, a new line of flavored drinks. Value Marketing Strategy: Pizza Hut as far as value marketing is concerned follows Quality strategy Customer- service strategy. Time-based strategy Pizza Hut promises its customers to give them best quality product by using best quality ingredients. Time and again it re-emphasizes on this fact through its advertisement campaigns. Pizza Hut main motive is to enhance its customer’s satisfaction by providing them best quality products at affordable prices. At the same time, pizza hut always tries to deliver on time. Although Pizza Hut’s competitor Domino’s differentiates on basis of timely delivery in 30 minutes, however, Pizza Hut through its innovative technology is also trying to reduce its delivery time to 30 minutes and fight back Domino’s. PRICING STRATEGIES OF PIZZA HUT IN THE PRODUCTS’ LIFE CYCLE STAGES Their pricing strategy usually changes as the product passes through its life cycle. As Pizza Hut chooses the market- skimming pricing strategy by setting a high price for their pizzas at the initial stage to skim maximum revenues layer by layer from segments (high society people, exclusive outlets) willing to pay the high price, their introductory stages were especially challenging. Here example given for Bangladeshi Context. Pricing strategies: Product Development Stage. This stage begins when the parent company (Transcom Group) finds an idea to purchase the franchise of selling pizza at a particular area. During this stage the sales are zero and their investment cost mounts. Pricing strategies: Introduction Stage Introduction stage starts when the Pizza Hut was launched their basic product first at Gulshan in Dhaka. In designing their pricing strategy they face the following factors: 1. Their opening cost was very high because they organize a grand party and use heavy sales promotion to entice trial. 2. At the initial time their sales were comparatively low. 3. High cost per customer for creating superior image was increasing. 4. Their profit was positive. 5. The customers are the innovators of the new flavors pizzas with an attractive presentation style. 6. They charge the higher price with the justified quality. 7. They build only two exclusive distribution outlets. 8. Build mass advertising in newspaper, bill boards etc. 9. They compete with few competitors. Pricing Strategies: Growth Stage In this stage their sales are rising. The customers are properly known about the brands and the goods. 1. High cost per customer reduces and become the average cost. 2. During this stage profits are rising. 3. They maximize their market share. 4. They use product line extension by adding new flavors, ingredients, sizes such as family size, single pan pizza etc. 5. Their competitors are growing. 6. Develop new marketing plan to make the product superior from the competitors. 7. They also organize birthday party, marriage day party and so many occasions for a payment. By these they enhance their brand image. Pricing strategies: Maturity Stage Pizza Hut is now passing through the maturity stage. Their profits are at the peak. This stage normally lasts longer than the previous stages, and poses formidable challenges to marketing management. 1. Product modification by modifying the products’ quality improvements, feature improvements and style improvements. 2. Stable number of competitors is beginning to rise. 3. They change the price to match or best competitors’. 4. Pizza Hut is building a new outlet at Dhanmondi to meet the increasing demand of customers. 5. They create significance brand differences from competitors and take the advantages. Pricing strategies: Decline Stage This is the product life cycle stage in which a product’s sales decline. Pizza Hut doesn’t reach in this stage at present. Pizza Hut: An Overview of Franchise Model â€Å"Franchising† involves a contractual arrangement between a franchisor (a manufacturer, a wholesaler, or a service sponsor) and a retail franchisee, which allows the franchisee to conduct a given form of business under an established name and according to a given pattern of business. Pizza Hut after its incorporation in 1958 opened its first franchise unit in Topeka, Kansas. Followed by a Pizza Hut restaurant built in just 5 days by franchisees in Oklahoma State Fair. In 1968, Pizza Hut made a global entry by entering in Canada. Then it made a strong foot holding in Australia, Japan, England, Kuwait, and Abu Dhabi. By 1989, Pizza Hut was already serving 54 countries. In 1996, Pizza Hut entered India with the first dine-in restaurant in Bangalore. While entering in the international arena, Pizza Hut used the â€Å"Franchising Route† as the entry strategy. In Bangladesh Pizza Hut enter Franchising with â€Å"Transcrom group†. Reasons why Pizza Hut adopted â€Å"Franchising† as the entry strategy: * The best method to establish operations without risk of operations in an unfamiliar country. * Franchising root helps in learning the buyer behaviour, consumer preferences, market realities etc. * Franchising helped Pizza Hut in building a brand name and creating efficient distribution system. * In certain socialist countries as China, Russia etc, direct foreign investment is not allowed, so pertaining to the local legal framework of these countries, Franchising is an easier route to enter into these countries. Pizza Hut: An Overview of the Global Strategy Pizza Hut before entering into any new country conducts a comprehensive market survey of that country to learn about the culture that prevails in that country, the state of government and politics, the legal framework (product quality laws, packaging laws) , commercial practices (business structure, patterns of competition). Strategy Adopted by Pizza Hut for Global marketing programs: Localized strategy: Pizza Hut follows the strategy of â€Å"Think Global, Act Local†. For e. g. in India, the 1st Pizza Hut which was launched in Bangalore served complete vegetarian meals. Similarly, in China, along with serving Pizzas, Pizza Hut also serves â€Å"Sangria† and â€Å"Escargot†. Similarly, in India, to match the spicy tastes of Indian consumers, Pizza Hut launched â€Å"Tandoori Treat†, â€Å"The Great Indian Treat†. For the cheese lovers in the United States, Pizza Hut launched Cheesy Bites Pizza and Stuffed Crust Pizza. In South Asian Muslim Country (like Bangladesh) Pizz Hut giver special Offer during Ramadan like â€Å"eat as much as You can† in iftar. International Marketing Coordination: Pizza Hut’s international marketing activities though dispersed in different countries are properly coordinated to gain competitive advantage as * All marketing activities as market research, advertisements, and restaurant interiors are done using a similar method. * Marketing know-how and skills are transferred from one country to another. For e. g. the â€Å"franchising model† is used successfully in all the countries by Pizza Hut. Scanning the Environment: S. W. O. T Analysis Strengths * Name Recognition * First-Mover Advantage (pioneer advantage) * Competitive advantage as pizza hut has he largest network of full service restaurants and delivery services. * Broad selection of products to target different segments. * Strong Franchisee network. | Weakness * High overhead costs due to large number of restaurants * High price pizza which leads to loss of customers. * Internal conflicts among franchisees. | Opportunity * Increase revenue through more and more innovative pizzas. * Increase in brand loyalty through good customer service. * Pizza hut has tremendous scope of expansion through its new online ordering system. * Pizza Hut home delivery network and entry in to new markets. | Threats * Main threat is from competitors. Out of these threat from Domino’s is main concern. * The differentiation strategy followed by any pizza chain is sooner or later adopted by all pizza industry players. New and newer methods to lure the customers must be found out. * Any competitor offering the same quality and diverse flavours might be a real threat to Pizza Hut. | Pizza Hut: An overview of â€Å"Promotion Strategies† Pizza Hut uses a wide assortment of promotion tools to achieve the following: * Increase the market share * Increase the sales volume * To increase repeat purchase * To induce the non buyers to buy the product. The Promotion mix which it uses is as follows: Sales Promotion Advertising Promotion Mix Personal Selling â€Å"Advertising†: Maximum used Medium of Pizza Hut Promotion Strategy The main objective behind every campaign is either to increase sales by encouraging potential purchasers or inducing repeat purchases or prompting immediate purchase by offering special schemes or to create awareness about a new product offering by highlighting a new flavor or announcing price changes or demonstrating the product in use by depicting an experience. For instance, to launch a new flavor in India named â€Å"The Great Indian Treat†, Pizza Hut signed a Javed Jaffrey for its new TV commercial. Similarly to inform the customers about Rs. 50 pan pizza, Pizza hut showed Zayed Khan as a young teenager boy friend who has to treat his large number of girl friends with something trendy and affordable. Pizza Hut also launched certain ad campaigns to counter attack its competitors promotions. For instance, in 2005 Pizza Hut launched â€Å"Freshizza† ad campaign featuring Malika Arora Khan and counter attacked Domino’s campaign showing Anupam Kher and Paresh Raval. At the same time, Pizza Hut brings about local flavor in its ad campaigns. In different countries, it uses models, situations, positioning clearly related to that particular country.