Genre Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Genre Analysis - Essay Example Despite this however, the ultimate goal of all the reviews is directed to the customer. Other reviews are focused on the competitors of a particular commodity. For instance, in the electronics manufacturing industry, there are many companies which are involved in the manufacture of laptops and notebooks. All these compete for the same market share and the same customers. In order to win then trust of customers and win superiority in the battle for market share, companies can do anything including bribery of the review corporates and personnel to favour them in their columns. Reviews that are focused on the competitors are meant to show the level of success of a particular company and how best it has prospered in its innovation department, research and development activities. This is an enticing element for loyal customers of other brands. Business is business, and marketers, Chief Executives and management of all the companies are ready to do anything to increase the volumes of their sales. What makes the difference is how strict the company is while following the ethics of doing business. Apple Company which manufactures notebooks, laptops and iPads faces competition from other manufacturers such as, Harriett Packer Company which is a major manufacture of laptops, desktops and smartphones, Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Samsung, IBM, and Siemens among others. For apple to win competition in such a highly competitive market, it has to device many ways of winning in their competition. Free markets are faced by this problem as they desperately seek to find a way of marketing their products. When reviews are meant to help a company to make a sale or improve on its sales volume, they are mostly biased and do not portray the actual truth about the product. Such reviews are meant to attract customers to buy that product from the retailers and thus creating marketing opportunities for the company. Mostly, such companies pay product reviewers to come up with a review that favour s their company and products. As a result, people are led to believe that a particular review is genuine and actually portrays the actual condition and status of the products which is contrary to the reality. Such reviews include those that have a rating that is based on just a theoretical analysis with minimal tests. Such mischiefs by companies have increasingly rendered the reviews of products almost insignificant to the people. Whether used as a marketing tool or for generous reasons, reviews are now being viewed with scepticism by the people. Moreover, people rarely believe in the information provided by the reviews, a reason why most people opt to stick to the most popular and trusted brands. Most reviews cover the prices of the product, general performance and reliability, its improvement in case it is a series of production, features of the product and the availability. Moreover, others compare a particular product with that of other companies. In the â€Å"apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display† review by Cnet, the author takes a survey of various elements and features of the computer that are either appealing or annoying about the computer. Customers are mostly concerned with the reasons as to why the computer was awarded a rating of out of five by the editor, subsequently

Paying for Motivation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Paying for Motivation - Essay Example Duffy (2010) relates to the present and the expected value of the educational organization, only if it is used to increase the long term performance of the employees. The management of an educational organization should, therefore, come up with strategies that would result in providing a long term and substantial results for the benefits of the stakeholders. Pay may also be associated with the expected performance of the employees but it the performance of the employees is not completely influenced by pay. There are some other factors that may directly influence the present and expected value of the organization as well as the employees. A study was conducted on three groups which contained people with equal qualifications who were required to complete a single task for a freelancing website desk. One group was being paid $4 per hour, while other was paid $5 per hour. The third group was told that they will be working at $4 per hour; however, they were also told that there is some ro om in the budget; therefore they will be paid a little more but the increase in salary will be a surprise for them. The performance of the three groups was evaluated by measuring the productivity at the task. The results of the first and the second group were almost same, irrespective of the fact that one was being paid more than the other. The third group, who was granted with higher surprised pay rate, exhibited 20 percent more effective results than the other two groups.

Whether The Marketing Mix Contributes on the Success of Wal-Mart

Whether The Marketing Mix Contributes on the Success of Wal-Mart Introduction The marketing mix, as a paradigm, has been keeping applied in business since it was merged more than 50 years ago. Many companies are still using it as a guide in marketing (Zineldin, 2007) to gain more competitive power in the market. The activities integrated in marketing programmes to create, communicate, and deliver value for consumers were classified into product, price, promotion and place in marketing mix tool by McCarthy (cited in Davies et al., 1995) in 1960, and Kotler et al. (2009) defined the sub activities of each element of the 4Ps: product variety, quality, services, etc for Product; list price, discounts, allowances, etc for Price; sales promotion, advertising, public relations, etc for Promotion; and channels, coverage, locations, transport etc for Place. By using the guide and adjusting the elements and the sub activities of them, companies can find a marketing strategy suitable for both the industry and the organizations. Although the application of the marketing mix seems to be different among industries, it still has influences on the businesses in extents. To see whether the marketing mix can work to the achievements of the organizations, the strategies and the application of the marketing mix of Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, can be a great choice to analyze. As a well known hypermarket business leader, Wal-Mart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at more than 8,650 retail units under 55 different banners in 15 countries (Anonymous, 2010), and it is still extending its business globally. This essay will analyze the contribution of the marketing mix on the success of Wal-Mart, and a brief scheme of improvement will also be looked at. Product As a retailer, the term product can be divided into two parts, the retailing service to suppliers, and the products and services to customers. Since both suppliers and retailers are pursuing a low-margin, high-volume strategy (Kotler et al., 2009), the stable and high-volume orders from Wal-Mart can meet the needs of the suppliers. However, only large orders are not enough in current business, according to Hansen (2009), a service-centered philosophy and service quality are crucial for building long-term relationship with suppliers. To keep a high quality of service, Wal-Mart is innovative and a pioneer in technology development. It is among the first retailers using computers to track inventory (1969), adopting the bar codes (1980) and wireless scanning guns (late 1980s), and introducing EDI for better coordination with suppliers (1985) (Johnson, 2002), which developed the efficiency of distribution and turnover of goods so that it can meet the requirements of suppliers. To individual customers, not only selling products of suppliers, Wal-Mart has private-labels such as Great Value, OlRoy, Partents Choice etc, which provides products in wide fields. Kumar et al. (2007, cited in Geyskens et al., 2010) argued that private-label products are positioning at mid-quality, and they are as good as national brand offerings but cheaper. However, Wal-Mart focuses on the quality rather than only mimic other brands (Neff, 2009), trying to meet the needs of most customers focusing on cost performance. Because of the efforts Wal-Mart made, customers are increasingly relying on the private labels (Rae, 2009). Also, according to Min (2010), customers evaluate the service with product quality, which is followed by cleanliness of the store, competitive price, product variety and fast checkouts. By making collection of customer information and IT innovation, these factors are getting focused on by Wal-Mart, which keeps the service quality and satisfaction of customers. Price The price factor of Wal-Mart can be looked at by the view of both B2C and B2B businesses. For the pricing strategies towards individuals, a lower price can capture more market share even competitors build price wall to fight in the market (Chiu et al., 2009). Wal-Mart has a great advantage in the competition among retailers because of offering a lower price and promising it the lowest among all, but lowering the price does not definitely lead to a cut in the profit. Wal-Mart uses a broad line and low value added product lines to keep prices low and raise the volume that is increased greatly enough to make up for the low margin (Kotler, 2009). However, there is always a risk: if the added revenues from the increased demands cannot cover the loss of margin, it will diminish the profit (Nijs et al., 2007). By using and collecting a huge database of consumption of products in large regions and super centers, according to the law of large numbers, the demands of the products could become stable and predictable. With a prediction of consumer behavior and risks, an aggressive pricing strategy helps Wal-Mart gain huge advantages and profitability. Place For Wal-Mart, a company that has been focused on discount merchandising and growth (Graff, 1998), cost is always a key to it. With mature management and decisions on places the products available to customers, distribution and channels, Wal-Mart gets phenomenal growth and excellent performance. First of all, considering the size, majority of Wal-Mart supercentres are located in nonmetropolitan counties and get around the distribution centers (Graff, 1998), which can make Wal-Mart benefited from a low land-rent cost and a more efficient distribution. However, a great negative impact on Wal-Marts market share occurred because of the factors of the growing maturity of internet retailing industry and lower prices offered by on-line retailers (Bock et al., 2007). In order to keep the market share and the customer satisfaction, Wal-Mart launched its own retailing websites and planned to build multichannel. This shall benefit the giant retailer as researchers found that the adoption of inte rnet and a multichannel strategy will be more profitable for retailers than traditional strategies (Zhang, 2009; Bock et al., 2007). Other than the location of supercentres, the performance of distribution of Wal-Mart is outstanding. Firstly, by geographical segmentations, distribution centers, around by supercentres, are located in appropriate regions. Suppliers make most deliveries to distribution centers, and retailer then ferry goods between the regional centers and individual stores using its own trucks (Burritt et al., 2010), which reduces the cost of transportation and enhances Wal-Marts control on the whole inventory and process of delivery. Also, a mature IT system weighs greatly for Wal-Mart: hand-held computers used by employees can collect the information of products such as storage, packaging and shipping, and a satellite communication system set up in 1983 helps managers to track sales and inventories in stores across the country (Chandran et al., 2003), which keeps the distribution under control and improves the efficiency. In addition, Wal-Mart puts a great concern upon the suppliers and the integration of supply chain. Because great volumes of products are sold through Wal-Mart, suppliers are delighted to do business with the retailer at a lower price because of the large orders, which increases the bargaining power of Wal-Mart. As what Davies et al. (1995) found: strength in bargaining power positively relates to commercial success. It seems that Wal-Mart keeps a superior power upon its suppliers to squeeze the cost. However, Even suppliers treat Wal-Mart as a primary customer perform worse financially (Bloom, 2001), there may still be benefits for suppliers to keep a long-term relationship with a higher performing channel member being efficient and aggressive to attract consumers to suppliers products, because the revenue with a high volume sold might cover the squeeze, and some suppliers hope it might help them expand their market share (Bollm, 2001; Erdem et al., 1997). By cutting the cost in the B2B part, the prices of products could be lower and more advantages Wal-Mart can gain in the market. Also, with a thought that putting the volume together of both itself and its suppliers are buying from one supplier can reduce costs (Muntaner, cited in Boyle, 2010), Wal-Mart has been trying to team up with suppliers to purchase the raw materials, like teaming up with Pepsi to purchase sugar together from one sugar supplier at a lower price, in order to reduce the cost of private labels so that more attractive prices can be offered to customers. A good management of the place factor improves the efficiency of distribution and lowers the cost of the company. Promotion The element of Promotion was divided into sales promotion, including reduction of price, discount etc, and communication, including advertising, public relations, store design etc (Van Waterschoot et al., 1992; Davies, 1995). In sales promotion, Wal-Mart uses reduced prices to increase the sales of the inventory in order to keep a high turnover rate and release the problem of stocking of inventory. Also, as it was found that a slight change in the price will lead to great improvement of business performance in a high price-elasticity product (Driussi, 2007), Wal-Mart uses short-term discounts on particular products to stimulate the consumption of products. Concerning about the communication of Wal-Mart, with an increasing budget on advertising from $405 million in 1999 to $2.3 billion in 2008 (Norman, 2009), the brand name and the slogan of save money, live better, formerly always low prices are getting widely known, which leads to a greater awareness of public and an increase in brand equity (Keller, 1993). Also, it uses diversified advertising methods such as TV, websites and newspaper, which is crucial to the success of any advertising campaign (Scott, 2009). In addition, according to Ataman (2010), by making efforts on advertising can improve the customer loyalty to the companies, which might also be an important reason for Wal-Mart being attractive and well accepted by publics in either new or existing market. It seems that Wal-Mart focuses greatly on communication with customers and trying to get more strength of brands. However, there are still some factors that Wal-Mart needs to take into consideration. First of all, although Wal-Mart is widely accepted by the public, the public relationship and the social image from the public tell a different story. With a history of anti-union tactics and worker disputes, including an ongoing gender discrimination lawsuit (Bustillo, 2010), Wal-Mart is getting into a social issue negatively affects its social image. Society worries about Wal-Marts lacking of consideration to health, life and rights of employees. However, Wal-Mart has been trying to making efforts on its CSR while the public does not realize. It offers a better health care plan than the retail average, in which 80% of its US workers can get health coverage while only 58% for the retail sector as a whole (Bustillo et al., 2010). This phenomenon shows that Wal-Mart needs to make effort o n PR to change the biases made by the society. In addition, with a development of customer perspectives, physical environment and social cue, factors influencing customers feelings and satisfaction (Bitner, 1992; Hu et al., 2006) are getting more focused. Wal-Mart can try to collect more customers preference to the store environment such as store designing and employees behaviours in order to build a welcoming feeling to customers and serve customers better. Integration of The Marketing Mix Although each element of the marketing mix Wal-Mart focuses is analyzed, the marketing mix should be treated as a whole. An application of the marketing mix upon the business needs the coordination among departments of a company, not only marketing department, and part-time marketers who are not working for marketing department but have connect with customers need to be greatly relied on to generate and disseminate the market intelligence (Davies et al., 1995; Grà ¶nroos, 1994). It can be shown from the above analysis that the elements of the paradigm influence each other such as price and PR, supply chain and price, cost and distribution etc, and Wal-Mart controls them in a macro vision. With an interaction among the departments, Wal-Mart can get advantage in each element of the marketing mix by using resources widely and efficiently. Conclusion By analyzing the concentration of Wal-Mart upon the marketing mix, it not only treated the paradigm as a guide, but also applies it upon the strategy and management of the company. It is not unfair to say that with a proper application upon the business and a great interaction in the marketing mix, Wal-Mart gets benefit from the classic theory. The application of the marketing mix could be seen as a key positive factor of the success of Wal-Mart. However, to improve the business performance of the giant retailer according to the paradigm, some soft factors such as the flexibility of distribution, PR and consumers emotion can be concerned by Wal-Mart.

Biological Differences that Exist Between Individuals in a Population E

Biological Differences that Exist Between Individuals in a Population Physical anthropologists view humans as biological organisms. Coupled with genetics and biochemistry, scientists can form a more complete picture of human anatomy, both past and present. Physical anthropology looks at human variation and evolution. Variation looks at the biological differences that exist between individuals within a population and at individuals between populations (e.g., body shape, size, and physiological responses). These differences in human biology are measured using a technique called anthropometry 1. In order to explain this diversity, physical anthropologists look to environmental conditions (including culture) and genetics. Taking these factors into account, the anthropologist attempts to formulate an evolutionary explanation for the differences. Human evolution looks at the bodily changes that have occurred over the years leading up to modern day Homo sapiens. In order to determine the changes that have taken place in human anatomy we rely on paleoanthropology, the study of human fossil remains, and primatology, and the study of other primates 1. Paleoanthropology helps us determine who our ancestors were, and when, how and why they evolved. Primatology allows us to see the similarities and differences between other primates and ourselves and allows us to trace these evolutionary relationships. For example, such a study has determined that humans share approximately 98.6% of their DNA (their genetic code) with gorillas, 98.8% with chimpanzees and 97.6% with orangutans 2. Approaching human variation from the perspective of the anthropologist leaves a vast field of study before the world of medicine. One of the most fascinating examples of human variation is the found in albinism. The word "albinism" refers to a group of genetically inherited conditions. People with albinism have little or no pigment in the eyes, skin, and hair (or in some cases in the eyes alone). They have inherited from their parents an altered copy of genes that does not work correctly. The altered gene does not allow the body to make the usual amounts of a pigment called melanin. Approximately one in 17,000 people have one of the types of albinism. About 18,000 people in the United States are affected 3. Albinism affects people from all races. The parents of most children wit... ...ion, Scriver CR, Beaudet AL, Sly WS, Valle D (eds), McGraw-Hill, New York, pp. 4353-4392 4. Haefemeyer, JW and Knuth JL. Albinism. Journal of Opthalmic Nursing and Technology. 10:55-62. 5. Witkop, CJ Jr, Quevedo WC Jr, Fitzpatrick TB, and King RA: Albinism, in Scriver CR, Begudet AL, Sly WS and Valla D: The Metabolic Basis of Inherited Disease, ed 6. New York, McGraw Hill, 1989, p 2905-2947. 6. Lewis, Ricki (1994) Human Genetics Concepts and Applications. Wm. C. Brown Publishers. 7. O'Donnell, F.E., Green, W.R., McKusick, V.A., Forsius, H. and Eriksson, A.W.: Forsius-Eriksson syndrome: its relation to the Nettleship-Falls X-linked ocular albinism. Clin. Genet. l7: 403-408, l980. 8. Renee Skelton. Charles Darwin : Evolution by Natural Selection. New York: Barrons, 1987. 9. Angela, Piero and Alberto Angela. (1989) The Extraordinary Story of Human Origins. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. 10. Leakey, L.S.B. and Vanne Morris Goodall. (1969) Unveiling Man's Origins: Ten Decades of Thought about Human Evolution. Cambridge: Schenkman Publishing. 11. Relethford, John. (1990) The Human Species - An Introduction to Biological Anthropology. California: Mayfield Publishing.

The Impact of Training and Development on the Employees

THE IMPACT OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE EMPLOYEES OF THE INSURANCE SECTOR IN JORDAN THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY: To examine the procedures of training and development in the insurance sector and its effect on the quality of service and the degree of commitment from the employees to their organizations as it is a very essential subject since Training and Development is the framework for helping employees to develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities.The focus of all aspects of Human Resource Development is on developing the most superior workforce so that the organization and individual employees can accomplish their work goals in service to customers , All employees want to be valuable and remain competitive in the labour market at all times. This can only be achieved through employee training and development.Employees will always want to develop career-enhancing skills, which will always lead to employee motivation and retention. There is no doubt that a well-trained and developed staff will be a valuable asset to the company and thereby increasing the chances of his efficiency in discharging his or her duties, so our main focus about the practises of training and development in the insurance sector as it is a very important service sector .And to study the relationship between training and development with job satisfaction and morale among employees , inter personal relationship and customer satisfaction , employee motivation, efficiencies in processes, financial gain , capacity to adopt new technologies and methods , innovation in strategies and products , employee turnover , company image and productivity. METHODOLOGY:We are going to examine two of the most well-known companies in Jordan (Arab insurance company and Jordanian insurance company) through a qualitative research , data will be collected through a couple of interviews with some of the employees of the two companies from many managerial levels and by gathering pr imary information through literature review from recent journal papers and books. GROUP MEMBERS: * Sara khano * Bashar Kafafi * Lama Daas * Eman Khalil * Shireen Shakaa

Case Study – American Apparel

The company segmented their market to young men and women in their ass, and further targeted a niche audience of environmentally conscious consumers. The company catered to this artsy, bohemian audience who resided In hip neighborhoods of large, metropolitan cities that upheld a â€Å"hip, subversive, and degenerate† culture (Wolf, 2006). Until 2008, the company used concentrated marketing by positioning themselves as a sweatshop-free manufacturer who pays their employees fair wages and provides them health care benefits.Positioning the brand by attributes and benefits led American Apparel to became known for their ethics and sustainability. As more and more retailers attempt to be â€Å"green,† American Apparel had a harder time standing out as a company trying to be good (Hill, 2010). Charley later realized that he was limiting his sales potential by targeting a niche and wanted to go mainstream by expanding to a larger market (Walker, 2008). He decided to reposition the brand to appeal to a generation and used sex as a way to bring people closer.The new generation, as Charley puts it, is exciting, mobile, and open-minded. These are the people he wants to be in business with (Wolf, 2006). The company incorporated sex into their advertising strategy as a way to position the brand by user. Since 2008, American Apparel's promotional strategies have been focused on highly sexual images of young people in provocative poses. Their amateur models and lack of photocopying reflects their honesty by showing the models' imperfect bodies and blemished skin (Wolf, 2006). Not only do they show â€Å"real† people, they also expose nipples and pubic hair.The use of shock tactics in their sexual honesty has attracted much attention, and their openness with sex has come part of their brand image, since they have worked hard to create an Image infused with youth and sex (Chuddar, 2008). The brand's undifferentiated marketing reached more people than before and crossed all genres, including high- fashion kids, clubbers, geeks, and gays (Hill, 2010). However, their controversial advertising has received backlash and negative responses from the media, labeling the brand as -porn chic† (Giving, 2014).The company claims to not be worried, since there seems to be disconnect between how young people perceive the ads and how mainstream media reports the ads. By narrowing their brand image, many people argue that American Apparel alienates their original user base, but the company asserts that they can connect many small groups together Into a big audience (Chuddar, 2008). Their most recent ad strategy tailors to different demographics, including their use of a 62-year old model, a plus-sized model, a Bangladesh model, celebrate diversity by targeting consumers of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, and religions.Additionally, the company has gone global, establishing stores in Asia and representing the American dream (Woo, 2013). The me ssage behind their advertising envoys openness and freedom, not Just in sexuality but also for people who are normally ignored (Chuddar, 2008). Suggest a future plan: In order for a brand to grow or at least stay competitive, they can't stop presenting fresh, new advertising campaigns to consumers. In American Apparel's case, they there's also an ethical issue involved. What direction should they take with their advertising campaign?Recently, founder and CEO Charley has been fired, leaving many people wondering what's next for the company's marketing aesthetic. With Charley gone, many believe that the company should completely re- rand itself (Holland, 2014), however, the company still plans to maintain their â€Å"sexy' and â€Å"edgy' image (Walker, 2014). As fashion has evolved and sex has become mainstream, shoppers have become desensitizing and started to move on. Activist groups consider American Apparel to be pass ©, sexist, and demeaning (Walker, 2014), and according to sales, sex Just isn't selling anymore (That, 2014).Consumer reports found that sexy apparel has limited appeal and consumers have been expressing that they want comfortable clothes that can be dressed-up or dressed-down (That, 2014). Consumers want it all and sexiness limits their style. American Apparel should focus their advertising campaign on the versatility of their merchandise, thus their promotional objective should be to increase awareness of the multiple functions of their apparel to yield variableness with consumers. One of the core concepts of marketing is that it is better to maintain existing customers than trying to gain new ones.In this case, American Apparel should target the same consumers, but with a different spin. Sex still appeals to their target market, the young, 20-something men and women in metropolitan areas, but as these consumers age and their style evolves, their taste will too. The advertisements used in the past are becoming increasingly tacky, therefo re sexual ads should be more tasteful and appealing to a maturing audience. To emphasize the apparel's versatility, the brand should be positioned by product attributes and benefits.The company manufactures basic apparel that can be used in a variety of ways. The clothes can be worn alone, in layers, combined with other brands, etc. Countless looks can be created, which can communicate different styles to different types of shoppers. The versatility of these pieces produces more variety ND greater product benefits. American Apparel's major selling idea should highlight the duality of people, combining both emotional and rational advertising appeal. The company's philosophy on being sweat-shop free, Made in USA puts them at odd's ends with their overly-sexed advertisements.Since people have layers, the brand can appeal to shoppers by helping them embrace their duality. Consumers want a brand that they can emotionally connect with, brands that reflect their passion and interests (That , rational consumer looking for items with multiple uses, which translates into a good alee for their money. To execute this strategy, their advertisements should demonstrate the ease of versatility with their apparel, since demonstration advertising can be effective in highlighting product benefits.An example of this approach would be to show a model wearing an article such as a cardigan, suggesting a preppy look. She could be styled with her hair in a bun and wearing glasses. In another image, the model would be shown with her hair down and wearing the same cardigan, maybe unbuttoned, revealing her bra and her sensual side. This good-girl/bad-girl image translates the regularity of apparel to the duality of personality. In this sense, usage imagery demonstrates how the product could be used. An indirect headline can be used to provoke interest for shoppers.A headline such as â€Å"Embrace your Duality' can challenge shoppers to style themselves in different ways. The visual eleme nt from the preppy/sexy example could convey the same message if stood alone. Yet, a headline attached to the visual portion is more effective for attracting attention. The subhead for the ad would be the brand's usual â€Å"American Apparel: Sweatshop free, Made in USA† tagging, which also implies the rand's duality. The sexual imagery combined with their ethical practice demonstrates the duality in brands as well as in people.