Market Plan for Monster Energy Drink Essay

Monster Energy is an American brand of energy drink created and marketed by Hansen Natural Corporation. Monster calls itself the meanest energy drink on the planet. It’s a big hit in the United States that delivers twice the buzz of a regular energy drink. Monster’s US portfolio includes the flagship Monster and Lo-carb plus specially blended hybrid energy + juice, energy + soda, and coffee + energy products. Monster is the US 16 oz. segment leader, with sales nearly double that of the next closest 16 oz. competitor. The energy drink category to a large extent is image driven. The Monster design is aggressive without being intimidating. Monster’s proprietary energy blend is a combination of the right ingredients in the right proportion to deliver what the energy drink consumer is looking for, the â€Å"energy buzz! † For more product information, see Appendix I. Though Monster Energy is not widely advertised in the media, it receives a large amount of recognition from its sponsorship of various sporting events. Market and Competitive Analysis Energy Drink Market The energy drink category is one of the fastest growing worldwide. Sales of energy drinks are taking off in Australia, with the energy drink category being the fastest growing category in Australian convenience stores (See Appendix II). The value growth of energy drinks in the Australian convenience channel was up 22. 3% from 2006 to 2007. The Australian Market Adel? Key Competitors The Australian energy drink market is dominated by two big players. In 2006, Red Bull and V Energy held a combined 94% share of the Australian energy drinks market (ACNeilson). Recently, these two have been challenged by the relaunch of Mother Energy by Coca Cola Amtail, which claimed to have captured 12. 7% of the energy drink category in the grocery and convenience channels in mid 2008. To capture a piece of the rapidly growing industry, many new energy drinks have been introduced in the Australian market. Key competitors include Lucozade, Wild NRG, Naughty Energy, Jugular, and Hype. The competing products include similar ingredients such as caffeine, sucrose, vitamins, taurine, ginseng, and guarana. They target essentially the same group of active young people: V targets ages 18-24 and Red Bull markets to 18-29. The main product differentiation seems to be in taste and marketing. (See Appendix III for detailed competitor information). Marketing Objectives First Year 1)10% share of Australian energy drink market 2)Distribution of 60% in retail and convenience stores in Area 1 (see Appendix II) 3)Distribution of 50% in bars and fast food in Area 1 Second Year 1)Capture 5% more market share nationwide 2)Test restaurant concept: Achieve 10% distribution in restaurants in current market 3)Introduce additional flavors of Monster Energy and Monster Java – Achieve placement of new products in 50% of existing customers by year end Marketing Strategy Positioning Monster represents a lifestyle. Monster is aggressive, cool, sinister, dark, mysterious and fun. Monster is about action sports, punk rock music, partying, girls, and living life on the edge. The Monster name and design are perfectly in-tune with the category’s core consumers. The Monster brand targets 21-35 year-old males and females, who are nonconformists, independently spirited and embrace a non-traditional identity and lifestyle. Product Strategy In Australia, we will adhere to Monster’s proven image and packaging. We will begin by introducing the two best-selling flavors, the Original green and Low-Carb blue flavors. These products make up ___% of the brand’s domestic sales. The packaging will remain consistent. The cans will be black with the large Monster â€Å"M’ logo. We will start by introducing the 16-ounce aluminum cans only. We feel that the market would better accept this size than the even larger 24-ounce cans or the huge 32-ounce â€Å"BFC† cans that are also sold domestically. Because most energy drinks in Australia are sold in small 250mL cans, the 16-ounce can will be a â€Å"Monster† of a product. The large can concept has already been proven in this market by the success of the new Mother energy drink 500mL can. The package sizes offered will be cases of 24 individual cans and 4-can packs. We will advise retailers to sell the cans individually to encourage trial and as 4 packs for a slight discount. Pricing Strategy Adel Communication Strategy Monster is a viral brand that focuses on word-of-mouth communication. Very little mass communication is used domestically, and that strategy will be continued in the Australian market. Instead of purchasing television or print advertising, Monster’s promotional budget will focus on creating buzz and a strong, loyal following in the target market. We will continue the Monster strategy of sponsoring extreme sports events and athletes. We will find several more Australian athletes to sponsor, and we will focus much of our attention on the popular Australian surfing market. Monster will also emphasize product sampling. We will unveil a Monster Van and sales team that will hand out product in key markets and attend events. The van will be brimming with free product samples as well as gear such as t-shirts, hats, and stickers in order to incite buzz. To foster loyalty, Monster will create a branch of its monsterarmy. com website that will be called Monster Army Australia. The website will allow Monster fans to create profiles, share pictures of their Monster collections, discuss extreme sports, and apply for sponsorship. It will also allow the company to gauge consumer reaction to new products and strategies by using polling, surveys, and discussion forums. Lastly, Monster will try a new tactic in the Australian market to target college-aged consumers. Monster will launch a Contemporary Marketing Team that consists of 6 college students from different geographical areas. These student representatives will provide hands-on, personal marketing to their peers by attending events and handing out samples and gear. They will also be responsible for visiting bars in their area to discuss Monster mixed drink options and introduce Monster as a nightlife drink. Distribution Strategy Monster energy will create an alliance with beer distributors in Australia to facilitate the distribution. In the United States, Monster signed a distribution agreement with beer company Anheuser-Bush to move its distribution from Coca Cola. The move allowed Monster to still compete in the retail stores, but it better positioned the brands in the hands of people who have more expertise in bar and restaurant sales. This had a great effect on sales, and we want to capitalize on this from the start when moving into Australia. Marketing Research Plan Adel Action Plan The launch plan for the Australian market will take place in four-month increments. Phase 1: January – April 2009 The two base flavors (Original green and Lo-Carb blue) will be introduced Area 1 (see Appendix __). Distributors will be provided with product information, selling strategies, and giveaway items to aid in placement into retailers and bars. The Monster Van will be employed to provide immediate sampling and introduce the product directly to consumers. This will raise product awareness and help to gain distribution through a pull strategy in which consumers ask retailers to stock the product. Monster will sponsor three major junior surfing events (see Appendix __) to help introduce the brand. The events will provide an opportunity to give out free product samples, t-shirts, hats, and stickers, as well as to ask research questions to target consumers. Phase 2: May – August 2009 Monster’s internet team will launch the Monster Army Australia website for Monster fans in the new market. Cash incentives will be offered to distributors for reaching set distribution goals such as product placements, displays, and shelf space. Importantly, the second phase of distribution will begin. Area 1 will receive four new Monster flavors to sell: Monster Energy â€Å"Assault† red and â€Å"Khaos† orange, and Monster Java â€Å"Mean Bean† and â€Å"Loca Moca. â€Å" Geographic distribution will expand by introducing the base green and blue flavors to Area 2. Phase 3: September – December 2009 The Contemporary Marketing Team of college students will be launched. Six representatives from various colleges and geographic areas will be chosen to represent and market products to their peers. These students will be provided with product training and free gear. Also, a contest will be launched on the Monster Army Australia website to allow Monster drinkers to vote on their choice for the next new flavor. The contest will be advertised through signs and banners that distributors make and post in their areas. Phase 4: January – April 2010 The final phase of the introduction will expand the distribution of Monster into Area 3. General nationwide brand awareness should have been reached, so all products will be available in all areas to avoid confusion. The available products will include five flavors of Monster Energy and two flavors of Monster Java. To create your own version of this template, edit the contents of this document and then save it as a template: 4)Insert your company name and address in place of the text on the cover page by clicking once and typing. 5)On the File menu, click Save As. In the Save As Type box, choose Document Template (the filename extensions should change from . doc to . dot) and save the template. How to Create a Report. To create a report from your newly saved template, on the File menu, click New. In the New Document task pane, under Templates, click On my computer. In the Templates dialog, your updated template will appear on the General tab. (Your company information should appear in place. ) For the body of your report, use Styles such as Heading 1-5, Body Text, Block Quotation, List Bullet, and List Number from the Style control on the Formatting toolbar. How to Create Bullets and Numbered Lists ?To create a bulleted list like this, select one or more paragraphs and choose the List Bullet style from the Style drop-down list on the formatting toolbar. To create a numbered list like the numbered paragraphs above, select one or more paragraphs and choose the List Number style from the Style drop-down list. This Style—the Block Quotation—can be used for quotes, notes or paragraphs of special interest. To use the Block Quotation Style, highlight any paragraph and choose Block Quotation from the style drop-down list on the Formatting toolbar. How to Create a Table of Contents To create a Table of Contents for this report, position your cursor on the blank TOC page. From the Insert menu choose Reference, then Index and Tables. Click on the Table of Contents tab. Be sure to use the Custom Style format. More Template Tips There are four ways to view the various style names of template text: 1)Open the Styles and Formatting task pane by choosing Styles and Formatting from the Format menu. The style for the selected text shows in the pane. 2)For Normal or Outline view, from the Tools menu, choose Options. Click the View tab. In the Style Area Width box, dial up a number such as â€Å"1† and click OK. Observe the style name next to each paragraph. 3)Click on any paragraph. View the style name on the Formatting toolbar. 4)From the Format menu choose Theme, then Style Gallery. In the Preview section click on Style Samples. How to Create a Table Choose Insert from the Table menu. Be sure to choose the Professional AutoFormat if you are using a Professional style template. To modify an existing table, such as the table below, position your cursor in any cell. To modify the table, access the Table menu to select the desired action and/or result. Competitor RankingCurrent ShareShare in 3 Yrs. Largest competitor50%30% Second largest competitor25%20% Third largest competitor15%12% Table: Projected growth of competitors over 3 years. How to Edit Table Text You can edit and format table text like regular text. Simply select text and type to replace, and use the Format menu to change the font and/or paragraph attributes. How to Change a Header or Footer In Print Layout view, choose Header or Footer from the View menu. Once activated, you can change or delete the text just like regular text. When done, click Close to exit. To delete a ruling line in the Header or Footer, from the Format menu choose Borders and Shading. Choose None from the Preset section, and click OK. SOURCES: http://www. abmarketing. com/images/HandSelling/Documents/MonsterPitch_112707(1). pdf http://au. acnielsen. com/site/documents/NielsenConvenienceReport07finalLR2. pdf.

Common Core and the effects on America

Language Learners Since being introduced in 2010, forty-four States have now adopted the Common Core State Standards Initiative. This initiative provides standards in English, Language Arts and Math. Every child in a public school will be expected to meet each standard for their grade level In these areas. These standards are designed to guarantee that every child In America will be on par with each other. They use the example In their 3 minute video about a child In Seattle who has an A In his English class but would be receiving a C in a public school in Chicago(understandingCommon Core). These standards are also designed to insure that American youth are graduating high school with the ability to compete with other nation's graduates worldwide. So not only do American school children need to compete with their national peers but they are also competing on a global level (Common Core). Professor E. D Hirsch In an excerpt from his book â€Å"On Cultural Literacy† discusses h ow cultural literacy is the only way for Impoverished children to rise above their lot In life.Part of his assumptions are that every American child needs a basic foundation, such as the subjects proposed by Common Core, to be provided by the American Education system. Hirsch argues this foundation will ensure every child is culturally literate,†only by accumulation of shared symbols, and the shared information that the symbols represent, can we learn to communicate effectively with one another in our national community† (36). This statement Is based off of the assumption that all Americans speak the same language (Bezel 661). This Is simply no longer true.Between 2010-2011 there were 4. 7 million English Language Learners (ELL) in the American School system (Fast Facts). Unlike No Child left behind act, Common Core acknowledges that they cannot define and meet every need that ELLS have in order to learn the language being used by Common Core on the same level as their p eers (English Standards 6). Without going in-depth into the standards, the most accessible Information on the website Is specific on how to accommodate special needs children, but for ELLS all the standards say Is â€Å"It Is possible for every child to meet the standards†(6).This paper will address the potential effects of Common Core on ELLS, by using the proposed effects of both Common Core supporters and Common Core posers. There is a lack of public information as to how these state standards are going to affect English Language Learners (ELL), there needs to be more focus on how state standards and federal tests are going to accommodate the growing number ELLS. In 2001 the Bush administration Implemented the No Child Left Behind act. (UNCLE). Under Title Ill in UNCLE it was clearly stated how ELLS were to receive special attention.It allowed for extended time on test and occasionally for the test to be administered in the learners own language. These methods were not eff ective cause ELLS were still testing twenty to thirty percent lower than their English proficient peers. UNCLE required schools to break their students Into subgroups one testing in comparison with their English proficient peers. For ELLS the test was not only used to gauge their progress in that particular subject but also their progress in English proficiency.Not surprisingly the ELLS were doing significantly worse on their English and language arts test than on Math and Science. A glaring fault of UNCLE was that once a child began to test on the same level as their English proficient peers hey were removed from the ELL subgroup and expected to keep succeeding without the extra accommodations. These ideas were implemented without there ever being proof they would work. Abide and Tilted finish their 2004 Winter report for CREST with the statement, â€Å"For a goal to be within reach of all schools, at least one school should have already attained it.To date we have yet to see a sc hool with a sizeable ELL population that meets the 2014 UNCLE requirements†. (5) In preparation for the continued rapid growth of the ELL population, which according to a TESTS brief is errantly approximated at 6 million, Common Core broke down English proficiency expectations into four categories (4). An independent study conducted by Stanford defined the four categories are reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language (3,5-7). Reading requirements are designed to make sure students can read and comprehend complex text across all subjects.Writing standards ensure students are prepared to research, analyze and argue. The need for speaking and listening is to ensure that every student has the ability to understand and articulate orally their ideas and arguments and the arguments of others. Finally the language requirement refers to grammar; in the paper the authors students need to understand that English is â€Å"as much a craft as a set of rules†(7). This pap er argues that according to the standards, language will tie the four brackets together (7).The opposition to Common Core is that Common Core will force teachers to teach to the test. Ritual standardized testing increases pressure on students to find the right answer instead of encouraging learning and independent thought (Hawkins). According to New York City teacher Katie Alphas in a letter to Carmen Farina, ELLS articulacy in grades third through eighth are â€Å"encumbered with standardized testing. † Here is a quote from a resignation letter by former Colorado Springs English teacher Pauline Hawkins â€Å"l am supposed to help them think for themselves,†¦ Instead, the emphasis is on Common Core Standards and high stakes testing that is creating a teach to the test mentality for our teachers, and stress and anxiety for our students. † This anxiety is increased when a student is not only being tested on their comprehension of the material but also their comprehe nsion of the English language. The majority of teachers who oppose Common Core want less regular testing and a more diversified way of evaluation. Common Core is moving fast. For most teachers they are being required to rewrite curriculum to match standardized testing, which is binge implemented in some states as early as April 2014.In particular for ELLS in grades third through eighth, who have been in the country for a year or less they are allowed one exemption from a test. After that they are required to test to the level of their English proficient peers. There is an extra time allotment for ELLS UT as Katie Lymphoma states in a blob post titled Battling the High-stakes Testing Beast: from NAPE to NYSE, â€Å"the state has generously offered to give you extended time (time and a half) on the tests; instead of 90 minutes per day for six days (3 days for testing day. That's a total of 13. 5 hours! Hours upon hours of testing for a fifth grader who is working twice as hard to com prehend the test does not seem like the right answer. Lymphoma in the same post discusses how she as their teacher does not have access to the test results only the scores of her students. To summarize searchers are required to conform curriculum to the tests. The same test where they are not allowed to see which material their students failed on. The ELLS are exempt from only one test in the entirety of their schooling. During the testing ELLS could spend up to twelve plus hours a week testing.According to the association of Teaching English to Speaker of Other Languages (TESTS) and an independent Stanford Study, Common Core will present significant challenges to ELLS but will also provide an education that will offer them the same opportunities as their native English speaking peers. When Common Core was first developed English Language Proficiency Development (ELOPED) Standards were left up to the individual states. Starting in 2012 Common Core recognized that a standard for ELOP ED would need to be developed. In 2012 the Council of Chief State Officers produced a basic framework for states to use when adapting their ELL standards.They also hired the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium to prepare the assessment test prototypes. According to TESTS on testing â€Å"[the tests will] be administered by computer, both consortia are exploring technology-based accommodations, such as pop up glossaries and captions for audio. To ensure the widest accessibility to the test items† (7). By using measures such as extra glossaries and captions it should take some of the pressure off the students.Common Core firmly states that only by regular standardized tests can teachers and the rest of the education community truly understand what students are learning. The Framework for English Language Proficiency Development Standards corresponding to the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generatio n Science Standards is vividly clear in that they do not force schools to adopt a curriculum. Instead they simply provide what information students are expected to master at every grade. There is no proposed curriculum or any specific standards to guide teachers.The Framework along with Common Core has yet to address what will happen if a child can not meet the standards. UNCLE clearly defined that if a child failed, then the school would be required to use [article title] funding to provide the student the ability to travel to a school where they could get better education. Diana Rancidity in her article with the Washington Post poses the same question what will happen to students who fail. How much funding will go to provide tutoring? What will the repercussions be for teachers whose students are not meeting the standard? Will schools who consistently fail the standards be closed?These are Just some of the many unanswered questions raised by Common Core for ELLS. The Framework ans wered some questions, like which type of questions students are supposed to be able to answer by each grade, what type of thinking process they should have mastered and what kind of tests they should be able to pass. No one on either side of the issue is making light of the extra struggle the ELLS re going to have on top of the rigorous workload of an English proficient student. Those who are pro Common Core firmly state that by going through the Common workforce or further education.Whether that statement is true or not has yet to be seen. Only time and testing will prove whether Common Core is truly beneficial to ELLS. The facts state that there are approximately six million ELLS in the American public school system today. Until we have a working ELL program that has proven results it is counter productive to expect those students to perform well on the Common Core tests. The government is in the awkward middle ground of some of the information being released without enough inform ation to determine whether or not the program's success is even plausible.

ExpertSystems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

ExpertSystems - Research Paper Example based on the web consists of a case management system - a case management system is essentially a large table of actions, which come from a range of sources. The origins might include: It also has a point management system. Here, the Jonas Point of Sale system allows for the creation of an unlimited amount of menus and nested menus, grants easy access to member preferences, and even enables pre-event chit setup for quick and easy processing at a later time. All of these features and many more are made available through complete integration with the rest of your Jonas Management System. The other one is the menu management system. Here, the point management system contains four subsystems. There are employees, employer, menu suppliers, and the case management agents. Using tips issued by the employer, employees pick the menu objects given out by the menu suppliers, and utilize points in addition to money for it. Some menu suppliers get sorted by agents. The system is for assisting the human resource department in a number of ways which include: The human resource department can use the system to view and record various requests from the employees’ preferences in order to process them. The system can also provide a questionnaire such as a graphical user interface where the employees can enter data systematically, as prompted by the system. The system specification document is about the definition and development of the Benefits Cafeteria System project. The document includes the necessities for Suite Spot employees to manage personal data, authentication control and mechanism for authorization as well as managing the employees’ benefits. After the creation of the new system, the employees will be required to register with the system and create a new profile. In particular, the Benefits Cafeteria System will take control and manage the employee’s database. The use of the system will be based on the different roles of the employees, age, seniority,

Same sex marriage shoul be allowed Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Same sex marriage shoul be allowed - Essay Example There are no parts in the article that are vague or ambiguous. The writer clearly states her opinion and anchors it by using examples and evidence given by the Supreme Court, regional courts and rulings in specific states, as well as writings from the US Constitution. The source is most credible since it gives abundant proof and evidence regarding previous trials and rulings regarding to same-sex marriages and unions, as well as ones of opposite-sex marriages and conception of children, and the state of children it opposite-sex marriages as proof that they are not necessarily happy or even safe in that type of family. The article doesnt use any rhetorical devices. It is written to the point, in an interesting and fluent way. It is also very straightforward and relevant, presenting the reader with all necessary facts and opinions. The fallacies mentioned by the author are those of those who oppose same-sex marriage. She states that marriage and sex between gay people were once very prevalent and acceptable, and it wasnt until the Jewish Torah that they were banned. She also states that it is incorrect to suggest that children will not grow to be happy, healthy and safe in homes with same-sex parents, and illustrated that a staggering percentage of children who are not well taken care of come from opposite-sex homes when both parents are present (not a single parent family). Furthermore, she protests the right of religion to interfere with the institution of marriage, which is a civil right and matter. One argument made by the writer is that marriage is a civil and most basic right which should be given to anyone who so pleases. It is a declaration of a couple who wants to be together, spend their lives together in a close and intimate relationship. Seeing as how it is a basic human right, there shouldnt be a ban on it for a segment of the society. It even predates the constitution of the US as a basic right for all

Drinking Three Glasses of Coffee Every Day can Prevent Senile Dementia Essay

Drinking Three Glasses of Coffee Every Day can Prevent Senile Dementia - Essay Example Among the contents that make up coffee are antioxidants which are beneficial for the protection of the cardiovascular. According to research, this helps in reducing the susceptibility of an individual to diabetes which is one of the major hearts disease risk factor. However, coffee also increases homocysteine levels in our blood systems, which in turn have negative effects on our aorta (Chu, 2012). Generally, one would say that when a risk factor is researched, on and the negative, positive effects flip back and forth like in this case, the is safe to assume that the harm or benefit is pretty minor. Do I ever question the existence of coffee or even stopped to wonder what it contains? Of course, I have. Coffee is not a new phenomenon and is quite a popular drink among most people globally. Its popularity currently is often associated with the different popular coffee outlets such as Starbucks and Coffee Bean. As you take your coffee, do you ever stop to marvel at what exactly it is t hat your body is consuming? In the past, most people were highly pessimistic about whether coffee actually has any health benefits, but researchers finally put our doubts at rest. Most people simply take coffee in order to quench their thirst without even realizing the actual health benefits that come when one regularly takes two to three cups of coffee daily (Mendelson,2009). The image below shows a varying range of coffee available at Starbucks. The main components that make-up coffee are caffeine and antioxidants.

Music about Music as Part of Twentieth-Century Discourse Essay

Music about Music as Part of Twentieth-Century Discourse - Essay Example The essay "Music about Music as Part of Twentieth-Century Discourse" investigates modernism and postmodernism eras. This paper also discusses music about music in the context of two important eras. On top of drawing inspiration and commenting on other music, the 20th century music discourse also entailed using musical quotations from either the traditional western music or other classical non-western music. The concept of music about music also involved the dedication of some music to other musicians or to other rhythms, tunes and compositions that were formulated before, which then influenced the musician to develop their own music. Thus, through all these influences, the western music in the 20th century generally became associated with the other music in different ways. The most influential music to the western music in the 20th century was the hymnal and folk songs, due to their classical nature that could easily be incorporated into different western music genres. Therefore, thi s analysis seeks to examine the rise to prominence of the tradition of music about other music, through applying three musicians the case study. The Italian musician and composer, Luciano Berio, is one of the musicians of the 20th century, who better exemplifies the application of the concept of music about other music. Most especially, the Folk Song composition falls directly under this category of music, considering that it is a composition arrangement of music from the folk genre that were drawn from various countries.

Does Birth Control Need to Be Implemented to Limit the Population Essay

Does Birth Control Need to Be Implemented to Limit the Population - Essay Example Although some of Joy Williams’ reasoning for her argument may be true and plausible, she has overlooked some other aspects of her view that may address and prove her argument to be null and inefficient.  Williams’ main claim is that a woman’s craving for babies leads to overpopulation and can cause detrimental problems in our world. However, her argument displays the post hoc fallacy, which underscores the author’s making a mistake of placing the causes of the overpopulation merely on the increasing rate of procreation of women today. Williams notes, according to the United Nations Population Fund, that â€Å"at current growth rates, the world will double its population in forty years† (par. 8), thereby, â€Å"overpopulation poses the greatest threat to all life on earth† (par. 8). She maintains that having babies can be considered as a selfish act, with no concern for the outside world. Williams displays the red herring fallacy when she st arts talking about adoption. This has nothing to do with the subject and can be considered a side issue. Adoption is unlike giving birth and is usually done because of pre-existing circumstances. The two points – procreation rates and adoption – are linked, but do not affect one another. Women who are unable to conceive children should not be looking down upon if they choose to adopt. This is because someone has already given birth to a child – a decision that the adopter had no part of. Adoption is a good thing because it makes sure that unwanted babies are looked after and cared for by a loving parent. It is a different matter completely if someone is able to conceive and then chooses to adopt. Williams discusses a relevant point when talking about adoption. Parents usually want to adopt children who do not have any physical flaws. This is a natural thought process but it does not allow less fortunate babies to get an opportunity in life.

The Essence of Arguments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Essence of Arguments - Essay Example These rules include distinguishing the premises and conclusions, presenting the ideas in a natural order and use of reliable premises (Weston, 2009). They also entail the use of definite and concrete language, as well as consistent terms and a single meaning for the terms used. Weston also addresses common logical fallacies in the final chapter of the book including ad hominem, ad populum, ad ignorantiam and ad misericordiam. I found A Rulebook for Arguments to be very informative and thought provoking. The non-Christian bias presented when arguing the existence of God was a little distracting for me. However, the book is an excellent guide to improving ones argument strategies applicable in both personal and professional environments. Managers are in a position that requires presentation of ideas to be adopted by the workforce. Therefore, it is necessary for managers to think critically, construct a sound argument and communicate their position effectively. In addition, the book is useful to any manager who intends to improve on their argumentation skills. The book is applicable to problem-solving since it emphasizes critical

Pregnancy, Labor and Birthday Practices of Asia (India) Essay

Pregnancy, Labor and Birthday Practices of Asia (India) - Essay Example All societies have their unique labor and birthing practices and India as a society is no different. This paper will be a discussion on laboring practices of Asia, India, focusing on the role of the family and taboos before, during and after birth. With over 375 million children, India accounts for the highest population of children in the world. A majority of these are Hindus but there are other minorities such as Sikh and Muslims. According to Info Change, a non-profit organization that concentrates on sustainable development and social justice in South East Asia, about 36 percent of the population lives below poverty line. Of this percentage, women and children account for 73 percent. These may be attributed to the socio-economic conditions and Hindu beliefs that greatly influence child rearing practices in India. Along with strict rearing practices of children in India come a number of practices that are associated with its coming into the world. First of all, eating patterns of a woman are restricted (NCBI 533). This ranges from the kinds of food that she can eat to the amount that is to be taken. It is believed that when a pregnant woman eats too much, the fetus will not have room to move. This is argued by the fact that the abdomen is supposed to contain both the food and the fetus, however, in this case, the latter’s space should be given more priority. Since women from poor backgrounds are still expected to work in the farm and around the house during early months of her pregnancy, it is believed that eating a lot would make them gain excess weight that would interfere with their productivity while working. There were some directions regarding taking hot or cold foods. In Asia, pregnancy is believed to be a hot condition; therefore foods that are considered hot are restricted. The body is believed to be already out of balance and hot foods would only make the condition worse (Greene 34). Another practice that is prevalent all over India is calle d the shrimata. When a woman is in the seventh month of her pregnancy, there are special rituals that are performed and special types of sweet are given to the parents to be. This is to encourage the woman for having reached near full term with the pregnancy as well as to give her moral support. This shows the connection that the community has. They all participate in welcoming a child. During this time, the family is especially helpful. They treat the expectant woman with a lot of care and assist her with anything that she may require, ensuring that she is completely comfortable. In the Asian Indian community, the actual birth process is mostly carried out by a traditional birth attendant or other close family members. Most women prefer their mothers’ to attend to attend to them when they are giving birth (Greene 33). However, a certain percentage of Indians go to the government hospital to give birth with an even smaller percentage opting for private hospitals. Men were not allowed to get in the room where the birth was taking place or if it had occurred in the open, they were not allowed to see the birth process. After the birth, there are some rituals conducted on the child. Mothers ceremoniously plunged the infant into the river, this was meant to strengthen the child and rid them of any deforms that

Rhetorical Analysis on Jfks Speech Essay Example for Free

Rhetorical Analysis on Jfks Speech Essay On august 28, 1963, a civil right activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his most famous speech called â€Å"I Have a Dream† during the march on Washington. In his speech, Dr. King used many literary elements in order to enhance his speech. He included allusion, metaphors, personification and tropes such as anaphora, alliteration and rhetoric question. Dr. Martin Luther King began his speech with a personifications and metaphors. The first personification he used to describe what it was like to live as an African American during the 1900’s. He stated â€Å"One hundred years later the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,† which means the African American (Negro) were handcuffed by the segregation and no matter what they do or how smart they are, they will never be able to escape segregation and they are chained by the discrimination. This discrimination won’t let them do what they are capable of doing. The metaphor is used in the speech to compare the African Race to a bad check, â€Å"insufficient fund.† When the slavery ended in America, the African American hoped to cash the check of freedom, when the magnificent words flow from the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, but instead to honoring the words, American gave the African the â€Å"bad check† which eventually come back as insufficient fund. As the speech goes on, he used a paradox to show the contradiction. This quote, â€Å"I have dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:’ we hold these truths to be elf-evident: that all men are created equal,’† is a perfect example of paradox because in the constitution, its states that all men are created equal and even though the constitution is consider to be the supreme law of the land, people chose to ignore it. He used anaphora to emphasize that he dreams about, to live in American without the segregation and the hostile feeling between the White and the African American. The use of rhetoric question, help readers and listeners to think of their own answer. In the speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his own Rhetoric question and his answer to the question. â€Å"When will you be satisfied?† he asked, and he answered â€Å"we can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality,† he would never be satisfied until the African American  and White hold hands and recite the National Anthem. Adding the subtle or an obvious element can improve any piece of writing tremendously. They can give the text that hunting feeling, where the goosebumps start crawling into your skins. The elements used in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech helped the speech into becoming one of the most influential speech written in the world.

Business Plan For Fashion Designer Company Best Looks Marketing Essay

Business Plan For Fashion Designer Company Best Looks Marketing Essay This business plan will feature a fashion designer company by the name Best Looks. The paper examines some of the strategies that the company does to ensure the success of the business. Company description Our company has realized the need to come up with a sound business plan which will guide the operations of our organization towards realizing high levels of economic growth and development. Our company will be manufacturing ladies casual wear ranging from blouses and trousers. This is an area which we are fully prepared to tap in the large market based on the fact that the world has become very sensitive when it comes to fashion. Apparently, this is one of the sectors which are witnessing a lot of growth in terms of moving large volume of sales due to the fact that people are spending more on clothing especially in the developed countries. Our target market for our clothing line will be young ladies between the age of 18 and 35. This is because this is the age which is very adventurous when it comes to fashion and highly treasures fashion designs. The mechanism that our company will put in place will be to ensure that the needs of our customers are fully met and thus we will shift our previous approach to production to give more attention to production of fancy ladies wear. This will be a very new venture for our organization because previously we have been dealing with manufacturing of official wears for both men and women of all age brackets. Therefore the location of our previous company did not matter a lot as long as it is in a strategic place in terms of total population. However, for the case of our new clothing line, a number of factors will have to be considered before settling on the best location. One of such factors is proximity to the target population which in this case is the fashion conscious youth. Therefore, this rules out any possibility of situating our business in the rural areas. Another factor that we have to consider is the spending capacity of the people in the location of our business. One thing to take note of is the fact of our products will be relatively expensive due to involvement of expertise in the production process and that the materials used for production are relatively expensive. This therefore means that the consumer will have to bear the extra cost by paying high costs for the garments. Therefore taking on these factors, we have settled on Texas City as the best place to situate our business. This is an area which is characterized by a lot of young working class populations not to mention the fact that there are many colleges and universities there which still form a ready market for our products. After such various deliberations we have settled on forming Best Looks as a start-up manufacturer of a clothing line targeted for females between 18 and 35. The role of Best Looks ranges from developing the clothing line to supporting it with promotions and advertisement to command a big market share in a highly competitive market set up. In the bid to ensure that, the company plans to strengthen its partnership with the retailers who are very important to the business development through a process of developing brand awareness. Best Looks therefore intends to market its new line as an alternative to the existing ones through differentiating itself from the others. This will be achieved through among other things applying the appropriate marketing strategies, high brand awareness and exclusiveness. The key message that is carried by the Best Looks includes upscale, classy, expensive and versatile. As a result, the promotional plan of the company will be very diverse and will include quite a big range of marketing communication. Vision One of the visions of Best Looks is to become the leading fashion designer company in United States and the rest of the world. The company also intends to see itself controlling about 95% of the total market share of United States and finally venture fully to other regions of the world. Mission The main mission of the company is to bring a new revolution to the world of fashion industry but moving in line with the changing trends in tastes and preferences of the people. Therefore the company will invest heavily in the research and development of new designs which match with the needs and demand. Objectives of the company The company has the following objectives To be the leading clothing line in America in terms of production of quality products. To open the market for upcoming similar markets in terms of sensitizing the public on various fashions and dress codes. To meet the existing demands for fashion and create new markets within and outside America. To create employment opportunities in the company in the country and outside. To establish a sound networks between the company and its clients through the use of appropriate marketing strategies. To be a leading exporter of ladies designer clothes to the rest of the world. The companys development will be effected in terms of stages. We recognize the fact that all the processes cannot take place overnight and therefore there is a need to implement the development of the company in stages. The first stage will involve production of the garments such as blouses and trousers. After ensuring that those products are already in the market, we will come up with Best Look perfumes to complement our design clothing line. Again the whole process of initiating production process will take effect on a moderate pace to avoid scenarios where business ends up with compromised qualities of products as a result of not taking time in proper product development. Things such as research and development come in handy in this area. This company intends to trade its shares in the stock exchange market. This move among other things will help in building a very strong capital base through getting the public resources from sale of shares. Other than that, the company will gain popularity by virtue of trading its shares in the stock exchange market. This means that in future, advertisements and other sales promotional strategies will be directed to a population which is already aware of the company and what it does. It therefore becomes very easy for such population to be convinced into buying and this will definitely translate into very high volume of sales for the company. One of the achievements of the company is that it has managed to collect a lot of information concerning the target market and their tastes and preferences. This is of great significance as far as understanding how to approach the whole process of manufacturing, the material to use as well as design. Product plan As earlier stated, the products being offered by our company will range from ladies fancy blouses and trousers for young ladies aged between 18 and 35. By considering that the garments are for young ladies, the trousers will be designed to be very fitting, which is one of the tastes of the young people. Other than that the designs of the trousers will range from high waist to low waist to cater for specific tastes of the clients. The materials will also range from silk to linen. When it comes it comes to the designing the blouses, most of them will be low-necked as it is preferred by many young people. The blouses in particular will come in wide variety of colors since the young people seem to be extremely adventures when it comes to the use of colors. Our products have unique characteristics which make them stand out from the rest of competitors products. One of such unique characteristics emanates from the fact that the material which makes the garments is easy to manage considering the fact that it does not crease easily. This attribute makes our garments preferable for those people do lot like spending time ironing out their cloths. It is important to patent our products to block our competitors from using anything exclusive to our brand for their own competitive advantage. The name Best Looks will be patented so that there will be no other clothing line which will be legally allowed to use the name. This name will serve as our brand name and thus every piece of clothing will bear the name. For us to operate within the country smoothly, it will be imperative for our company to ensure that it fully complies with the government requirement as far as registration of the company and other basic operation requirement is concerned. Registration of the company will come first. Due to the bureaucratic nature of the process, it will be important for our company to embark on this process early enough to avoid any unnecessary delays on the stipulated day of commencement of our business operations. Our product is very relevant to the state of art in the sense that it is features in some of the most recent designs as far as fashion is concerned. However, our products may be rendered obsolete by the fact that the dressing tastes of people seem to be changing day in day out and the worst fear will be for the ladies fashion taste to shift from trousers to something like dresses. This will mean that there will be minimal sales generated by the external factors. However, this is just but an isolated market scenario. Some of the liabilities that may be involved in the rung of the company will be the bad debts. In some cases, it is very normal for businesses to supply products at an agreement for future payment. This normally works on the basis of mutual trust which in some cases can prove to be inadequate. Under such circumstances, the person or the business being supplied with the products can default to make the payment as stipulated and upon numerous fruitless follow-ups; this finally ends up being counted as a bad debt. Under such circumstances, the company will be forced to bear this liability and devise a means of compensating such losses so as not to compromise with the normal running of the business. One of the things which make our company very unique is that is goes far beyond the provision of products to establish a personal relationship with the customers. For instance having an elaborate customer care is one of the qualities that Best Looks will borrow from its affiliate company. This attribute has been reported to work for the organization in maintaining the customer loyalty. It is through customer care services that the firm has been able to establish various issues and concerns of the customers and hence design appropriate ways of addressing them for the good of both the customer and the organization. Another aspect which makes the organization unique is that it puts issues such as social responsibility in the forefront as opposed to many other organizations within the industry. The products of the company are also very unique compared to that of the competitors in terms of versatility of designs, color and the material used. This makes the customer to base her decision on of buying on a very wide variety of products. Marketing plan Understanding the target market and its dynamics is very crucial in any business development. As earlier stated, our target market includes the young people who account for the greatest percentage in the total population of the country. However, the market is segmented into two units. To start with, there is that population consisting of college students mostly aged between 18 and 25. Other than that, the market is segmented into the age group between 25 and 35 years who majority fall in the working class category. These different segments of the population have varying spending power and so do their tastes of fashion vary to some extend. With such knowledge in mind, it becomes very easy for the company to adjust towards meeting the needs of each market segment because it matters a lot to see that the customers needs are well taken care of. The profile of our target customer includes classy, elegant, and expensive outfit. As it is the case with many people who are fashion-conscious, these are attributes which add glamour to their wardrobes and this is exactly what our company will take care of. Our company expects to take command of at least 75% of the market at its initial stages and move towards about 95% as it advanced to high levels of growth and development. With such a market share, it means that the total profitability of the company is well taken care of. Competition One factor worth noting is that the level of competition in the fashion industry has been growing daily. People have recognized the potential that this industry has and every one is trying every means possible to remain highly competitive. In Texas City where our business will be located, there are quite a number of similar businesses, some which have been in operation for an extended period of time. However, locating our business there will be an advantage in the sense that customers are already aware of the fact that they can get high quality designs in Texas. Therefore, the tasks that will lie a head o f us is to make our products as distinguished as possible from that of our competitors and hence make them stand out. One of the ways through which we will be able to ensure that our products are highly distinguished is by making sure that quality remains uncompromised for all our products. For any rational consumer especially aged between 18 and 35, quality comes first. In order to ensure quality production, our company will not take chances when it comes to high qualified personnel in both production and management. On top of that, job training will be given a lot of priority to ensure that workers are equipped with the necessary skills and expertise to enable to them perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Apart from that, out company will make use a pricing strategy which will put out prices relatively lower that that of our competitors. Price in any market scenario plays a very critical role in influencing peoples decision to purchase. Again, holding the quality constant, a rational consumer will go for a product which saves him or her an extra coin opposed to the reverse. This is one of those strategies which need to be approached with a lot of care because over-effecting it can compromise with the overall profitability of the company hence render our business unable to sustain itself. Therefore one of the ways through which the company will ensure that the companys products are priced lower that those of the competitors is to utilize economies of scale. This simply means mass producing the products and hence sourcing for raw material in large quantities. By so doing, the overall production cost will reduce by a significant margin and therefore it will be safe for the company to price its products low while still operating profitably. Other that enjoying the economies of scale, our company plans to cut down on the costs of production by minimizing the costs of labor. Most of production will be capital intensive as opposed to labor intensive. Our market research that we contacted in the area revealed that most of our competitors rely on walk in customers. This means that they do not make use of various sales awareness and promotional strategies to recruit more clients. Our company will take advantage of this and make proper use of the sales promotional tools to our advantage. One of our strongest competitors includes some Chinese manufacturing industries in Texas which have been in the business for the last ten years. They are a threat to our business because for one, for them to have stayed in the market for such a long time, they must be fully equipped with the necessary information concerning the market and that can be to our disadvantage. Other than that, it may take time for our products to penetrate due to the market dominance of these companies hence compromise with our overall success. However, our competition will not be based on how long a company has been in the market but will rather be a question of how well we can meet the needs of the customers while at the same time saving them an extra coin. Those are some of the attributes which will make our company stand out from the competitors. With the effecting of such approaches, I see the competitors loosing out in two to three years to come since our market share will be too high to allow the thriving of any other business within the region. Distribution channels matter a lot in any business because it determines how well or otherwise the products are availed to the consumer. Our customers are our biggest treasures and thus we will make use of distribution channels which ensure fast delivery of the products to their proximity. Marketing strategy Our marketing plan will include a process creating awareness whole at the same time persuading customers to purchase our products. With more and more people using the internet, this will be a perfect place for us to carry out our marketing. Social networks such as face book and the twitter will be in on the frontline to tap in the market there since statistics have that the highest population there is the young people who are our target group. Using internet as one of our marketing tool will render the whole process less costly as compared to other channels of advertisement wile reaching a very large volume of customers in every part of the globe (Ford, 2007). Other than internet, our company will make use of the social media such as television. The timing in which the advertisements appear in the television is very critical and our company fully takes note of that. For instance, when the advertisement is aired in between the news broadcasting, it is likely that a very large number of people will be watching and thus meaning that it will reach a very large number of people. Therefore, it will matter a lot for us to settle on the best time to place our adverts on the television. The marketing of our products will use the most appealing photos as possible. It is important to note that the kind of material used in any advertisements plays a big role in creating the image of the product in the eyes of the consumer. Therefore our company will not take chances with this fact when designing the adverts. Our company will own many outlets throughout the Texas City and other major cities in the country. Those outlets will be fully stocked with the products. Distribution of the outlets in all major cities will save the customers the time and resources they could use in terms of traveling costs involved when the product is accessed from a centralized place. Proper display of those products in the outlets will matter a lot and is something which will be given a lot of priority in our marketing plan to ensure that the customers are presented with a good view of the products stocked in those outlets. Our marketing strategies will stretch further in the world of beauty pageants where we will be sponsoring various modeling events. Among the things which we will do is to let the beauty pageants model various clothes from our clothing line. This will not only be a perfect opportunity for us to popularize our various designs but will also be a good opportunity for our customers to sample each individual design based on how it comes out when worn by the models. The many institutions of learning around Texas City form a very good avenue for marketing our products through the beauty pageants since such activities are quite prevalent there. Being Part of the social responsibility is an avenue for marketing our products. Social responsibility simply means taking part in the community activities that directly touch on the life of people. For instance, sponsoring a walk to raise money to aid some people who are starving in some countries in the world is just but an example of being a part and parcel of social responsibility. Through being part of the social responsibility, our company will get in touch with the customers at the grassroots not to mention the fact that it will build its image and brand personality. The social responsibility on our organization will be not be limited only to taking part in the events that touch on our target population but will be rather focus on all social realms and focus on circumstances faced by the society at large. Our marketing plan will work beyond geographic boundaries to serve customers in almost every part of the world. According to a research that we previously conducted, it is quite evident that there is a ready market for our products in other parts of the globe which is untapped. It is one of our objectives to go international and expand our client base. So far our company has identified a market in some African countries such as South Africa and Kenya. It therefore means that the supplies of our products will extent further to meet the international demand. In order to ensure that we remain profitable, we will be exporting in bulk and use cheapest options of transport such as ships. This will cut down our operating costs significantly hence make our products fairly affordable to the consumer. When it comes to selling, special skills will be needed. First and foremost, it would be important to equip those who are dealing directly with the customers with crucial knowledge on how best to handle them. This will include listening to their concerns and assisting them where possible in the move towards building a good relationship with them which is very crucial in our business success. Our company fully appreciates the input of our sales force since they are the back bone of our business. It is for this reason that our company will come up with sound remuneration scales as a way of motivating them towards realization of the goals and objectives of the organization. The significance of motivating employees in any institution cannot be overemphasized since its direct relationship with job performance is very evident. Apart from the remuneration package, our company will provide a supporting environment to nurture and grow the potential each individual employee in which capacity he or she serves. Therefore, it will be duty of the people in the top management positions to help effect this aspect. As I had earlier stated, our business just as many other in various industries cannot avoid advancing credit facilities to its clients from time to time. However, this should be done in a lot of moderation and skepticism as well. Our company will first and foremost carry out a thorough evaluation of credit worthiness of our clients to avoid landing our self in bad bets. The financial position in case of corporate client will also be of great significance in settling on the decision on where to advance credit facilities or not. This information can be obtained from analyzing the accounting records of the client. On top of that, our company will ensure that it avoids long term debts since most of them end up being bad ones (Thomas, 2001). Too many debts can pull down our company and that is why it would be imperative for the business to take this issue seriously and make rational decisions. To follow up our debts, we will engage debt collectors to do it on our behalf. This will help in protecting our relationship with customers since the debt collectors will literally do everything as far as ensuring that our debtors pay. Dealing with the customers directly in this case would make our relationship to be compromised and it can in turn affect our business. Today, almost every organization appreciates the importance of employing marketing strategies in the effort to boost sales. This is a factor that my competitors are taking seriously. This is therefore a shared approach to business between our company and our competitors. However, what varies is the application of varying marketing strategies. It is the nature of many businesses to experience seasonal peaks. This is the time when the business is highly booming and its during that time an organization can maximize on its profits. Therefore, the business should strategize itself into tapping in the increased business and translating it into high profit margins. For the case of our business, seasonal peaks are experienced during the summer. At this period, people can feel free to adventure with fashions w since the weather conditions permit so. Considering the material making our clothes, it is obvious that such clothing is only suitable for a relatively warm weather conditions. Management Plan The management team will be mandated to run the organization. It is this team that has greatest role to play in the success of the business. In the organization, team work will be highly emphasized because this will result into working towards realizing a common goal. The hierarchy of management consists of the managing director to unit managers. It will be the duty and responsibility of each manager to ensure that the people working under him or her embrace the policies of hard work towards the organizational devolvement. The manager will also be responsible for motivating the workers from time to time to boost their productivity. Therefore one of the basic qualities of the managers will be their ability to exhibit high levels of leadership skills Other than that, education background will matter since a lot of emphasis will be placed on people with adequate training in management related courses because we believe that such people will be well equipped with the necessary knowledge to enable them to take up the roles of managers within the company. At the moment there are quite a number of vacant positions which need to be filled as soon as possible for the business operations to kick start. Below is a table showing the vacant position and the respective annual packages Vacant position Annual package in USD Operations manager 120,000 Branch manager 170,000 Production manager 120,000 Marketing manager 140,000 Quality control manager 160,000 Though the supervisors may not fall under managers, their roles cannot be overlooked. Our company will recruit about five supervisors to help oversee various processes within the organization. Their annual package will range from 50000 to 70,000 US depending on their scope of duties. Employee motivation will be one of our key values to embrace. This will be done through carrying out performance appraisals to rank each individual employee accordingly depending on how they perform their duties. The employees ranked highest will be rewarded as a way of motivating them. This will also be a challenge for others to emulate the ones who are awarded hence bringing competition within the organization. This will work to the advantage of the company since every employee will be striving towards improved performance. The personnel will not be left out either when it comes to motivation. It is obvious that personnel who are not motivated cannot afford to motivate his or her subordinates. They should therefore be motivated from time to time to enable them perform their duties well. Training of employees remains very central in any organization. Our company values employee training a lot and as a result, the company has allocated a considerable portion of its budge towards trai ning the employees. Through this, the employees will be equipped with the necessary knowledge as pertaing to their duties within the organization. The Company will outsource training managers from some of the most highly reputable organizations in the country to impart the appropriate knowledge to the employees. The issue of employee training will be made from time to time; that is, there should be at least a training session once after every two weeks. The management team will be responsible for organizing these training. It is the duty of the human resource manager in collaboration with the other relevant managers to assess the performance f the employees for the purposes of appraisal. For instance, a marketing manager will be better placed to rank a person in the sales team. Subcontracting will help our organization save on the costs of recruiting and training personnel to fill in various positions. Our company will therefore make use of this in various production activities. For instance during the peak season when the business is booming, we will sub-contract people to form our workforce. This will supply the extra labor required to cater for the production towards meeting the extra demand. It will be the duty of the quality control manager to ensure that substandard products do not find their way not the market since this would compromise with the standard we want to set in the market. Operating Plan As we have earlier stated, we will make use of subcontracting in the production process. This will cut down on operating costs by some margin and also ensure high production since we will see to subcontract people with a good record of performance. The production process will require the use of various machines and equipment. It means that the company will have to invest a lot in the state of the art equipment to guarantee better quality. Some of the equipment will be source from abroad. It will therefore call for specialized people to operate these equipments and this is where the significance of training comes out clearly. Inventory control is very important because a situation where the rate at which the products are made is far much higher than the rate at which they are distributed can result into pilling a lot of stock for such a long time, something which can compromise with the quality with time. The environment in which our business is situated has both positive and negative impacts. First, most people in the area are every fashion conscious and therefore it will not take much time for people to start appreciating our new fancy designs. Another advantage is that people have very high purchasing power and this translates into moving high volume of sales. As for the disadvantages, the weather conditions here get so chilly sometimes thus discouraging people from wearing our designs (Berry, 2008). Financial Plan In our financial projections, we will assume that all factors will work in favor of our business and that we will be able to operate profitably. The projected revenues for the first three months will be estimated at 5000,000 dollars per month. However, we plan to keep our expenses at minimal levels as possible to be in a position to maximize out profits , for instance this is a breakdown of some of the consist that we will incur in the first month of production. Cost of raw materials 500,000 Wages and salaries 1,000,000 Cost of marketing 500,000 Fuel costs 500,000 Total 2,500,000 Therefore the profits fro the first month will stand at 2,500,000 dollars. i.e. profit = total revenue -total cost =5,000, 000-2,500,000 = 2, 500,000 dollars Our business will try as much as possible to stay away from funding its operations from debts. This is because debts come with a very high cost in terms of interest rates. Therefore most of the operations will be funded from equity. Legal Plan The business will operate like a limited company. This will mean that the liabilities of the company will be limited. This form of business has a number of advantages. With limited companies, we can decide to list our shares in the stock market to boost our equity. Other than that, each shareholder is entitled to particular shares of the organization depending on his or her contribution. Our company works in collabora

Does The Supreme Court Abuse Its Power? Essay -- Politics Political Es

Does The Supreme Court Abuse Its Power? There have been many complaints and theories of how the Supreme Court has a tendency to act as a "supra-legislature" (Woll 153). It is proposed that the Supreme Court takes the power to make laws and set policies which rightfully belongs to the Congress and state legislatures. They state that Justices exceed their authorized powers of judicial review and read their own opinions and views into the Constitution and are in fact "politicians in robes" (Woll 533, Sheldon xi). Alexander Hamilton's definiton of the Supreme Court's power of judicial review was argued in Federalist No. 78. He states that the main purpose of this power is a check ont he legislature where the Supreme Court is an "excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of therepresentative body ... to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the laws." He also gives the Supreme Court the power to rule on state laws by judging them against the Constitution: "But the act of an original and superior authority takes precedence over that of a derivative and subordinate one, and so judges must adhere to the Constitution before a statute" (Wolfe 74-75). Hamilton sets the power definition of the Court with those lines. Many feel that the fears of the Court taking power from the legislative and executive branches are unfounded on the basis that the Court is too weak to do so. Hamilton argued that since that it was dependent upon the executive for the enforcement of its decisions and had to be wary of the legislative check of impeachment, there could not be any "series of deliberate usurpations" of power (Wolfe 76). They are also limited in that they cannot initiate l... ... McKenna, George and Stanley Feingold, eds. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Political Issues. Fifth Ed. Guilford, Connecticut: Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1987. Press, Aric and Ann McDaniel. "Where Bork Stands." Newsweek 14 Sept. 1987: 24-34. Sheldon, Charles H. The Supreme Court: Politicians in Robes. London: Glencoe Press, 1970. Taylor, Stuart, Jr. "Bork's Colleagues Like the Man, Not His Thinking: Yale Friends Look Back at Top Court Pick." Gazette Telegraph [Colorado Springs, CO] 13 Sept. 1987: A7. Wolfe, Christopher. The Rise of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation to Judge-Made Law. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1986. Woll, Peter. American Government: Readings and Cases. Ninth Ed. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1987. Transcribed to HTML on 1997-09-29 by David Wallace Croft.

The Humanization of Modern-Day Film Vampires Essay -- Movies

The Humanization of Modern-Day Film Vampires His thirsts have not changed. He craves the taste of blood, the warm, life-sustaining liquid that flows so gently from the necks of his victims into his own foul mouth. He continues to hunt in the night, cursed forever from the purity of sunlight, and his immortal body still remains ageless, untouched by the rugged sands of time and trauma. Yet somehow the vampire is different than he once was. He is richer, more human in color. His clothes are no longer binding and elaborate as the capes and suits of old; he often opts for simple denim or leather pants and coats. In fact, the modern vampire can often be mistaken for any other man or woman out for a midnight stroll. These observations all show evidence of the humanization of vampires in pop culture, an evolution from the soulless, purely evil animals they once were to merely darker versions of man. As humans struggle to control their own inner desires under the burden of society, increasingly protagonist vampires question and fi ght to suppress their own dark thirsts. It is this denial of nature unknown to the strictly evil vampires of old that identifies the modern-day film vampires more closely with their human counterparts today. Vampires, in retrospect, weren’t always the socially in-tune creatures that they are today. For what reasons did these changes occur? According to social critic I.C. Jarvie, â€Å"if we look again at the movie past . . . we find that the critical posture, the portrayal of society, has long been an important subtradition of the American cinema† (Social Criticism xiii). Thus, if we refer back to some of the earliest vampire films, we might receive some clues about the nature of the society that bir... ...to pursue it. As Benjamin Hoff remarks in the Tao of Pooh, â€Å"when you know and respect your own Inner Nature, you know where you belong† (41). Perhaps, in modeling what were once seen as beasts after us, we are learning to accept rather than shun our own primitive natures. Our place in the world is as creatures that are human. Works Cited Day, William Patrick. Vampire Legends in Contemporary American Culture. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. Hoff, Benjamin. The Tao of Pooh. New York: Penguin Books 1982. I.C. Jarvie. Movies and Society. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1970. I.C. Jarvie. Movies as Social Criticism. Metuchen: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978. Ursini, James and Alain Silver. The Vampire Film. Cranbury: A.S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1975 Waller, Gregory A. The Living and the Undead. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986.

Affirmative Action Essay -- Affirmative Action Essays

After the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, it became apparent that certain business traditions, such as seniority status and aptitude tests, prevented total equality in employment. Then President, Lyndon B. Johnson, decided something needed to be done to remedy these flaws. On September 24, 1965, he issued Executive Order #11246 at Howard University that required federal contractors â€Å"to take Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed . . . without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin (Civil Rights).† With the signing of that order, and without knowing it, President Johnson created reverse discrimination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Affirmative Action was created in an effort to help minorities leap the discriminative barriers that were ever so present when the bill was first enacted, in 1965. At this time, the country was in the wake of nationwide civil- rights demonstrations, and racial tension was at an all time high. Most of the corporate executive and managerial positions were occupied by White Males, who controlled the hiring and firing of employees. The U.S. government, in 1965, believed that these employers were discriminating against Minorities and believed that there was no better time than the present to bring about change. This action, that started with good intentions, would later lead to a different and more complex form of discrimination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When the Civil Rights Law passed, Minorities, especially African- Americans, believed that they should receive retribution for the earlier years of discrimination they endured. The government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering their race endured at the hands of the White Man. To many people the passing of these laws was an effort in the right direction. Supporters of Affirmative Action asked, †why not let the government help them get better jobs?† After all, the White Man was responsible for their suffering. While this may all be true, there is another question to be asked. Are we truly responsible for the years of persecution that the African Americans and other Minorities were submitted to? I am not so sure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is true that past generations of White Men are p... ..., and other policies benefiting families with young children. Widely supported programs that promote the interests of both lower and middle class Americans that deliver benefits to Minorities and Whites on the basis of their economic status, and not their race or ethnicity, will do more to reduce Minority poverty than the current, narrowly based, poorly supported policies that single out Minority groups. However, if this, or another remedy is not taken sometime in the near future, and Affirmative Action continues to separate Minority groups from Whites, we can be sure to see racial tension reach points that our history has never seen. Works Cited â€Å"Affirmative Action at the University of California at Berkeley† Online. http://pwa.acusd.edu/~e_cook/ucb-95.html â€Å"Civil Rights† Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia. (1996). [Computer Program] SoftKey Multimedia International Corporation. United States. Commission on Civil Rights. Affirmative Action in the 1980's: Dismantling the Process of Discrimination. Washington: 1981. United States. Nebraska Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Private Sector Affirmative Action: Omaha. Washington: 1979.

Poetry is a vast genre of literature that is used to express emotions, feelings and ideas

With reference to the poems of Antonio Machado, Juan Ramin Jiminez, and Federico Garcia Lorca studied in the course, discuss the uses of poetry and the ways in which the three writers exploit this medium Poetry is a vast genre of literature that is used to express emotions, feelings and ideas. Every writer has different reasons for expressing their ideas through this medium. Antonio Machado, Juan Ramin Jiminez and Federico Garcia Lorca were all Spanish poets who lived around the same era. Does this mean their uses of poetry were the same? Did they write poems for the same reasons? In order to discuss how they have used poetry it is necessary to understand their poems in more detail. At first glance it seems that Antonio Machado explores nature and the beauty of it in his poetry. In his poem Crepisculo Machado describes a nature scene. Although he doesn't use the first person, it is clear from the content that the poem is implicitly about him. He has therefore, used nature to mirror himself. The cold images of stone and marble in the poem, like the statue of Cupid, communicate a lack of expression on the poet's part. With Cupid having connotations of love and with the statue being constructed from stone it is possible to say that Machado finds it difficult to express love. Antonio Machado, in this respect, has exploited the medium, with nature as a main theme, to reflect himself to the reader. In displaying his lack of love through poetry, he is able to get across exactly what he wants to say by emphasising aspects with repetition, rhyme and other stylistic features. Writing his feelings in prose, for Machado, would not have had the same effect. Another example of Machado using nature to describe himself is in his poem A Un Olmo Seco. He fears that his life is near to its end like that of the tree and he only has hope left. Here, Machado is using poetry to express anxiety and concern about the ending of his life. The descriptions which he writes about the tree are descriptions of how he sees himself in relation to life in general. In this way, he is using poetry to put across his worries and to tell people about how he sees himself in comparison to nature. Machado's poem El Limonero, however, is not, on the surface, a description about nature but a search for something. The poet tries to recall an innocent childhood illusion in which he attempted to pick up some fruit out of some water and then discovered that it was merely a reflection. Machado communicates the difficulty in finding the illusion he remembers from childhood, with a contrast between heart and mind -he knows he won't find it again but he still has hopes. This can be related to A Un Olmo Seco when he hopes for another ‘milagro de primavera'1 (miracle of spring). Poetry has been employed by Antonio Machado to illustrate his despondency on aging and on realising that things aren't what they used to be. El Limonero describes how the happiness and simplicity of being a child can never be regained. Poetry is a good way of expressing deep feelings and emotions because it can be adapted in ways that prose cannot. The letter form and use of the informal second person of the poem A Josi Mario Palacio tells the reader that this is a poem written to a friend. Machado is asking his friend whether spring has arrived and mentions typical spring-time occurrences. He introduces a third party with the use of â€Å"su† and it is later revealed that the poet is talking about the death of his wife. After reading A Josi Mario Palacio it could be said that the hopelessness he feels in A Un Olmo Seco is because of the death of his wife and the anxieties about his own life. Machado has used poetry to project grief out of himself onto nature without showing self pity. In writing this, he may have been able to come to terms with his emotions. For Machado, poetry is used to say things that he feels cannot be expressed in another way. Poetry and can be used when prose and normal word patterns are unable to put across the idea or feeling in the desired way. Unlike Machado, however, Jiminez uses poetry to illustrate his outlook on the mysteries of life. His poem El Nombre is directed to the intelligence and the brain. Jiminez feels the necessity to write something and asks his intelligence for the name of things. Poetry is being used by Jiminez to communicate the difficulties in language and expression. He describes the complexity in communicating a feeling to a reader. Like the poems of Machado, Jiminez has used poetry to overcome the difficulties of conveying an idea. irboles Hombres, nevertheless, is written in the form of a traditional ballad. The subject of this poem is the impermanence of human life. It is a story about a man who goes into a wood and hears the trees talking. They talk about him and think he's a tree too. Jiminez is describing the brevity of human life in comparison to the seemed permanence of nature; he is saying how human life is temporary. The trees existed before, and will exist after his life. Jiminez has, in this sense, used poetry to communicate his views about human existence in comparison to nature, which has existed since the beginning of time. Jiminez can be described as a mystic poet despite him being agnostic. In some ways he uses language poetically to develop the idea of a mystic God. This can be seen in the poem Soy Animal de Fondo. Jiminez explores the connection between material and immaterial. For example, feelings of warmth from the sun are not material even though the sun itself is. The poem, like El Nombre, recalls a search but this time it is for God. There is a progression throughout the poem to the realisation that God was there all along. Poetry, here, is used to explain that life is beyond material even though people only realise it when they are taken away from the material world. Jiminez has made use of poetry to recall the search about the unknown consciousness that the material world hides. The poetry of Jiminez is about subjects related to his life and it has been said that ‘vida y poesia son una y la misma cosa'2 (life and poetry are one and the same thing) for Jiminez. This indicates that he uses poetry, like Machado, to reflect himself and his personality. In the case of Federico Garcia Lorca, poetry is often applied to express feelings of marginalisation within society. Being homosexual Lorca was subject to persecution for not conforming to the expectations of the society in which he lived. In his ballads Lorca uses gypsies to express the exclusion he felt during his life. Gypsies were, like Lorca, considered to be outsiders and they too were not respected. In his ballad Romance de la Luna, Luna Lorca explores a scene about a gypsy boy who is ill and feels persecuted by the moon. He explains the interpretation of the death of a child from an uncivilised and unscientific mind. The gypsies can accept that the moon was the cause of death, because to their minds it is plausible. Civilised society cannot accept this idea and so gypsies, like Lorca were labelled as outsiders. With poetry Lorca can express the ostracism he felt without making a direct statement. Poetry works better than prose in this respect because Lorca can make use of imagery and symbolism to convey his idea. Another gypsy ballad written by Lorca is Preciosa y el Aire. The wind tries to abduct a gypsy girl, who is playing a tambourine. The wind represents the sexual impulse of nature and Preciosa sees it as a threat. Her primitive impulse tells her she is in danger but when she goes into the civilised world, i. e. the English consul's house, her experience is oppressed. Poetry has been used here to show the sense of exclusion that Lorca feels exists in society for those who step out of the norm. He is telling his readers about the feelings of persecution that existed in his life through the form of another equally mistreated figure in society. Romance Sonimbulo is again from Lorca's book Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads) and is about an injured man seeking refuge at a gypsy dwelling. A gypsy girl has been waiting for him for so long that she's given up and killed herself. Lorca has used surrealism within his poetry by placing words in a non realist order. This form is used to describe the difference between the civilised, realist life and the somewhat surreal, gypsy life. There is also a reoccurrence of the colour green. Green has positive and, especially in Spain, negative connotations. For example green can signify nature and life but also rotten fruit. In Spain it can also indicate sexual perversion, in the case of ‘un hombre verde' meaning ‘a dirty old man'. The repetition of green could be said to be telling the reader about Lorca's ‘own libidinal tendency towards the forbidden fruit'3; this meaning his homosexuality. From all 3 poems it can be said that: Sexuality (†¦ is the subjective nub (†¦ ) where the violent context of ostracism and persecution (†¦ ) may be seen as a projection of the poet's inner anxiety. 4 Lorca has used language and poetry in his work, not only to express marginalisation, but also to show how his sexuality is perceived by society. From his judgment homosexuality is perceived as verde. All three poets and their work can be related and linked to each other. They all use poetry for personal reasons and convey their individual ideas through it. They use many devices within their poems to help put across meaning, for example, with the use of nature and gypsies. For writers, poetry is a tool to be exploited because there are no rules. Poets can make up the rules of what they write and in this can add to the affect that the poems have on a reader. Machado, Jiminez and Lorca have exploited poetry to their own means and used it for individual reasons. They have all used nature, in some way, to help their poetry have the desired effect or meaning. Lorca uses a more traditional form of poetry, the ballad, as it would have been very familiar to readers and so would be able to convey the exact idea that he wanted. The main and most common use of poetry between all three poets is the need to express a feeling, whether it is anxiety, absence or an opinion. In writing their poems, the poets have reflected themselves and revealed their outlooks on life. They have used this medium as a language tool to convey exactly their feelings, opinions and beliefs; the sort of ideas where prose will not suffice. Poetry is used by writers like Machado, Jiminez and Lorca because it can get across a meaning and can appeal to emotions in ways that other literature forms cannot. Imagery and symbolism are a big part of poetry and help writers put across detailed ideas. It is difficult to get across a subtle and implicit meaning with the use of prose and this is a reason why some of the poets have used this medium. Furthermore, poetry is an art that can communicate the beauty of ideas, scenes and thoughts and it has the power to describe a subject or tell a story effectively. For Machado, Jiminez and Lorca poetry is simply a way of escaping the normality and mundane routine of everyday life as they express their ideas through this medium.

Critical Thinking and Ethics Essay

Critical thinking entails the ability to think clearly and rationally. The reason is that even though the conclusion may seem logical every individual has different ethics. For instance, if an individual needs a job in order to acquire money quickly, then it makes sense to do is needed to make the most money the quickest. Let us say the logical job would be to obtain and sell scrap copper because the one can make a large amount of money in a little amount of time. While another individual may say this is a logical way to make money quickly, ethically it is wrong. Critical thinking is one’s form of judgment that has a particular purpose and reflective judgment. When individuals use critical thinking, one reaches a decision or solves an issue. Reaching this conclusion and judging what to believe or what to do in a thoughtful way. Critical thinking is a tool that individuals can use to evaluate incoming information. Critical thinking is being able to learn new material with an open mind and having a heightened level of self-awareness of our biases and how our biases impact the analysis of information. Business ethics are very important when solving moral problems in a business is concerned. I do believe critical thinking can be at odds with moral decision making. One should be good simply because only what is good is to be done. Being good often brings a reward in a way or the other but it is not always the case. This is why sets of rules known as ethics have been created. Critical thinking entails the ability to think clearly and rationally.

PROBLEM SET Monetary policy Essay

1. What impact will an unanticipated increase in the money supply have on the real interest rate, real output, and employment in the short run? How will expansionary monetary policy affect these factors in the long run? Explain. The money supply in an economy is the benchmark by which interest rates are determined. The supply of money is directly tied into the amount of money that can be loaned and borrowed in various capacities. The more money there is to loan, the less â€Å"expensive† it is to borrow that money. This is because when there is an increase in the money supply, the demand for that money fluctuates as well. This causes an increase in the overall amount of money being exchanged, and in turn, also causes a decrease in the real interest rate. The decrease in the interest rate also affects the economic appeal of domestically produced goods and services. This causes increased economic activity and the increase of real output because of that activity. When output increases, economic theory says that employers will typically need to hire more workers in order to handle their increased sales and output. However, this may not be the case in todays modern economy because modern businesses’ potential output are not directly proportional to their workforce. The long run economic impact depends on whether or not the unexpected short run money supply increase is permanent or not. If the money supply increase is permanent, then the short run effects mentioned above will drive the output of the economy above where it naturally should be. If the Fed decided to implement an Expansionary monetary policy to counteract this increase in the money supply then it would most likely try to reduce interest rates. This type of monetary stimulus affects the interest rates in the short term. This can eventually lead to long term economic change based on short term economic change being as the Fed intended. Expansionary policies are meant to push the economy towards full employment and spur economic growth. This means that if the policy is not closely monitored, or not removed at the right time, it can cause inflation, and thereby increase interest rates in the long run. 2. How rapidly has the money supply (M1) grown during the past twelve months? State the rate of growth (use http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h6/) and the most recent release, use the seasonally adjusted figures. Calculate the rate of growth across the year by taking the (new amount of M1- old amount of M1)/old amount of M1). Given the state of the economy, should monetary authorities increase or decrease the growth rate of money? Explain why. The M1 money supply grew by a rate of 8.86%. This is based on the Jan 2014 M1 supply number of 2,683.0 billion, and Jan 2013 number of 2,464.5 billion. This indicates a healthy growth rate of the economy and the M1 money supply. According to the reports issued by the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, Unemployment is decreasing, and inflation is remaining within their intended constraints. The Fed is currently maintaining policies to keep the growth rate of the M1 money supply in check. If the money supply were to increase at a more rapid rate, than it is likely that inflation would also increase. 3. Is stability in the general level of prices through time important? Why or why not? Should price stability be the goal of monetary policy? Explain your responses. Price stability in an economy is an essential quality for sustained growth. It is one of the key aspects that investors, both domestic and foreign, look at to determine whether or not to invest in the economy. If the price is unstable, than investors, especially foreign investors, do not see the economy as stable enough to risk their money in, and therefore invest elsewhere. This obviously is lost economic activity that can cause ripple effects across the market. When the general price level is stable however, the economy becomes appealing to investors, and causes them to spend their money in the market. This confidence that investors gain is a huge asset to economic growth and development. When people and businesses are confident that their money is going to be put to good use, they are much more likely to spend it. Domestically, price stability is important for the government,  and the Fed to be able to maintain fiscal policies. The Central Bank is also affected by the stability of prices when it makes monetary adjustments and investments. Therefore, it is vital for the Fed to monitor and attempt to stabilize prices as much as possible. 4. Compare and contrast the impact of an unexpected shift to a more expansionary monetary policy under rational and adaptive expectations. Are the implications of the two theories different in the short run? Are the long-run implications different? Explain. When monetary policy is created, there are 2 popular theories that guide the actions of decision makers. One of these policies is Rational Expectations. The theory of Rational Expectations is based on the presumption that the economic future of a market can be systematically predicted based on hypothesis and rational thought. This is the most widely used theory by today’s economic analysts and decision makers at the Fed. The second theory is Adaptive expectations. This theory is based on the idea that to predict an economy’s future, one has to analyze its past. The Impact of an unexpected shift to a more expansionary monetary policy under adaptive expectations will temporarily stimulate output and employment. Under Rational expectations, the same situation would result in little to no change in output.