Marketing Case Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Case - Research Paper Example Primary aim of marketing is to understand, attract, communicate, and to maintain relationship with the target audience and hence, marketing is useful for the task where target consumers are important. This paper will attempt to frame a set of plausible marketing strategy for Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) for attracting large of visitors including domestic and foreigners. This is the national museum of Canada to be established by the Canadian Government. Currently, this museum is under construction, and the task for establishment was started from August 10, 2008 after the Parliamentary amendments of Museum Act on March 13, 2008. It is supposed to open from 2012 and will aim to offer the world a platform for engaging in discussions about serious issues like hate, oppression and suppression (Canadian Museum for Human Rights-a, 2010). The marketing activity for CMHR is communicating with the target audience for promoting its value and for understanding of human rights. This wil l help it to meet the commitments of Canadian Government to support â€Å"democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law† (Canadian Museum for Human Rights-b, 2010). SWOT Analysis Strengths The biggest strength of the museum lies in its location based advantages. Canada being one of the developed nations, adds to the popularity of the museum. It also helps in garnering funds as the government has provided full support for the museum. Another major strength of the organization is the unique concept by which the museum has been conceptualized. The noble and unique nature of the museum helps in increasing the awareness of the individual’s on the aspect of human rights (Canadian Museum for Human Rights-a, 2010). The uniqueness of the museum also lies in its innovative, interactive and high technology environment that would enable interactions such as debates with regard to human rights. Any person can submit his/her story about human rights violations and the museum would provide a platform for sharing it across the globe (Krell, 2009, p.50). Weakness Lack of awareness about the concept of the museum amongst the target audience seems to be the most formidable weakness of the museum. This lack of awareness leads to generation of considerable weakness as people may not be aware of the museum. This would hamper the very basic intention of setting up the museum. Opportunities Being located in a developed nation and set up with a noble and unique concept generates large scale opportunity for the museum to draw visitors. The museum also provides opportunity for individuals to highlight their stories about human rights violations to showcase their problems on a global platform. Human rights violations form one of the most burning issues and there have been numerous issues of human rights violations which remain unreported due to lack of a proper platform. The museum with its unique concept would help in generating large scale opportunities that would help in drawing large crowds and make it a success story. Threats There have been certain controversies regarding the site of the project as many claim it as a land that has historical significance and building a structure over it

Strategic management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 7

Strategic management - Essay Example Strategic planning helps in formulating the business approach to a context. As shown in figures 1 and 2, it is seen that the strategy stems out of the context which influences the strategy and the actions that lead to a solution on the strategy and finally, provides the results which in turn leads to altering the context. The strategy should get altered based on the change in the context thus altered. Strategies are worked out using various tools. One of the oldest methods involved using the SWOT analysis for bringing out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the Threats perceived by the company and the business2. The strategy would primarily enhance and capitalise on the strengths of the company for tapping the opportunities and to counter the threats perceived while at the same time would offset the weaknesses perceived. This would help the company to realise its objectives of enhancing the profitability of the company. Porter’s Five Forces helped the strategists to model the environment and the business is positioned in it to understand the effect of the environment. This was perceived to have been made up of the five forces that Porter projected. He further qualifies some of the approaches to strategy as generic. There are three types of generic strategies that are used by companies, employing the common economic forces that are in play in the market. These are: Cost Leadership by providing the best cost for a product or a service, product differentiation and thereby commanding higher prices and finally, identifying its own niche products for a specific product-segment thereby monopolising the entire business for that product or at least dominating it. While these strategies help the company to move forward, without a basic strategy the company stutters. As can be seen from the figure 2, the markets are created by companies which fall under any one of the strategies depicted in it, either consciously or otherwise. The perfect competition would

Management Under Uncertainly Essay Example for Free

Management Under Uncertainly Essay I had been in Target as a temporary worker and one decision made by the manager left a deep impression on me. As one of the largest retail stores in Australia, Target can be found in the shopping centre of most area. The store I had worked is located in Leichhardt which had the expectancy was achieving a sales budget of $ 50,000 per day, and then the net profit would reach $6000. In order to make the expectation into reality, the manager of Target Leichhardt store from the point of view of cost savings decided to cut the shifts of employees. Originally, one shift had four cashiers, but now reduced to two cashiers. In addition, the manger made a decision to no longer use customer greeters. In Target store, the duty of greeter is not only greet customers into the store, but also check the bags of customers to avoid theft when they leave. The manager decided to reduce shift because he found this is a kind of waste when the store is not busy. On the other hand, he thought the customer greeter looks like a decoration because the phenomenon of pilferage was rarely. Although the manager made the adjustments, the result was still not satisfied and the outcome was the store has not achieved the budget. These decisions caused complaint from a lot of customers about the long queue when they went to the checkout. I had seen some customers drop off the commodities which they had selected because they do not like to wait for a long time. Beyond that, the two operators always feel tired and unfair when the store is very busy. Once they feel bored, they will not have enough energy and passion to serve customers. Furthermore, no longer use greeter also caused some negative effects. For example, tally clerk found that small and precious items had been lost regularly. Obviously, there were customers in the store for stealing and the action of theft reduced the budget seriously. Analysis of the Decision Teale, Dispenza, Flynn, Currie (2003) pointed out that the bounded rational decision making is refer to there are many options, but the decision maker only consider some of these, or from the long term, that is not a best decision but the most suitable for the current situation. Here is an example, a lady fell down along the road and break her stiletto heel, and then she quickly goes into a cheap shoe store and bought a pair of lip-flops that she had never worn before. If it is in normal circumstances, the lady will buy a pair of shoes that she likes at ordinary times, but now she is in a hurry and can not wear the shoes with broken heels. So, buy a pair of shoes that does not like usually become an appropriate choice. This can be called â€Å"satisfying†. People in most cases do decision like this, because sometimes we do not consider all the possibilities in order to save time (Campling, Poole, Wiesner, Ang, Chan, Tan Schermerhorn, 2008). Decision-makers always pick up the most useful one. In the Target Leichhardt store, because the manager chose the solution to reduce the costs in a short time, the decision can be defined as Satisfying. The decision of this store manager made just embodies the people’s bounded rationality in decision making process. The managers thought the store can increase budget by cutting costs. However, queuing for a long time can make customers have bad impression on the store. Finally, people thought for long lines when they mention this store, then they refuse to go to the store shopping instinctively. People should consider three processes that bounded rationality usually involve in. hey are simple search, simple stopping and simple decision rules. These three rules are also referred to as â€Å"heuristics†, it is used to describe â€Å"how normal people make decisions without calculating utilities and probabilities† (Gigerenzer Todd, 2012). In this case, the manager made decision without calculating the chance of various results by using the optimal and maximizing outcome. . In this situation, the manager didn’t use the optimal or maximizing outcome to calculate the probability of outcome occurring, he didn’t use the utility to calculate the expected happiness. There are many factors that can cause bounded rationality, such as emotion, knowledge and culture. According to Teale et al (2003), bounded rationality can also be interpreted as non-rational decisions. This is because people have limited knowledge level and lack of training. The lack of knowledge and training make people with narrow horizons, and then can not take a panoramic view of the situation and do not have a long-term view. In this Target store, the manager did not investigate and understand the situation of the store from all aspects carefully; it also can say he was lack of practical experience in management of decision making. His decision can only satisfy the short-term interest if it goes well. However, it turns out he did not achieve the short-term goals. In terms of the long time interest, invoice for a long time and occasionally steal phenomenon caused bad effect on the company’s image. On the other hand, decision-maker do not communicate smoothly and actively with others can also affect the decision making (McKee, 2010). According to my observation, the manager lack basic understanding of the store and he seldom communicated with employees and customers. Sometimes, he just organized the regular meeting, and the aim of meeting is to decorate task without exchange views with others. When someone makes decision by himself without communicate with others, bounded rationality can get a higher frequency of occurrence. Lacks of communication not only lead to make decision unwise, because the decision maker is likely to be emotional to make a decision, but also make the decision maker overconfidence. In real life, we meet some people who always think they are right (Hanson, Hitt, Ireland Hoskisson, 2011). Beyond that, environment can cause bounded rationality. Today’s general environment is complicated and changefully, people can obtain information from various channels and ways. Not all information is appropriate, sometimes wrong information mislead decision maker to make an irrational decision. In this case, the general environment is the customers and sales performance are different and the manager eager to prove his ability. So he made a non rational decision and this decision does not have any benefit for a long term operation. Reflection Mckee (2010) show us The Eight Stage Decision Making Process Model. If I were the manager in this case, I would use the above mentioned model to help me to make a rational decision. First of all, I would collect all possible information about the sale budget and net profit for five years before. For example, check the financial annual report, the daily turnover and the net profit report. Form these reports, I could analyze and assess which part of work we need to adjust and improve. Our goal is to increase earnings; we can start this goal from attracting more customers rather than reduce shifts and layoff greeters. There are many ways to attract potential customers and make them become returned customers at the same time. One effective way is issue voucher; we can offer a five dollar voucher when the customers purchase more than 50 dollars. By that analogy, we can give ten dollar voucher when the customers purchase more than 100 dollars. In this way, we can ensure customers keep coming. Another way to attract customers is to do some promotions, such as buy three same items for two items price. When I use The Eight Stage Decision Making Process Model to make a decision, I would consider more on one of the elements that is to list alternatives (Mckee, 2010). In this case, arrange employees to the most suitable area according to their own ability and personality is an alternative decision. For instance, a employee with personality of patience and enthusiasm, I would arrange he to be a customer assistance. Put myself in customer’s position, I hope to get a better shopping guide and help. Moreover, Tolbert and Hall (2008) pointed out that the more person involve the decision process, the decision is more rational. Due to the feasibility of this theory, I would be honest to analyze the whole store operating condition and the goals to other managers and employees. Then, I will encourage them to actively participate in discussion and give advices. If I were the manager I would continue to use customer greeters. In order to make them not as decoration, I will arrange them some to do things to attract customers. For example, greeters can pass flyers to passers so that they have a better concept about what product will have a discount in which day. The following step we need to carry out decision, along with this step there may have some obstacles impede our progress. But, these are not serious problems, as long as we step by step; we are able to make sensible decisions (Kramar, Bartram, De Cieri, Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart Wright, 2011). This style of decision making can be described as the rational model. Only managers like a link, fasten all the employees together to make the decision, this decision can be good for long-term development of an organization.

Effects of the Financial Crash on Australias Economy

Effects of the Financial Crash on Australias Economy Executive Summary: This is a report of current Australian economic situation, and a forecast of Reserve Bank of Australia’s cash rate movements in 2015. This report will help the board and management to formulate budget and set goals for the upcoming years. The report will look into and analyse in details all economic indicators and other internal non-numeric based factors such as geographical advantages, politics, policies, regulations as well as external factors such as world economy, politics and laws of major trade partners, international exchange rates, etc. that directly and indirectly impact the economy. The report will show how simple forecasting of cash rate movement is a complex process, as it is directly related to Reserve Bank of Australia’s fiscal and monetary policy. Introduction: Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd once described â€Å"Australia to be a nation whose origins lie firmly in the west, but whose geo-political and geo-economic circumstances are shaped in large part by our location in the east, this is the inescapable expression of the Australian condition. (Economy Watch, 2010)† And he was right because where in the early 19th century Australia’s major trade partner was the Western world, along with time it shifted to the eastern side, and Asia became the primary focus of Australia’s economic policy. And understanding this is crucial to all large, medium, and small business in Australia, for budget forecasting, and goal setting, and this is true for every sector from hospitality and tourism, to mining and banking sectors. We will now look into current Australian economic situation and will conclude with a forecast of Cash Rate Movement. Body: The Australian Business Review published a report by Steen Jakobsen, Saxo Bank chief economist on 14th of November 2014 (AAP, 2014). In his report Mr.Jakobsen said Australian Economy will face recession in 2015, he also pointed out that ASX is dominated by mining companies and financial institution, and that the country should focus on technology sector, and small and medium size enterprises. Like many in past, the economist supported the idea that education and research should be the back bone of an economy. Understanding Australian Economy: The table below will show a summary of Australian Economy as at Demeter 2014 (Trading Economics, 2014). From the table we can see that Mr. Jakobsen’s reasons for such declaration. The Australian currency rate is still higher than sustainable, the stock market is down, high unemployment rate, lower consumer spending, budget deficit, everything contributed to it, and even an all-time low cash rate failed to attract more investments, for which probably high Australian labour cost may be liable. Australia | Economic Indicators The chart below will help us understand the current Australian economy from the viewpoint of the federal government. Where it shows how the western part of the country is based on mining industry where the eastern part especially New South Wales and Victoria are manufacturing, finance, and service based. The contrast between these two regions has often led to disagreements within the Australian government over developmental plans. Australian GDP is still dominated by service and financial industries, although they are struggling a lot after 2008 global financial crisis. On the other hand Western Australia is and its mining industry is enjoying a boom, even though some economist argue that resource based industry is highly depended on exports to China, and if the world economy is not doing well, then it will hurt the Chinese economy, and find its way to Australia (Economy Watch, 2010). Unemployment rate: From the graph released by trading economics using the data realised by Australian Bureau of Statistics, we can clearly see that in last four years (January 2011 to November 2014) the unemployment rate only went high and is now sitting at 6.30 % which is the highest in 11 years, the month of December 2014 should have a similar rate too. The ABS reported the number of people employed increased by 42,700 to 11,637,400 in November 2014 (seasonally adjusted). The increase in employment was driven by increased part-time employment for females (up 36,400) and full-time employment for males (up 23,300) offset by a fall in female full-time employment (down 21,400). Total full-time employment increased, up 1,800 (Trading Economics, 2014). Cash rate, Inflation, and exchange rate: On 2nd of Demeter 2014, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to leave cash rate unchanged at 2.5%, even though American and Chinese is showing some sign of strength, Euro Zone, and Japan both seen weakness recently, some key commodity prices such as petrol has declined significantly in recent months, which indicated softer demand but increased supply, and therefore the central bank decided to keep the cash rate unchanged for the 16th month in a row. Inflation is running between 2 and 3 per cent, as expected, with recent data confirming subdued rises in labour costs. The exchange rate has traded at lower levels recently, in large part reflecting the strengthening US dollar. But the Australian dollar remains above most estimates of its fundamental value, particularly given the significant declines in key commodity prices in recent months. A lower exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy (RBA, 2014). The benchmark price for iron ore, which accounts for more than $1 out of every $5 of export income has fallen to around a third its 2011 high of $US190 (Greber et al, 2014). As at December 2014 it is $63 per tonne, and it seems like it will fall more in 20145. (Massola, 2014). Australian Economy and Cash Rate Movement in 2015: During a parliament briefing Joe Hockey says the federal budget will be used as a shock absorber to protect the economy from the largest fall in the terms of trade since 1959. The Treasurer who will unveil a larger deficit in 2014-15 and a slower return to surplus when he releases the midyear economic update on 15th of December 2014, said economic growth would remain about 2.5 per cent, while conceding unemployment would rise to levels higher than those forecast in the May budget (Massola, 2014). So both the Treasurer and the economist Steen Jakobsen agreed to the fact that currently Australian economy is not doing well, and there are many good indicators that it could get worse. I would agree with them that there are still hope, if the government invest in roads and infrastructure such as the East West, as well as further decrease the cash rate in 2015 as Jakobsen has advised to 2% percent or even down up to 1.5%, along with simplification of taxation and regulations might help in b oosting the economy and improving investments (AAP, 2014). The cash rate is sitting 2.5% for 16 consecutive months (RBA, 2014) but it was not good enough to turn the wheel of Australian Economy, and from the parliament bribing of the Honourable Treasurer Joe Hockey it could be argued that the Federal Government may push Reserve Bank of Australia to further decrease cash rate in 2015 to 2% along with taking other measures hoping it may help to improve the growth to 3% which Mr. Hockey is hoping to achieve. And if IMF is right the Treasurer will be able to achieve 3% growth in 2015, and added it will will remain there until 2019 (Jerico, 2019) Conclusion: To conclude, Australian economy showed a little sign of recovery in 2012 after the global financial crisis of 2008, but started to fall and 2014 is finishing without any sign of recovery, in fact data shows that 2015 could be even worse. IMF, The Treasurer of Australia, and economist Steen Jakobsen all believed that despite all there are still hope that the economy may grow 3% in 2015, even though unemployment rate might rise further and cash rate might continue to stay low at 2.5% or go even lower. World economy, investor’s confidence, fiscal and monetary policy as well as other internal and external factors will determine the end result.

Thomas Malthus :: essays papers

Thomas Malthus Two hundred years ago, Thomas Robert Malthus wrote â€Å"An Essay on the principle of population† in which he argued that the world population would increase faster than the food supply. This would cause disastrous results for the general human welfare. A world population of 250 million at the time has now gone up to about 6 billion. This is in spite of wars, plagues, famine, and epidemics. World food production has been keeping pace with population growth until recently. If the world food supply had been distributed equally to each member of society in the mid 1980’s, with a population of 4.7 billion people, each person would have gotten a weekly diet of 11 ponds. This included meat, grains, and fish. In today’s society, the population has increased over one billion and the food supply has gone down to about 10 pounds per person per week. A world population of 10 to 11 billion by mid century would leave each person with only 6 to 7 pounds per week. This is the same as the diet that people living in poverty get in our present day society. However, by trying to help poverty, we are (according to Malthus) making the situation worse. IN the short run, there seems to be an improvement because those poor people are better off and can do well. This situation would lead to a larger population than before. This in turn would lead to more people becoming impoverished due to lack of food supply. Malthus believed that if people left poverty alone, it would take care of itself. At the start of the 21st Century, it is very easy to debunk his starting point that population grows â€Å"geometrically† while food supply only â€Å"arithmetically†. This will lead to a widening gap between population and food supply. However, by saying that, he was mistaken, the improving technology has meant that food supply has also increased geometrically. If we were to take a mathematical approach to this, population, food production, energy use, industrial production, waste production, etc. are all increasing under mechanisms that can shown on an exponential curve like a parabola, then all will be approaching a vertical asymptote.

Television - Lost in the Unreal World of TV :: Media

Lost in the Unreal World of TV In our modern society, two separate worlds exist. The first, the world of reality, is where most of our important life experiences take place. The second, however, is where nothing substantial exists. Nothing there can have any direct impact on our lives. This is the world of the unreal; the world of television. Television lures people in with wonderful stories that have very little or no application to the real world. Instead of teaching about how the world works, it replaces healthy human interaction. When people watch television, they receive only input. This does not help them deal with other people, because it does not train them to respond. Doing things with other people is necessary to develop social skills, which must be used every day. Television does not provide any workable context for behaving around people. Everyone knows that television shows are designed to be entertaining, not to show how actual people will react to certain situations. When a person watches television, a mind is wasted. That person is throwing away time which could be used for a number of productive tasks. Which person, when asked what they did in life that was really important, would reply "I watched as much television as I could!"? As similar their names might sound, a television is not like a telephone. A telephone connects two people's minds to each other, while a television only sends pictures and sounds to one person's eyes and ears. In fact, if you let television affect your mind too much, it can cripple your imagination. You might have more images stored in your mind, but you will be out of practice for generating new ideas. Television does not provoke original thought. Sometimes television is deceiving because the watcher feels connected to a character on the screen. The observer begins to mimic the character's emotions, and feels satisfied at the end of the episode, as if something had really been accomplished. What the viewer feels is just the opposite of what has happened.

Drinks that Influenced History and Civilization Essay

The author describes the origin of six drinks that greatly influenced history and civilization around the world: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola. He explains how each drink was the defining drink during a historical period from antiquity to present day. The fluids are vital because each had a role of shaping the modern world. They have been used as currencies, in religious rites, as a political symbol, sources of philosophical and artistic inspiration. Some have served to highlight the power of the elite, and appease the downtrodden. They connected world cultures by impacting trade, economy, religion, and politics. Beer was discovered through different methods of cooking and storing cereal grains. When the ice age ended, lands such as the Fertile Crescent provided abundant cereal grains. Such grains provided a reliable source of food, and the ability to store cereal grains began to encourage people to stay in one place. This resulted in permanent settlements as societies transitioned from hunting and gathering to farming. Although the residents of such villages continued to hunt, skeletal evidence suggests that they subsisted mostly on plant-based diets. Beer was shared, and it was symbol of hospitality and friendship. To Neolithic drinkers, beer’s ability to intoxicate and ferment seemed magical, and it was concluded that it was a gift from the gods. Beer-drinking cultures tell stories and myths of how it was discovered. Mesopotamians and Egyptians saw beer as an ancient, god-given drink that supported their existence, formed part of their cultural and religious identity, and had great social importance. It was consumed by anyone regardless of status, age, or gender. Beer impacted the growth and diffusion of the earliest civilizations greatly. The emergence of complex societies, the need to keep written records, and the popularity of beer all followed from the surplus of grain. It was also used as a form of currency and payment. Beer also had a direct link to health. Mesopotamians and Egyptians used it medicinally. The Egyptians used bread and beer in funerals. Without the discovery of beer, the earliest civilizations of Southwest Asia and Egypt would not have been as prosperous.