Friday, January 31, 2020
The Role And Importance Of Segmentation Essay Example for Free
The Role And Importance Of Segmentation Essay Success in business depends on whether one is able to sustain him or herself as competition increase. It requires a faint difference to keep a selected business type on the marketing edge. Business research is therefore essential when one wants to analyze the market wants and needs of different segments before determining their position.            In our discussion we will try to analyze how segmentation by life stages in the Baby boom occurred how and how markers needed to tailor make messages meant for a specific age group. We will also be able to evaluate how the baby boomers affected the market niche. By understanding key term â€Å"market segmentation’ and ‘Baby boomer generation’ would be a key step in underlining their role and importance.            By definition, market segmentation is a process of dividing markets into distinct groups of buyers that require different products (Lake, 2008). The groups have to be divided entirely in a homogenous manner. This is the first step required when addressing the need of different customers. The word Baby boomer is an America-English term which describes persons born following the World War II (Brenet, 2006).This is because countries experienced a drastic increase in their population. The birth rates led to the concept term Baby boom. In USA though, different views of the years were documented but many accepted that it was from 1946 to 1964. In Britain he period after the post war 1947 had the highest number of births. This period ended in the 1960. The Irish Republic before its formation, initially had recorded an exodus of people to Britain. Between 1957-80 eras the Irish people choose to have the largest number of children. (Michael, p321). This period of increasing human population recorded increased unemployment economic sluggishness and increased competition to those in the business sector. It was postulated that by 2010 boomers will represent more than two thirds of the 50-plus population. Role and importance                       Marketers had to design a method for addressing the different emerging set groups. For this to succeed marketing segmentation was necessary. The segment must watch the firms marketing capabilities sufficient enough for good profit potential, able to promote effectively to and serve the segment and it should be measurable in purchasing power and size. The target markets in this section involve consumer good and Business produce. The later involves goods or services purchased for use in the production of other goods and services for sales either directly or indirectly. The former are goods or services purchased by a consumer for personal use. The basis of market segmentation according (Brenet, 2006) to involves Demographic segmentation-sex, age, income, occupation, education household size and family set groups Geographical segmentation- markets into similar groups depending on the location. Psychographic segmentation- psychological characteristics, values and life styles. Product based segmentation homogenous groups based on usage rate benefits sought and brand loyalty In that period the market analysis of the baby boomers had become more sophisticated (Baby Boomer in denial over aging, 2004). It has been noted that looking at the baby boomers as a single group fails to recognize their diversity which makes the understanding of differences among the various sector of baby boomers difficult(Onta,2002) The most common way to segment the market is the divide it in two based on birth years. This method yielded two boomer subgroups; this leading-edge boomers, born from 1946 to 19545 and currently 47 to 55 years old and the trailing-edge boomers born between 1955-1964 and currently 36 to 44 years old (Onta, 2002). The important of segmentation in business is that new opportunities increase when targeting specific groups of clients and customers. Those with varying needs are recognized in economic change fortunes were more profound than was realized at this moment of history. Conclusion            Marketing strategies need to be formulated to address the needs of Baby Boomer. The idea to put into consideration is the fact that every year that passes, boomers are aging. As more Boomers enter the 50 plus population, markets trends will have to change and thus marketers need to change their marketing. One of the best things the marketers need to do is to look concisely at the various stages in the life of the boomer and direct their message to that particular phase. This is where understanding of the various segments and different age groups that exist within the larger subset will be helpful. By sounding a message tailored for the entire population would produce disappointing results. By developing products and services tailored specifically to this groups will ensure that marketers sustain themselves in the economy. References ^â€Å"Article Multidimensional Marketing†Available from http://www.milab.dk/dokumentation/public/Artikler%20og%20rapporter/Meredith,%20Geoffrey%20%20Schewe,%20Charles%20-%20Kohorte%20teori.doc(February 8, 2008) ^â€Å"Baby Boomer in denial over aging†CBS NEWS Article from the Associated Press (March 5, 2004) Available from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/05/national/main604287.shtml(February 8, 2008) Coakley. J Gallaghar, M 1999, Politics in the Republic of Ireland. Routledge Tylor Fransis group,(Pg 321) Green, B 2006, Marketing to leading-edge Baby Boomers; Perceptions, principles predictions, paramount market Books, ISBN 0976697351 Lake, L 2008, Market segmentation for the small business. Your Guide to marketing Available from http://marketing.about.com/cs/sbmarketing/a/smbizmrktseg.htm â€Å"Marketers must view Boomers through a New Lens, www.ncoa.org (February 8, 2008)  ‘Onta National Association’ Baby Boomer Market (January 2002), Available from http://www.ntaonlnio.com/staticfiles/car-boomer:pdf (February 8, 2008) Population: Babies Mean Business, Newsweek, Aug 9, 1948 retrieved 2007-01-26 Wellner, AS, â€Å"The Forgotten Baby Boom,†American Demographics,             February 2001, http://www.americandemographics.com (February 8, 2008)
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Tracing Changes in Pythagoras Speech in Ovids Metamorphoses
Tracing Changes in Pythagoras' Speech in Ovid's Metamorphoses  Change in Ovid, as well as in life, seems to be the only constant.  Change is the subject of the Metamorphoses and Ovid's purpose in recounting myths is established from the very beginning: "My intention is to tell of bodies changed to different forms... with a poem that runs from the world's beginning to our own days" (1.1-4). From this foundation, Ovid launches into his stories, using metamorphosis more as a vehicle for telling his stories than as an actual subject matter. Although he retells religious myths, Ovid is not writing a religious manuscript. Rather, the product is a work of literature. Ovid is conscious that he is writing literature, not religion, and implied in his intention to tell "of bodies changed" is also to demonstrate how skillful he can retell these stories. Ovid could have dealt with the metamorphoses theme in a philosophical manner, but philosophy seems out of place in this rich literary work. For this reason, the speech of Pythagoras in book fifteen seems to be an odd shift in tone. Using Pythagoras as a mouthpiece, Ovid's playful narrative abruptly turns into a long diatribe against meat eating. Given the informal nature of the previous fourteen books, this scene seems out of place. But the Pythagorean episode is not without its purpose. Pythagoras' speech on the nature of metamorphosis is Ovid's way of contrasting his own eloquent style of narration in the Metamorphoses.       By contrast, Pythagoras' speech is a rather dry oration. It is a reminder on Ovid's part of what the Metamorphoses would have been had he concentrated on metamorphosis as an actual subject rather than a literary vehicle.1 Unlike Ovid's oth... ... part, immortal, will be borne above the stars; my name will be remembered... I shall be living always" (15.867-879). This is a highly ironic ending, especially since in the Pythagorean episode, Ovid has asserted that nothing save the soul is immortal. Ovid seems pretentious to assert that his poetry will be "immortal." But we have not read the Metamorphoses correctly if we take this seriously. Ovid's tone is tongue-in-cheek in a large majority of his poem, and it be would out of character for him to assert this. It is a bit of subtle humor on Ovid's part. Humorous or conceited, Ovid so far has proven to be correct.  1 Karl Galinsky, Ovid's Metamorphoses: An Introduction to the Basic Aspects, University of California Press, 1975, p 106. 2 Richard D. McKirahan, Jr., Philosophy Before Socrates, Hackett Publishers, 1994, p 81. 3 Galinsky, 48.
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Amazon.com Operational strategy Essay
AQuestion 2: What are Amazon.com’s competitive priorities and what should its operation strategy focus on? Competitive priorities: – Keep the position of market leader. – Maintain the fast delivery. – Low price focus – User friendly website. Operational strategy: Promote the website, especially in this time of the year, during the holidays. People will be reminded of the website, and maybe visit the website because of the promotion. When the visitors are on amazon.com, they must experience a nice shopping-environment. This can be done by constantly improving the website’s user friendliness, this can be done by improving the search engine for example. Or something as easy as changing some colors to match the season. Question 4: FedEx built its business on quick, dependable delivery of items being shipped by air from one business to another. Its early advantages included global tracking of shipments using Web technology. The advancement of Internet technology enabled competitors to become much more sophisticated in order tracking. In addition, the advent of Web-based businesses put pressure on increased ground transportation deliveries. Explain how this change in the environment has affected FedEx’s operations strategy, especially relative to UPS, which has a strong hold on the business-to-consumer ground delivery business. Because FedEx lost their initial competitive advantage (UPS became a threat as they were able to deliver large volume of shipments because of the advanced Internet technology as well), they had to come up with new operations strategies to remain competitive: – FedEx Ground – FedEx Home FedEx now focuses on low-cost operations and dependable delivery, to gain a new competitive advantage. Question 6: Although all nine of the competitive priorities discussed in this chapter are relevant to a company’s success in the marketplace, explain why a company should not necessarily try to excel in all of them. What determines the choice of the competitive priorities that a company should emphasize for its key processes? It really depends on the specific market you are operating in as a company. The company should focus on the most marketable assets by implementing demographics and forecasting future opportunities. Top quality may influence the development speed and low cost operations could conflict with your volume flexibility. BChad’s Creative Concepts started as a small company producing custom made wooden furniture. Business was good, and Chad Thomas decided to expand his business. Now, Chad added a standard line of furniture to his business. The priority is still on the custom made furniture, therefore the standard line is put on the second place, leading to unfinished products and a big inventory. Question 1: What types of decisions must Chad Thomas make daily for his company’s operations to run effectively? Over the long run? Chad has to make operational decisions. In the long run, these decisions are Strategic decisions. Question 2: How did sales and marketing affect operations when they began to sell standard pieces to retail outlet? By changing to selling standard pieces in retail outlets next to the custom pieces, Chad has start promoting his business, because now there are serious competitors, which are easily reached by the customer. The whole production process changed, because now standard pieces are produced in the factory as well. Question 3: How has the move to producing standard furniture affected the company’s financial structure? The sales of the standard line are increasing steadily, but still the most dollars of the sales come from the custom made pieces. However, the financial situation is not optimal, because lots of dollars are spend on inventory. Question 4: What might Chad Thomas have done differently to avoid some of the problems he now faces? Thomas could make a second factory, focused on only producing standard pieces. By doing this, he can terminate the problem of priorities. So, by doing this, he can decrease the inventory. Extra questions Question 1: Explain the competitive priorities for both product lines (customized furniture and standard furniture) The priority of the company is the department of the customized furniture. But with both departments, there are different priorities. For customized furniture, the priority is to create a creative design, with the highest quality possible. For the standard furniture, the priority is deliver on time and a good price-quality ratio. Question 2: Identify the OPP (Order Penetration Point) of each productlines The OPP for the custom made pieces of furniture is the moment Chad’s staff start working on a project. The whole project is specifically made for one customer from the beginning. The OPP for the Standard pieces is the moment that a customer buys the (already fully assembled) product. At that moment in time, the pieces are for that specific customer. Question 3: Which flow strategy would be the most effective for each of the product lines? For the custom made pieces flexible is the best strategy. This focuses on individual pieces. For the standard pieces, the line strategy is the best strategy. This strategy focuses on the whole line, not on individual pieces. Question 4: What would you advice Chad’s to do to solve the current problems? We would advise Chad to start a second factory. The current factory should be used for only the custom pieces. The new factory can be used for the standard pieces. With the two production processes separated, you can eliminate the problem of priority. Discussion questions 1It ´s a job process, a process with the flexibility needed to produce a wide variety of products in significant quantities. With considerable complexity and divergence in the steps performed. We think it ´s easy to have high customer contact with internal customers, because internal customers are closer to the company. 2This sign implicates that the employees do not have any word in the company. Some customers could think that the employees are not good in performing their job, without any responsibility. Next to this, the employees could feel like they are not important to the company. So this sign works in a bad way. Furthermore, the sign implicates that the employees are very limited in their actions, and furthermore, this leads to low customer contact. This sign is exactly the opposite of how the employees at Ritz Carlton work. Employees at this hotel have all the resources and responsibilities a man can have. Stories go round that hotel managers fly in products from other countries, just for customer satisfaction. In this case, with the sign, the employees ´ hands are tied, and by this, customer satisfaction is not at its maximum. CQuestion 3: How do the process strategies of eBay and McDonald’s differ and how do their choices relate to customer-introduced variability? eBay (mass customization) McDonald’s (repetitive focus) eBay customers are less involved regarding the variability. They offer many different products for many different interests, and the customer basically buys whatever he or she wants: low involvement. McDonald’s on the other hand wants to know more specifically, what their customers want as they have less products to offer and are able to change their product line more often during the year. Lately, McDonald’s organised a contest where the customer could compose their ideal hamburger. The winning hamburger is now being sold for a set time period. Question 4: Medical technology can outfit a patient with an artificial heart, or cure vision defects with the touch of a laser. However, hospitals still struggle with their back-office processes, such as getting X-ray files from radiology on the fourth floor to the first-floor view boxes in the emergency room without having to send a runner. More than 30 percent of the estimated 30 billion health transactions each year are conducted by phone, fax or mail. To what extent, and how, can information technology improve productivity and quality for such processes? Remember that some doctors are not ready to give up their pads and pencils, and many hospitals have strong lines drawn around its departments, such as pharmacy, cardiology, radiology ad paediatrics. Basically, information technology cannot only improve productivity and quality, but thinking more practically, it could save lives as all medical systems in a hospital work through faster and more advanced technologies. Understandably, it has to be 100 percent reliable and feasible and that’s probably the current reason for some doctors, mentioned in the question, to keep working in an old-fashioned way that is – for them – safer and more reliable, but probably not as fast as up to date advanced information technologies available. Question 5: Consider the range of processes in the financial services industry. What position on the customer-contact matrix would the process of selling financial services to municipalities (1) occupy? The process of preparing monthly fund balance reports (2)? Explain why they would differ. 1. Front/Hybrid office 2. Back office The first process requires some interaction to high interaction with the customer (municipality). It lies somewhere in the middle, as you’re not working with individual clients (which require high interaction) but a client (municipality) that needs regular updates and interaction on the process. Preparing monthly fund balance reports is a continued routine process that requires low to none interaction and is the same with all customers.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Ambiguity of American Gothic Fiction - 1765 Words
Julie Fallows 6423747 Sean Moreland November 27, 2012 Ambiguity of American Gothic Anxieties Since the 19h century, American Gothic fiction started to exist independently from the British type. In fact, the latter was marked by its use of fantastic, externalized and metaphysical elements as opposed to the boundaries of American Gothic fiction in which were expressed by historical, internalized, racial and psychological characteristics. (Edwards, XVII) In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-tale heart and The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and in Charles Broken Brown’s Edgar Huntly expresses a transformation of certain gothic conventions to an American setting which are the result of 19th century†¦show more content†¦In many gothic fictions, Native Americans are the villains of the story, as â€Å"white American writers have projected their sense of evil upon the native inhabitants.†(Crow 137) This negative image towards this group is the reality of the 19th century anxiety of miscegenation, and the fear of wild erness. A shadowed forest, the possibility of an Indian lurking in the dark ready to attack and the unknown are features of the wilderness in which created boundaries from the civilized town to the savage forest, from consciousness and waking to unconscious and dreaming. In Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown, the feeling of dread and the unknown draws itself into Brown’s mind as he journeys into the gloomy forest. Brown, like most Americans, drew negative images of Native Americans and their land of wilderness as he spoke: â€Å"There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree.†(Hawthorne, 606) Moreover, when Brown reaches the witch meeting, he sees Indians or powwow priests interacting in the evil ritual with people who follow puritan beliefs. The hypocritical aspect of Goodman Brown’s community is still seen as less demonic than that of the Indians, as they are always portrayed as the â€Å"lesser-breed†. Goodman Brown attest that the natives â₠¬Å"who had often scared their native forest with more hideous incantations than any known to English witchcraft†(Hawthorne 612). Conveyed as demonic and adversary creatures, Indians were a commonShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of House Of The Seven Gables Essay1617 Words  | 7 PagesEvil within the Portraits The traditional Gothic taste for â€Å"portraits†is frequent in many novels and short stories that follow the conventions of literary mode making it present in these both texts; House of the Seven Gables by Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe’s The Oval Portrait. Often the characters in such Gothic romances are haunted by the tyranny of the past, which make it inescapable. It often leads to the destruction of their loved ones. Others motive of escape is often pulled back by a curseRead MoreThe Picture of Dorian Gray and the Turn of the Screw in the Gothic Genre4189 Words  | 17 PagesPicture of Dorian Gray and Henry James The Turn Of the Screw are key examples of the way in which gothic texts use and adapt the conventions of the genre. These changes occur due to the authors own personal context and values. 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