Saturday, October 5, 2019
Promotional campaigns and consumers behavior Essay
Promotional campaigns and consumers behavior - Essay Example Currently,marketing creativity is focused on the study and analysis of consumer’s buying behavior.On the one hand,promotional campaigns that we can see every day may seem to us an ordinary event In reality, there is a need to cover numerous and diverse issues for marketers in order to satisfy the needs of the customers and make them buy a certain product. One may think that it is hardly realistic that a consumer may be influenced by some special strategies and appeal to: psychology of customers (the way they think; the way the customer is influenced by his environment); the behavior of customers in the process of shopping; the value of products and a real value of a certain product for the customers and many other factors (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). Basically, there is a need for marketers to conduct a study of â€Å"individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy nee ds and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society" (Mullen and Johnson 1990, p. 18). Theoretical overview Basically, in order to give an exact answer to the question ‘why promotional campaigns should take into account consumer’s behavior’, it is relevant to refer to the theoretical background of consumer’s psychology. Starting from 70s, scientists and researchers have underlined that consumer’s behavior is greatly influenced by their family members.... Moreover, a complicated nature of a comprehensive buyer’s behavior model is often considered to be inefficient in predicting consumer’s behavior in the future do to its complicated nature. There are two main approaches to the study of consumer’s behavior: the Behavioral Decision Theory and Social-Cognition Approaches to Consumer Research. Both these strategies are based on customer’s perception of a product and an intention to buy it in his consciousness (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987). Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky are representatives of BDT approach to the study of consumer’s behavior. Consumer’s choice is the main objective of the scientists’ researches. A practical aspect In order to practically implement a theoretical knowledge about a consumer’s choice which is shaped under the influence of his consciousness, the promotional campaigns are developed with regard to the mental and social peculiarities, economical and many othe r factors of the target group (Holbrook, 1999). For example, it is rather hard to promote products of daily consumption. There are a lot of different producers and very often a consumer’s choice can be easily changed. â€Å"A Cup of Instant Culture†is a slogan created by Maxwell Coffee in previous years. In XXI century drinking coffee is an integral part of an individual’s image (Aaker, J.L., 1997). For example, if advertising campaign shows a smiling business woman or business man who drinks coffee, the consumers people in their consciousness would perceive this ad as exemplifying two concepts ‘success’ and ‘coffee’ as interrelated ones (Gerritt, 1999). In the modern world we often see exotic advertising of coffee. Coffee
Friday, October 4, 2019
Japan Profile Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Japan Profile - Assignment Example The country lacks natural resources and arable lands. The population of Japan is 127.4 million people (CountryWatch, 2009). Tokyo is the capital of Japan. The main religions practiced in Japan are Buddhism and Shinto. The official language of the nation is Japanese, but English is taught in all secondary schools for business purposes (CountryGrams, 2009). Japan’s weather goes through the four seasons. In the northern region, winters can be cold, while the southern parts of tropical weather prevail. The climate is mostly hot and humid. The time difference between Melbourne, Florida, and Tokyo, Japan is 13 hours. The monetary unit utilized in Japan is the Yen. The conversion rate in the foreign exchange markets of the dollar to yen is 1: 93.62 (Xe, 2009). The address of the U.S. Embassy in Japan is 1-10-5 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Toyko 107-8420 Japan, and the phone number are 03-3224-5000 (Usembassy, 2009). Japan’s society is a group-oriented society. The family is the foundation of Japanese society. Employees are very loyal in Japan and people that hold power are respected. Whenever a person receives a favor or gift, they feel obligated to return the favor. Businessmen wear suits and ties in public, while women wear dresses and slacks. In Japan, the traditional greeting is a bow, but when greeting foreigners handshakes is the norm. Women are visualized as inferior to men in the workplace. Yawning in public is seen as impolite. Japanese people are very punctual and offended when people are late for appointments. The Japanese diet consists of rice, fresh vegetables, seafood, fruit, and small portions of meat most of which are seasoned with soy sauce or sweet sake (CultureGrams, 2009). Other popular meals include sushi, miso, and sashimi. The most popular sport in Japan is baseball. Other popular sporting activities are soccer, volleyball, and jogging. Men are raised to become the head of the family.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
That Was Then, This is Now†and “The Chocolate War†Essay Example for Free
That Was Then, This is Now†and â€Å"The Chocolate War†Essay â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now†by S.E. Hinton (1971) and â€Å"The Chocolate War†(1974) by Robert Cormier are boundary-shattering young-adult novels, each of which penetrates to the heart of issues with which adolescent readers can readily identify. However, as groundbreaking as these novels were upon their initial publications, both of the novels conform to an established literary idiom, prevalent throughout young-adult literature for many centuries. Both â€Å"The Chocolate War†and â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now†present novels of initiation; more specifically, novels of male-initiation. Aspects of the male-initiation novel include specific conditional criteria that both define and structure the concept of manhood; among these criteria are issues of heterosexuality, embodiment, and collectivism. (Bereska, 2003)            The prominence of traditional male-initiation archetypes and notions of masculinity in the novels, together with the novels’ unconventional narrative styles, pace, and conventions helped generate two of the more popular, controversial, and memorable titles in the 1970s YA catalog. â€Å"Like classics or current adult fiction, some YAL includes a variety of situational archetypes such as the test/trial as a rite of passage, the journey or quest of the hero, birth/death/rebirth, and the search for self.†(Herz Gallo, 1996, p. 11)            In both novels, notions of manhood and sexual orientation play key roles in defining character and plot development, as well as thematic development. Bryon, the main character in ‘That Was Then, This is Now†prides himself as a ladies’ man and is compared to (or confused with) the Romantic Poet Lord Byron, who was an infamous womanizer, on different occasions during the story. â€Å"While not explicitly stated, it is an implicit assumption that the boys world is a heterosexual world; there are no logical alternatives to heterosexuality. In books from the 1940s to the late 1990s[] A normal male body is presumed to be both masculine in gender and heterosexual (Nelson (Bereska, 2003)            Along with heterosexuality as a harbinger of normalcy, the male world in YA initiation novels is â€Å"characterized by particular types and degrees of emotional expression, naturalized aggression, male hang-out groups, hierarchies within those groups [and] competition,†(Bereska, 2003). In both â€Å"The Chocolate War†and â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now†the world is portrayed as a male-dominated â€Å"war zone†where a survival of the fittest mentality reigns above issues of emotionality, sensitivity, or compassion.            While drugs, street-fights, and casual sex present controversial and very stark terrors in the world of â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now,†in Cormier’s male-dominated world, the male-hierarchy is not only prevalent, its strictures are living law: â€Å"football is easy compared to Jerrys other extracurricular activities at Trinity High: placating the Vigils, the schools secret society, and avoiding Brother Leon, the acting headmaster[] Archie Costello, de facto leader of the Vigils, orders Jerry to refuse to sell chocolate for ten days, as a way of exerting power†(Cheaney, 2001, p. 256).            The aspect of embodiment: that is, the physical manifestation of male characteristics (or defining manhood by male bodily capacities and functions) is a vital component of both novels, symbolized by, not only erotic scenes and passages, but by visceral acts of violence. Foremost among the explicit symbolism of male initiation as male-body-experience is the climactic brutality of â€Å"The Chocolate War†when raffle-tickets are drawn to direct blows against bodies. Raffle tickets are drawn to see when and where Jerry and Emile Janza (a thug) will strike one another with boxing blows. One of the members of the school gang The Vigils finally draws a raffle ticket that allows Janza to strike Jerry below the belt.             In â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now,†Mark and Bryon vital, viral male bodies are contrasted with Bryon’s ailing mother, a victim of the poverty and desperation that hangs over her household. While Bryon’s healthy erotic-physical response to Cathy brings about a sense of patriarchal responsibility for MM, Mark, whose sexuality had never been as pronounced as Bryon’s deviates from a â€Å"pure†state of male-embodiment, becoming a drug-user and drug-pusher, selling drugs to help support Bryon’s mother.            The corruption of the communal (but male dominated and protected space) in this case comes by way of drugs with threaten MM’s physical and mental maturity; during his LSD hallucinations, he seems to regress to a childlike, vulnerable state. It is at the point of Bryon’s decision to turn Mark in as a drug dealer despite their â€Å"brotherhood†that Bryon’s initiation is completed and the transformation of his masculinity from purely male-identified to communally-identified takes place.            Both â€Å"The Chocolate War†and â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now†end ambiguously if not tragically. Although Bryon makes a successful transition from self-motivated and socially alienated to selflessness and social responsibility, his initiation into manhood exacts a heavy toll and violates the previously established intimacy between the stories two main characters. Keeping in mind the aforementioned â€Å"classical†motifs of male-initiation, Bryon’s â€Å"sacrifice†of his male-to-male friendship with Mark in favor of his traditional familial relationships with Cathy and MM fulfill the classical notion of heterosexual manhood as established via physical embodiment, and collectivism.            â€Å"The Chocolate War†ends with pyrrhic victory, in that Jerry dares to â€Å"disturb the universe†by challenging the male-on-male hierarchy generated by The Vigils, but at the novel’s close Jerry is beaten and physically injured; with a broken jaw, he tells his friend, The Goober, not to disturb the universeâ€â€that it’s not worth it. The book ends as Archie displays no remorse for the past, and Jerry no hope for the future. Cormier’s themes for â€Å"The Chocolate War†were rooted in â€Å"the individuals response to evil, a concern deeply rooted in Cormiers Roman Catholic conscience[]I was made aware of evil, and Im aware of it now. I mean, we constantly try to be good, and most of us are because of the lack of opportunities to do evil. Opportunities for evil abound at Trinity High because most of the boys dont recognize it for what it is.†(Cheaney, 2001, p. 256) Though Hinton’s themes seem less explicitly grounded in traditional religious morality, her work, like Cormier’s, deals with issues of profound sociological consequence, along with themes of dynamic individuation and social integration. Perhaps â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now†can be rightfully regarded as offering a somewhat less tragic arc than â€Å"The Chocolate War,†the impact of both of the novels on the YA genre was (and remains) explosive.            Classical literature often fails to exert the kind of hypnotically personal impact on young-adult readers that commercially published YAL sometimes offers. â€Å"Literature can be a way for teens to release these tensions.†This point remains highly valid as the enduring appeal and success of â€Å"The Chocolate War†and â€Å"That Was Then, This is Now’ demonstrates. â€Å"Students can read a book, for example, about a teenager reaching puberty and can talk about what the character is feeling in the third person, not the first. They can say she felt instead of I felt.[]Why do they want to read it? Perhaps because it helps them feel as if they are not alone.†(Alsup, 2003) Each of these novels melded traditional elements of the male-initiation story while simultaneously breaking through previously held notions regarding the thematic scope and sociological relevance of YA novels. References Bereska, T. M. (2003). The Changing Boys World in the 20th Century: Reality and Fiction.  The Journal of Mens Studies, 11(2), 157+. Herz, S. K., Gallo, D. R. (1996). From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Alsup, J. (2003). Politicizing Young Adult Literature: Reading Andersons Speak as a Critical Text Critical Texts Confront Difficult Topics. Students Need to Read, Write, and Talk about These Relevant Issues. Journal of Adolescent Adult Literacy, 47(2), 158+. Cheaney, J. (2001, December). Teen Wars : The Young Adult Fiction of Robert Cormier. World and I, 16, 256.
Marketing Strategies Analysis Of Vodafone Marketing Essay
Marketing Strategies Analysis Of Vodafone Marketing Essay This report explores environmental evaluation and marketing strategies analysis of Vodafone. Referring to situational analysis, the SWOT analysis shows several important insights, such as fierce competition, high penetration rate, low differentiation and innovation. After defining two marketing goals, this study discusses marketing strategies of Vodafone from the perspective of marketing mix. Furthermore, there are two significant recommendations for Vodafone including social media and relationship marketing. Table of Content 1.0 Introduction This study will explain environmental evaluation and marketing strategies analysis of Vodafone. Firstly, this study will provide the situational analysis from the implementation of the SWOT analysis. Furthermore, segmentation targeting and positioning facilitates Vodafone to understand different needs of target markets. Secondly, the marketing objectives and goals will be defined and explained. Then, this study will introduce marketing mix to discuss marketing strategies. Finally, the recommendations will be given. 2.0 Situational Analysis This chapter will propose the situational analysis to evaluate the environment of Vodafone. The SWOT analysis including strengths and weaknesses of organisational environment and opportunities and threats of external environment aims to provide the comprehensive understandings of internal and external organisational environment. In the following, this chapter will employ the SWOT analysis to analyse and evaluate the internal and external environment of Vodafone. 2.1 Strengths There are several aspects of Vodafone strengths including brand recognition, emerging markets, solid foundation in major countries, strategic alliances and new service development. For instance, along with the economic recession severely influences the prospect of developed countries, such as European countries, UK, and North America, emerging markets increasingly contribute to the sustainable development of Vodafone. In terms of Table 1, during the period between 2009 and 2011, the annual growth of service revenue in emerging markets is more than 6%. However, there is comparatively slow growth of service revenue in Europe. Most telecom and internet service providers, like Vodafone, increasingly recognised that the exploitation and development of the global market, particularly emerging markets, considerably influence the sustainable development of telecommunications service providing companies partly because of the market saturation of domestic countries. Table 1: Key Revenue Performance Indicators 2009 2010 2011 Service revenue growth (0.3)% (1.6)% 2.1% Data revenue growth 25.9% 19.3% 26.4% Emerging markets service revenue growth 6.4% 7.9% 11.8% Europe enterprise service revenue growth (4.8)% 0.5% Fixed line revenue growth 2.1% 7.9% 5.2% Notes: (*) means that organic growth which presents performance on a comparable basis. Source: Vodafone (2011a, p.13) Furthermore, Vodafone has competitive abilities to develop new telecom service, such as 3G and data service. As Table 1 shown, compared with traditional service revenue growth, the data revenue growth is higher than traditional service revenue. Beside the higher growth of emerging markets and data revenue, the strong brand recognition and strategic alliances of Vodafone contributes to the sustainable development of Vodafone. 2.2 Weaknesses Several aspects of weaknesses, including uncertainty of revenue growth in data service and Euro market, gradually influence the development of Vodafone. For instance, there is a distinctive pattern of telecom service in emerging markets and developed countries. According to Figure 1, this figure implies that there are two significant results on mobile subscribers and penetration rates across regions. Firstly, the developing countries, especially rest of Asia, have over 800 million mobile subscribers, which is considered as the most potential mobile service consumption market. Secondly, compared with developed countries, rest of Asia and world has comparatively low mobile penetration. Hence, Vodafone, known as a pioneer of the global telecommunication service market exploitation and development, concerns its global market exploration. Figure 1: Total Mobile Subscribers and Penetration Rates by Region as of Mid-2007 Source: UMTS Forum (2008, p.6) 2.3 Opportunities Referring to Opportunities of Vodafone, the growth of emerging market and data service and telecom solution for corporates are described as two important opportunities. Firstly, as the previous analysed, the higher degree of mobile penetration in mature markets. Nevertheless, there is a growing space for Vodafone in emerging markets. Hence, emerging markets and relevant areas may gradually benefit the long-term development of Vodafone, since there are more opportunities. Secondly, Vodafone has its own business department for serving corporate client. Compared with consumer market, corporate client has their unique needs on communication and data service. For Vodafone, it not only is an opportunity, but also is considered as a challenge. 2.4 Threats There are several obvious threats facing Vodafone, such as high penetration rate in mature market, and powerful competitors. Firstly, as Figure 1 shown, compared with developing countries, mature markets, such as Europe and North America, have comparatively high penetration rate. In other words, the marketing environment in mature markets is more fierce competition than emerging markets. Secondly, in the UK mobile service market, there are three considerable competitors facing Vodafone, including Everything Everywhere (Orange and T-Mobile), O2 and Three. Everything Everywhere has more than 27.6 million subscribers (Everything Everywhere, 2011), which is separately more than each competitors. This competitor not only has the dominated position in the UK mobile service market, but also has the remarkable performance on international cooperation to explore global market. For example, it cooperating with Everything Everywhere in the UK market serves the Chinese tourists and residents dur ing the tourism period (Everything Everywhere, 2012). The following competitor is O2 that has over 22.2 million subscribers. For O2, it has the remarkable abilities to formulate and implement its well-defined marketing strategies. For instance, it provides the free Wi-Fi service suitable for consumers in McDonalds store (O2, 2012). These competitors exert their powerful influence on the competitive situation of Vodafone. 3.0 Differential Advantage/Competitive Edge This chapter will discuss the differential advantage/competitive edge of Vodafone, including solid foundation of innovation, innovative abilities for improve corporate client performance, and support of strategic alliances and cooperation. Firstly, Vodafone has its solid foundation in the telecom industry. In terms of the amount of the subscribers experiencing the telecommunication service, Vodafone is the second largest mobile telecommunications firm. Currently, Vodafone operates its telecommunications service in over 30 countries, such as UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, and Ireland, and, cooperating with domestic partners to provide telecommunication services in more than 40 countries, including Denmark, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Finland and Ukraine (Vodafone, 2012a). In terms of Vodafone (2012c), the vision is to be the worlds mobile communication leader-enriching customers lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected in a mobile world. Secondly, in the corporate client market, Vodafone has its competitive advantages. For instance, Vodafone innovatively provides the TomTom with traffic data service and machine to machine communication solution (Vodafone, 2010). It not only makes traditional telecom service applied to business communication solutions, but also expands its market from consumer market to business client. Thirdly, the strong strategic alliances and cooperation of Vodafone facilitate Vodafone explore international market. For example, in 2011, Vodafone and Conexus created the relationship of strategic alliance for expanding the Asian market (Vodafone, 2011f). In fact, since strategic alliance has considerable abilities to understand local consumer behaviours, business environment and government regulation, these abilities helps Vodafone to effectively formulate and implement marketing strategies in foreign markets. 4.0 Segmentation Targeting Positioning Market segmentation is described as a market with the similar needs and behaviour of consumers. It is considered as a process of an organisation recognising its competitive advantages for serving market segmentation. After implementing strategy of market segmentation, Kotler Keller (2006) argued that target market is based on the understanding of specific needs, qualities and behaviours of market segmentation. In another hand, the determination of market segmentation may specific target market not available to competitors. The targeting and positioning is dedicated to understand what target market wants and how to provide suitable service satisfying their needs. Currently, Vodafone has two major target market including consumer market and corporate market. Referring to consumer market, for instance, young generation consumers, such as university and college students, are more concerned with mobile data service including mobile chat, quizzes, phone games, ticket purchase and others. For this specific target market, Vodafone may provide more discount for young generation consumers to make them become loyal consumers, which consequently benefits the long-term development of Vodafone. For corporate market, Vodafone incline to provide the customised service for specific corporate client, since different corporate clients have their specific needs. 4.0 Marketing Objectives and Goals The marketing objectives and goals contain two detailed orientations including marketing sales performance and marketing communication. Firstly, referring to marketing sales performance, there are several detailed predictors for Vodafone to determine the marketing sales performance in the following five years. In the next five years, the service revenue growth in emerging market should be kept at 20%, and in mature markets at 2%. Furthermore, new services, such as 3G and data service, should experience a considerable development, which should annually increase by 3%. Referring to cost of marketing activities, Vodafone should make more efforts to improve the performance of marketing activities. Secondly, marketing communication not only involves corporate communication and marketing communications, but also concerns branding and the improvement of brand image in the mind of consumers (Pelsmacker, Geuens Bergh, 2010). Hence, evaluating the performance of integrated marketing communication is considered as another important marketing goal for Vodafone. For instance, it may hire professional service consultants to assess the performance of Vodafones IMC from various perspectives, such as consumers attention rate, and frequencies of advertising. Moreover, the feedback from consumers and partners will be used for improve the future performance of IMC. 5.0 Marketing Strategies and Programmes The analysis and evaluation on marketing strategies of Vodafone from the perspective of marketing mix. In terms of Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders Wong (2001), marketing mix is described as an effective marketing analytic tool for determining and marketing products. Therefore, this section will use marketing mix to analyse and evaluate the marketing strategies of Vodafone. 5.1 Product Today, Vodafone has three major business categories including business solutions, personal solutions and branded phones devices (Vodafone, 2012b). The service for business solutions contains integrated communications, mobile solutions, productivity services, voice and messaging, roaming for your business and machine to machine solutions, which aims to provide the efficient communication environment for business and corporate clients. In regard to personal solutions, Vodafone desires to facilitate individual consumers communicate with family and friends through several channels, such as mobile, email, chat, and internet. Furthermore, Vodafone offers the retailing service of branded phones devices. Since there is an extremely similar mobile service among different telecom companies, Vodafone should concern more services beyond communication, such as apps downloads for individual consumers to experience the benefits and funs from smartphone. For corporate client, the technical suppor t and customised service may contribute to successfully attract and maintain corporate client. 5.2 Price From the traditional view, since there is a few telecommunications service providers in a country, this liberalised market particularly facilitates these providers become oligopolies (Cambini Valletti, 2003). These oligopolies have the competitive influence in the pricing decision in comparison with consumers. Along with the application of the internet-based technologies offers more choices for consumers, such as internet chat, consumers increasingly shape their own influence in this market. Nevertheless, Vodafone and its competitors provide the similar service package and prices for consumers. For Vodafone, there are two important price plans containing pay monthly and pay as you go. The plan of pay monthly includes several dimensions for consumer to choose their proper plan, such as plan type, contract length, plan type and monthly cost (Vodafone, 2012d). Hence, the mobile service providers play a critical role in the game of pricing. 5.3 Promotion Promotion, known as integrated marketing communications, plays an important role in the creation and delivery of the persuasive information for consumers and the establishment and enhancement of the interactive relationship between Vodafone and its customers. There are several strategies of integrated marketing communications developed by Vodafone, such as social media, advertising and internet-based platform. Vodafone, like most firms concerning their brand image and their interactive relationship with consumers, focuses on the application of social media. For example, Vodafone adopts Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo to implement the interactive communication with target consumers. Furthermore, Vodafone establishes the internet-based platform to improve the engagement of consumers in mobile service and communications. For instance, several forums, including Apple forum, BlackBerry forum, HTC forum and others (Vodafone, 2012e), make each specific target market engage in these forums to e xchange feedback and experience on these products and relevant services. 5.4 Place Place is described as the distribution networking facilitating Vodafone effectively deliver services and products for consumers. In fact, the effective distribution networking can help firms to shape their competitive advantages. Currently, there are two major distribution channels developed by Vodafone, including online store and real store. Firstly, Vodafone launched the online store to offer several aspects of mobile products and services, such as mobile phones, accessories, apps downloads and mobile services. The online store can save consumers time and money. Secondly, Vodafone, like O2 and Everything Everywhere, operates real stores to improve customer experience. 6.0 Recommendations This chapter will propose two recommendations for Vodafone to achieve its sustainable development in the long run, including social media, and customer relationship and relationship marketing. The first recommendation on the application of social media concerns the implementation of integrated marketing communications. The second recommendation on relationship marketing contains four aspects to implement relationship marketing, such as service quality, price perception, brand image and value offers. In the following, this chapter will described relevant theories on social media and integrated marketing communications and relationship marketing and propose several detailed practices for Vodafone. 6.1 Social Media Vodafone adopted social media including Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo to enhance the interactive communication with target consumers. From the theoretical perspective, social media is defined as activities, practices, and behaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media (Safko Brake, 2009, p. 6). Furthermore, these two researchers recognised that companies should integrate social media into their process of formulating and implementing marketing strategies. For consumers, social media plays a critical role in personal communication. Individuals enable to create and send their own understandings on Vodafone products and service, including good and bad feedback. However, compared with the traditional communications channels, such as advertising, sponsorship and public relations, Vodafone cannot control the contagion of user-generated information on the negative evaluation on Vodafone mobile services. Hence, it is difficult for Vodafone to manage social media. However, social media provides one of the most important measures, such as word of mouth. From the consumer perspective, the user-generated word of mouth may be more reliable and trusted in comparison with the Vodafone-generated information. For instance, Hanna (2008) stressed that more and more concerns review the online feedback on products or service experience from other consumers, which may exert its influence on their purchasing decision making. Based on the internet platform, individual consumers can share their experience and communicate with each other to become an influential opinion group. Vodafone should concern the development of these similar groups and engage in these groups to obtain their experience and information on products or service. The feedback and experience from consumers can help Vodafone to develop more effective marketing strategies. For the implication of social media for Vodafone, Vodafone should play an active role in the communication with target market under the circumstance of social media. For instance, Vodafone not only uses Twitter to send the information on products and services, but also employs YouTube to deliver the video on the practices of corporate social responsibility, such as social work for local communities. In particular, Vodafone should concern the contagion of the negative information and feedback and effective respond to these feedbacks. Furthermore, the resolution of the negative feedback not only may adjusts the negative attitude of consumers toward Vodafone and its mobile services, but also may recover consumer confidence and contribute to customer loyalty. 6.2 Customer Relationship and Relationship Marketing In terms of Tseng (2007), relationship marketing is described as the contemporary mainstream of marketing thoughts concerned with the establishment and maintenance of the strong relationship between firms and consumers. In this essence, the formulation and implementation of marketing strategies should be based on the comprehensive understanding on the changing needs of consumers. Compared with the traditional marketing thoughts, relationship marketing is more concerned with the long-term customer relationship, which consequently benefits both consumers and firms in the long run. Therefore, Vodafone should concern the building and maintenance of the strong relationship with consumers. In this section, there are several tactics contributing to the implementation of relationship marketing, such as service quality, price perception, value offered (Bansel, Taylor James, 2005) and brand image (Peng Wang, 2006). In the following, this section will explain the application of these four tac tics for Vodafone. Firstly, service quality distinctive from the quality of physical products contains several characteristics, such as intangible and produced and consumed simultaneously (Gronroos, 2000). Since service quality can be perceived by each consumer, each consumer may have different perception on the similar service quality. Hence, the trusted relationship between the frontline service employees and consumers plays a critical role in the enhancement of the perceived service quality. If consumer can perceive the superior service quality through the communication with the frontline service employees, the satisfied consumers can become the loyal consumers dedicated to the long-term mutual relationship with firms. Hence, Vodafone should concern the improvement and development of the frontline service employees to enhance the perceived service quality. Furthermore, there are various measures to improve the perceived service quality, such as service design and development and improvement of store environment. Secondly, price perception is more sensitive for consumers, since it considerably affects the final decision on purchasing behaviours. If consumers perceive the price beyond their expected, the higher price perception may exert its negative influence on their purchasing decision (Peng Wang, 2006). In terms of Cheng et al. (2008), there are two important dimensions determining the price perception, including reasonableness of price and comparison from competitors. For Vodafone, it should improve service quality to make consumers perceive the reasonableness of this price, but also concerns the fluctuation of prices developed by the competitors. Based on the fluctuation of prices developed by the competitors, Vodafone should evaluate the competitive situation and service of the competitors and make the reasonable decision to cope with the potential price war. Thirdly, referring to brand, Gronroos (2000) described brand as not first built and then perceived by the customers. Instead, every step in the branding process, every brand massages, is separately perceived by customers and together add up to a brand image, which is formed in customers minds (p.287). Hence, the building of brand image not only aims to marketing physical products and services through the predicted role of brand image, but also is involved in the sustainable development of a firm. For Vodafone, it is necessary for Vodafone to build and enhance the brand image of Vodafone. There are several detailed measures for Vodafone, including marketing communications and corporate social responsibility. The marketing communications measures contain advertising, sponsorship, and social media to enhance the brand image in the mind of consumers. In particular, the implementation of corporate social responsibility will significantly contribute to the building and enhancement of brand image of Vodafone, since most consumers believe that the practices and behaviours of corporate social responsibility can influence brand image in their mind and purchasing decision. Fourthly, value offers is that consumers will evaluate the value and cost of products and services. If consumers believe that they obtain value beyond the cost of products and services, they incline to purchase this product or service and produce customer satisfaction. According to Ravald Gronroos (1996), service providers should create and deliver the superior value for consumers through the enhancement of value offers, which consequently contributes to the improvement of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. For Vodafone, it should concern the creation and delivery of value offers. 7.0 Conclusion This report discusses three major issues of Vodafone including environmental evaluation, marketing strategies and recommendations. Referring to the SWOT analysis, there are several important insights, such as fierce competition, high penetration rate, low differentiation and innovation. After defining marketing objectives, marketing mix will be used for explaining marketing strategies of Vodafone.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
social roles in African Literature :: essays research papers
During the uprisings of the 1970s, Nadine Gordimer presented a very dreary and pessimistic prophecy to white and black South Africa in July’s People. This prophecy suggested a probable overthrow of the apartheid system which would challenge the currently existing social and racial roles of its inhabitants. Amid the chaos, traditional roles would be overturned and new ones are formed as the Smales accept their servant’s offer of refuge and flee to his village in the bush. Additionally, Zoe Wicomb describes the social and sexual roles that dominate Afrikaaners in You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town. Through a series of connected short stories, Wicomb’s narrator, Frieda Shenton, grows from childhood to womanhood in a community labeled as â€Å"colored.†These colored, people of racially mixed decent, were classified not on ethnic or cultural values, but rather based on skin color and appearance. To gain complete understanding of racial and sexual roles pre sent in the southern part of Africa, one must carefully examine both July’s People and You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town for semblances of an old social structure as the birth of a new nation develops.      In Wicomb’s You Can’t Get Lost in Cape Town, we are presented with a young girl, Frieda, transforming into a woman in a rural African village. Frieda is faced with the realization that apartheid has ghettoized the coloreds to live in dreadful conditions. It is through the suppression of this ghetto life along with the suppression of racial and sexual stereotypes that Frieda removes herself and gains her independence. Frieda’s changing sexuality is important for her maturation into a woman. Wicomb presents a sexual hierarchy of women as viewed from a colored perspective. Men can improve their social appearance through education, but for a woman, she must get married. A necessary ingredient for a successful marriage is to be pretty as suggested by Frieda’s mother: â€Å"Poor child†¦ What can a girl do without good looks? Who’ll marry you? We’ll have to put a peg on your nose†(164). Even in Frieda’s teenag e years, she never saw herself as attractive, for she saw herself as â€Å"too plump.†This â€Å"plumpness†is a direct result from her father urging her finish all her meals, as he saw skinniness unattractive. In addition, during the train ride to school, Frieda dreamt of a fairytale in which boys were regarded as princes and her role was not that of Cinderella, but rather that of the pumpkin.
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Personal Narrative - My First True Love :: Personal Narratives
My First True Love Teens deal with conflict on a day-to-day basis. This holds true especially for Jared. You could say Jared was your average everyday teenager. He plays the guitar in his free time and has a great number of friends. But as for girlfriends, that’s a different story. It’s not like he isn’t an attractive guy. He has shoulder-length brown hair, dark brown eyes and a smile that was incomparable. His guitar playing skills and singing ability would make a girl go through the roof. And for one special girl, they do. Jared has attended a summer camp for the past four years. During these four years at camp there are at least ten girls who fall for him. Any other guy would see this as great, but not Jared. For three out of the four years he was at camp Jared had Brittany waiting on him at home. Brittany and Jared adored each other. But this summer would be different. Jared attends camp not looking for anyone but ends up meeting Jessi. Jessi lives in Ohio County and this is her second year at the camp. Nothing really happens between them. They just become friends and promise to keep in touch until the next summer. The phone calls are endless with e-mails and online chats even longer. They are really starting to bond. By mid-September Jared’s mom, Kendra decides it’s time for everyone from the camp to meet up again before Halloween. She plans an all weekend sleepover at their house. Friends from all over the state will come and party the whole weekend through. The weekend before the big party, Lorraine, Jared’s best friend from camp comes in and helps his mom get the house ready. During that weekend, Brittany breaks Jared’s heart. She says she still loves him but isn’t in love with him. Jared is devastated. How could this be happening to him? Talking to Jessi on the phone helps because she was going through the same thing. Although Jessi won’t be able to make it to the party the following weekend, she calls often during that time to be there for Jared.
Retail Merchandising And In Store Operations Fashion Essay
IntroductionMany companies have acknowledged that bettering their shop layout ; they will be able to increase their figure of gross revenues per square pes. Even the architecture of a shop can take to an addition in gross revenues. Within the shop layout selling scheme, there are a figure of different facets to take into consideration such as – architecture, shop atmosphere and location, ocular selling and most significantly the shop layout. Ocular selling can be anything from the shop window show to hive away atmosphere, all of these artifacts are put into action when companies wish to increase their gross revenues per square pes. There are both positive and negative ways in which a alteration to a shop layout can increase the gross revenues per square pes for a company, as because of this legion actions must be considered before a company drastically changes their layout.Executive SummaryThe intent of this study was to research how shop layouts and betterments to a shop can increase the gross revenues per square pes. â€Å"Store layout and ocular selling are two of import factors that add to the peculiarity of a shop. The interior design of the shop plays a more critical role†as show on Indian MBA ( 2008 ) . Besides mentioned on Indian MBA ( 2008 ) â€Å"Space is ever an highly expensive and scarce resource. Retailers try to maximise the return on gross revenues per square foot.†This is the best manner to depict why retail merchants see the inside of their shop as the best manner in which they can increase these gross revenues per square pes. There are assorted types of shop layouts which retail merchants would see to increase their gross revenues per square pes. This study will analyze and research how retail design, shop layout and ocular selling can assist increase gross revenues per square pes, by the usage of research into trade publications every bit good as newspapers and other beginnings. Besides in this study, illustrations of shops that have successfully managed to increase their gross revenues per square pes will be mentioned.FindingssRetail architecture is a critical mechanism in the map of market intermediation. Retail architecture is defined as those market spaces that affect the relationship between supply and demand. Architecture can straight exemplify some shops societal meanings of retail relationships ; its ferociousness every bit good as its heat, and its societal category. For illustration Harrods has a high degree of retail architecture, as it is non merely a tourer attractive force due to its external historical architecture but it besides denotes people ‘s societal category as people who are of a higher societal position or societal category would be most likely to shop at Harrods. Liberty the British section shop has a high degree of grasp for its edifices history, as Creative Director Tamara Salman of vesture trade name Liberty of London adds to her aggregation the shops extraordinary 130 twelvemonth heritage. Liberty shop is able to construct upon their heritage to guarantee that they increase their gross revenues per square pes figure. With being such a strong and historical shop it is difficult for many new and approaching companies to be able to hold such a strong autumn back for increasing gross revenues. However, retail shop layouts are of import determiners of client behavior. UK manner retail merchants are able to garner critical information sing their mark consumers which in bend enable them to make insides which successful attract these groups. In the context of the shop layout, time-poor and extremely nomadic consumers require different infinites than shoppers who at leisure shop at price reductions, and selectively during gross revenues periods at assorted phases in the concern rhythm. Besides, gender differences in shopping can warrant rather specific alterations to manner shop formats and infinite allotment. Shop layouts and the ware offered are matched to the targeted consumers to the extent that clients ‘buy into ‘ branding statements. It is of import that the retail merchant additions a positive reaction to the new layout of its ware within the shop as a negative reaction would so do gross revenues to diminish. To guarantee that a company is utilizing the right type of shop layout, the retail merchant would look into their ain shop layout analysis. Within a shop layout analysis, careful consideration is given to the merchandises being sold and their location ; this can besides be seen as basic psychological science used to lure clients to pass more money normally through impulse purchasing. Retailers can besides increase their fight by closely aiming and carry throughing their clients ‘ demands. Tauber ( 1972 ) hypothesised three grounds for shopping ; personal motivations, societal motivations and impulse purchasing. Making consumer satisfaction involves presenting quality merchandises that meet their demands and is core in extremely competitory environments. The allotment of infinite within any shop can be on the footing of many factors such as historical gross revenues, day-to-day mean gross revenues, net incomes, borders, industry norms and strategic grounds. A shop layout must besides include infinite for indispensable maps such as stock list, client service desks and altering suites. For any retail merchant to hold success in increasing their gross revenues per square pes, the must look at a figure of facets such as their fixtures and adjustments, colorss of the shop inside, lighting, and window shows. Shop insides are designed in a manner which influences consumer behavior which is referred to as Ocular Merchandising. Company ocular merchants control the usage of equipment, shows, colorss, lights, music, atmosphere and floor direction within a shop.Musics:Music can be used to increase gross revenues per square pess, as music sets the tone of the environment within the shop and as peoples tempers change throughout the class of the twenty-four hours it is indispensable to besides hold music which reflects the temper of the clients. Music which is played during the forenoon should be high energy based as clients have tonss of energy and this would intend that a company would hold more people coming in and buying points during the forenoon hours. Music during the afternoon should be more laid-back as peoples energy degrees are diminishing and they are more loath to shop through the shop looking for their wanted points compared to those in the forenoon. Similarly to the forenoon during early eventide hours, clients respond better to somewhat more up-tempo vocals. Retailers should besides take into consideration their mark consumers when make up one's minding on what type of music they should hold playing in their shops.Coloring material:Colour is another factor that can lure clients into shopping at a specific shop, coloring material is immediate, emotional and memorable. Colours conveying out emotions and feelings automatically to clients, therefore it is indispensable to retail merchants to acquire the right coloring material balance for their shop. The coloring material blue is seen as a natural component, but it is besides connected with trust and stableness, hence retail merchant who use blue within their interior design in informing clients that they are trusty and apprehensible every bit good as confident. The coloring material viridity is found to be a successful coloring material when linked to hygiene and beauty, which is the chief coloring material for the company Body Shop. All Body Shop foreparts are green and have some signifier of a green coloring material within their inside. The Body Shop besides consists of natural colorss and forests doing clients experience a sense of freshness, good health, juvenility and the coloring material viridity can besides be linked to money. Colorss within the Purple class can be linked to the emotion or sense of royalty, luxury and religious. Again the shop Liberty nexus purple into their company in the usage of their web site, correspondence every bit good as their company gift bags, this enables their clients to go forth the shop with a sense of luxury which besides makes them more likely to come and buy from Liberty once more.Fixtures and Adjustments:Within any retail shop, the fixtures and adjustments are another cardinal component to increasing gross revenues per square pes. For shelves, oculus degree and somewhat above is the best place to sell garments from, as coloring material of the garment can catch clients eyes doing them halt to look at the point. Displaies should be kept simple, and have a subject to them. It is besides effectual to include the merchandises in usage or as a aggregation which can be paired up e.g. in Primark or Marks and Spencers, many points of dressing a paired together such as shirts are sectioned with pants, skirts and sport jackets as this enables the consumer to see what the point will look like paired with something else, this besides shows that they do non hold far to travel to obtain a matching jacket for a work skirt. Besides in Primark, places are normally opposite the formal or concern wear but situated closely to accoutrements such as pocketbooks and bags ; once more this is done so that the consumer does n't hold really far to go in order to finish the outfit they required. It is besides of import to hold impulse points which are normally located near to the boulder claies so that clients are more likely to buy these along with their inital shopping, this could be anything from socks to lip rubrics.Window show:Bright and colorful window shows can do the company shop window stand out from other rivals, nevertheless the usage of excessively many colorss can do the shop expression inexpensive and put clients off traveling into the shop. The lighting used within a shop forepart should be bright as this makes it more attractive and appealing to go throughing clients. A shop window is an ideal manner of pulling new and bing clients as you can utilize a shop window to construct the company image, showcase new reachings every bit good as merchandises that are in high demand. Window shows should be changed often to maintain mark clients and new clients interested in the company, and to do them halt and buy something. The section shop Selfridges is the most competent shop for their window shows as each window can state a different narrative based on whatever theme possibly inspirational at the clip. As Selfridges window show tells a shop more and more clients are intrigued to cognize what it is approximately and where they can happen the points shown in the window, this is how Selfridges additions an addition in their gross revenues per square pes.Lighting:Proper illuming can increase gross revenues by up to 20 % , hence all retail merchants will profit from utilizing the best bulbs possible when updating their shop layout. In 2010, John Lewis changed their shop lighting as the dim illuming which was antecedently in shop caused consumers to be less likely to pass money as dim lighting can do clients to experience tired. Retailers should do usage of topographic point visible radiations, as these can be used to foreground cardinal countries or even cardinal merchandises which may be committee based, therefore the more sold, the more money the company makes.Decision:As mentioned throughout this study, companies need to selectively make up one's mind which options will be best for them to be able to increase the gross revenues per square pess as the initial reaction of the clients to a new shop layout is the make up one's minding factor as to whether the company will aim more clients or lose clients as a consequence. Companies should pay close attending to the information they already poses about their clients and utilize this to their advantage, they should besides be cognizant of their rivals so that they are able to ever be one measure in front, hiking gross revenues as they go.
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