Marketing Research and Information Needs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Marketing Research and Information Needs - Essay Example Companies still mishandle 'line extension' projects that fail. It is imperative that new products for development be carefully chosen, "product strategy calls for complex decisions, among others, on product mix and product line" (Kotler and Armstrong, 1991, pp. 512-513). There has been a continuous rise in the demand for healthy snacks all over the world. This trend was essentially started in the United States as a result of a new health craze and obesity scare due to rising number of weight levels. Consumers now want to minimize their fat intake as well as reduce ingestion of other potential damaging sugar - substitute substances. This tendency to buy only 'healthy' foods has extended to the snack - food and drink sector where consumers want to enjoy snacks but at the same time not feel guilty or worried about potential damage to their health. The new trend towards healthier choices in snack - food was revealed by the speedy swap from carbonated drinks and carbohydrate ridden foods to 'non- carbs', "But with worldwide sales growth of carbonated beverages slowing, the growth lately has been found in non-carbonated beverages such as bottled water, teas, sports drinks, energy and health drinks, and ready-to-drink coffee" (Ashton, 2000). Health snacks had resulted in an entirely new mar... Carbonate- free drinks eventually led to a rise in the sports and energy drink sector. This market was originally dominated by PepsiCo's Gatorade and laid back SoBe. However, Coca Cola saw the potential in this sector and followed PepsiCo into energy drinks. Coca cola launched its original attempt in energy and sports drinks with PowerAde. PowerAde was declared a competitor to Gatorade and was marketed accordingly. Reaction to PowerAde in the market was feeble and Gatorade continued to lead. After several re - launches and alternations and modifications in the ingredients, PowerAde is now second runner up in the sports drink sector while Gatorade persists in remaining the first. Coca Cola started an energy drink brand, KMX, but still felt a gap in the market. Reactions to KMX were far from warm and Coca Cola required a product to fill up the space. In the first quarter of 2005, Coca Cola introduced Full Throttle, an energy drink. Full Throttle will compete with strong brands such as Red Bull as well as PepsiCo's SoBe range. External Pressures Leading to Change Requirement PepsiCo is swiftly gaining force in the international snack food market. Their success is credited largely to their lack of sentiment for their star performers, as Brady (2004) puts it, "What distinguishes PepsiCo from some competitors is an intense lack of sentimentality about its principal brands". PepsiCo asserts that it is keener to satisfying its customer's needs than preserving its existing product lines. New product introduction is PepsiCo's strategy of staying competitive, "By defining its mission as serving the customer rather than protecting its venerable brands, PepsiCo is hoping to stave off a stagnant middle age" (Brady, 2004). In order to continue to be innovative and to

Analysis of Strategic Risks in South Africa Essay

Analysis of Strategic Risks in South Africa - Essay Example This essay is one of the best examples of analysis of different specific kind of risks in political, social and economic environment of South Africa, that greatly influence a company operation. It critically looks at the political, economic, financial and social Risks and gives insights into how a corporation should position itself in order to gain the best of results in South Africa. Political risk refers to risks relating to the governance and control of the various peoples in a given nation. The inherent political risks in South Africa have to do with the nature of social exclusion practiced in the country for a long time. However, power is in the hand of a popular the Black African majority government. The constitution gives a lot of room for strikes, trade unionism and demonstrations, which reignites the strategy used by the Congress and the people power that comes with the current government. This means that a corporation entering the market needs to understand its microcosmic position and make adjustments to meet these elements of favoritism, nationalism, mass action and corruption. There is also economic risks that are connected with the high cost of doing business in South Africa and other factors like the entry of Chinese businesses who have control of affairs. There are also financial risks relating to credit risk and money transfer issues. Managing across culures is quite difficult. However, the cultural risk in South Africa is increased by the fact that the cultural diversity is huge. ... The World Cup brought South Africa surpluses in its balance of trade in the past year and increased its GDP its previous years’ data. With the weakening US Dollar, a business that seeks to operate in South Africa will find it relatively more expensive to trade in South Africa that it would in other parts of the world. Unemployment Unemployment rates in South Africa currently stand at 25.3% and this is blamed on the people’s demands for high wages and better working conditions than other parts of the world (SouthAfrica.Info, 2011). This therefore presents a labor risk to the nation. This is because these conditions show that clearly, labor is expensive in the country. This therefore means that any business that seeks to open up a branch in this country needs to be willing to pay more for labor. International Trade International trade in South Africa is increasingly becoming skewed in favor of the Brazil, India, China and Russia and nations like China in particular has a lot of control in the affairs of South Africa (SouthAfrica.Info, 2011). This therefore means that any company from a country not in this category risks losing out to the competition posed by these nations that are favoured by international treaty in South Africa. This therefore makes it more prudent for a corporation to consider other international expansion options that makes good use of outsourcing to remain competitive and acquire a favorable image in the South African market. Financial Risks General Financial Risks The World Bank gives South Africa 68% for credit worthiness indicating that although it is a low risk country to do business in there is still some risk to do business there (Adar, 2008) The Currency Risks South Africa’s Rand is quite stable

Critical thinking Essay Example for Free

Critical thinking Essay Utilitarianists are often persecuted for holding a morality in which the end always justifies the means, no matter how repulsive it may be to intuitional moral standards. Hare attempts to quiet controversy by combining act and rule utilitarianism in daily life in such a way that internal moral standards are satisfied and overall good is promoted. Kymlicka stays firm in his opposition to Hare’s theories and shuns the idea of consequentialism having intrinsic value greater than that of intuitive moral standards. Hare’s process of critical thinking combined with intuitionism leads to a flawless conclusion based on systematic procedure that will benefit the most people in the long term even against Kymlicka’s well thought out arguments. Kymlicka thinks that utilitarianism bypasses immediate obligations that should be fulfilled. He believes that utilitarianists’ foresight actually hinders their ability to do what is â€Å"right† or â€Å"just† in the present. He also believes that utilitarianism gives too much weight to illegitimate preferences, meaning that utilitarianists can often choose to do the worse option in consideration in order to satiate a desire for immoral happiness. In the specific case that he puts forward, Kymlicka uses the simple example of an everyday action in which a loan is given to him and he faces the moral dilemma of whether or not he should repay it. He believes that the utilitarianist might keep the money or give it away rather than repaying it if he thought that it would produce the most good in the end to himself or some other party. One may argue that by loaning out money it is consensual and therefore cannot be categorized as theft when the amount is not repaid. However, the loan was made with the qualification and equal understanding that the money would be repaid. Since Kymlicka uses the term â€Å"loan,† he is very much aware that he has the obligation to pay the money back. This may be called breaking a promise as well as theft, so it is doubly breaking a moral standard. Herein lays Kymlicka’s problem with utilitarianism and its criteria of morality. Phil 434 First Writing Assignment 1. Due Mon. Sep 13 Hare believes that there are two levels to moral thinking – critical and intuitive. Critical thinking is systematic and calculated while intuitive thinking is vaguer and based on feelings rather than a systematic procedure. It is said that each person starts at the intuitive level and then progresses to the critical level with age and maturity in understanding. He uses the example of two beings from opposite ends of the spectrum to show what one must be to think purely critically or intuitively – an archangel and a prole. The archangel has no human flaws thus can think critically all the time, and a prole has human flaws to an extreme degree thus must rely on intuitive thinking all the time. Consequentialism is the major theme of critical thinking, which aims to promote the most good to the most people in the end. He postulates, however, that since the human condition is flawed and cannot predict with certainty and without bias what is best in the long run, intuition must be used. Where intuition comes from is a controversial subject – but most believe that upbringing and environment have a strong effect on it and therefore may be tampered with. Since both levels have the possibility to be flawed, they must be used in conjunction. Vacillating between the two is the only way to make good moral decisions throughout one’s entire life. It can be argued that the two levels agree many times in normal day-to-day cases since there is a commonality to moral thinking, such as the law of non-maleficence. Both place in high respect accomplishing what is â€Å"good,† but both have different criteria as to what qualifies – namely what promotes the most good versus what you intuitively know to be the right thing to do. According to the utilitarianist, in a perfect world, critical thinking would be used all the time. Since humans have limits, however, Hare allows and even encourages intuitionism to be used and used often even though he views critical thinking to be superior. One cannot expect to sever himself of all emotion and possess the capability to see the exact outcomes of all possible Phil 434 First Writing Assignment 2.

L.a. confidential :: essays research papers

Commonly, when we make value judgements about people we speak as if there were a single norm towards which everyone ought to be growing. They're supposed to succeed in becoming perfect specimens. You can tell whether they do by seeing how well they perform according to a checklist of desired features. We also speak as if people have an outside and an inside, and that on the inside, they're really either good or bad. It's hard to analyze Ellroy's characters in these terms. For Bud White we'd have to say that he was warped by his early trauma. What his father did to him made him a brute, yet he still has enough inner decency to try to prevent women from being abused. Or—Wait a minute!—is it the opposite? Maybe, he's a brute by nature and it's only thanks to the terrible thing that happened to his mother that he has some morality. Neither of these explanations seems to satisfy, because the framework on which they are constructed is inadequate. Bud doesn't seem to fit into a dichotomy of outside versus inside. Also, the things that make him bad seem more or less identical to the things that make him good: his hatred of violence towards women, his blind persistence. Bud White doesn't seem to have had any chance at perfection. So, what can he do then, assuming he wants to make a decent adult out of himself? Maybe Bud has to start out from where he is and we have to interpret his current actions against that background instead of comparing them to an abstract, one-size-fits-all standard. L.A. Confidential is about three men and a woman who find themselves in medias res. They don't get any single chance to decide forever what they'll be. They're already on the wrong side. They don't seem to be able to separate out their imperfections from their perfections, so their job seems to be to take all of what they've got, including their neuroses and the ghosts from their past, and to use it as raw material to continuously reconstruct themselves. They can't make themselves perfect: the moving finger has already written and moved on. The things that they go through, terrible as they are, do give them a chance to make themselves better.

Review of Kelly and Kulman’s Article Kid Power

The article chosen for review is â€Å"Kid Power† by Katy Kelly and Linda Kulman, U. S. News ; World Report. It was posted on September 5, 2004. The article discusses the psychology and marketing that is accomplished by major companies. Advertising companies spend over $15 billion a year telling kids what is hot and what they need to buy. Kids are surrounded with carefully researched messages and marketing telling them what to do.The parenting style has become more flexible and less authoritarian in the last 25 years. All this tiny consumers in United States will recognize logos at the age of 18 months and by 2 children will ask products by brand name. It should be noted that a child will watch 40,000 commercials every year and some parents reported that the baby’s first words was not â€Å"mama† or â€Å"dada† but â€Å"Coke†. United States with only 4. 5 percent of the population buys 45 percent of the global toy production.American kids will get an average of 70 new toys a year. Kids will influence the family decision buying power of parent by 670 billion worth of purchases, small items such as which snacks to buy and large items as a SUV for the family trips with the kids. If we compare the military budget in United States is 418 billion, much smaller than the kids buying power. There is a strong opposition to this barrage of advertising by many fronts.That is why marketers count on kids to nag parents to the point of purchase. The American Psychological Association added its voice to that of the American Academy of Pediatrics is reporting that advertising is directed toward children and is deceptive and exploits children under age 8. Also, the APA says that before the age of 4 or 5, kids can not distinguish between a show and a commercial. In the future most likely we will see legislation to curve the limit on advertising to children.

Credability of Eyewitness Testimony Essay - 852 Words

Credability of Eyewitness Testimony Is Eyewitness testimony reliable and accurate? Include case studies to back this up. EWT refers to evidence supplied by people who witness a specific event or crime, relying on their own memory. Statements often include descriptions given in a criminal trial and subsequent identification by individuals who were present at the crime scene. EWT is likely to dependent on reconstructive memory(Bartlett,1932) which describes how memory is more than a passive recall. It is the active process of building up memory using fragments to fill gaps of an event in memory plus the expectations and assumptions (schema) of that event. This form of EWT is not 100%†¦show more content†¦Emotion can also affect the accuracy of memory. It can enhance recall or suppress it. Loftus (1979) was called as an expert witness on the psychology of memory initial of a shop assistant, Melville, had identified a robber Jose Garcia. One of the points she made into memory was research, was about the effects of emotion. Melville was in a state of extreme distress after seeing a colleague was shot, and psychologists have found that arousal of stress have a negative on memory recall- especially the STM. Although the EWT is useful, Bartlett and Loftus has been very useful in highlighting the potential biases in EWT and these insights have been applied to the cognitive interview. Loftus research on EWT has had a positive impact on police and court procedures, as it highlighted that leading questions should be avoided, and so the answer must not be implied in the question; and it identified the distorting effect of post-event information and so information should not be given away to the witness inadvertently (or not) in questioning. For example, the

Maurya Empire First Dynasty to Rule Most of India

The Mauryan Empire (324–185 BCE), based in the Gangetic plains of India and with its capital city at Pataliputra (modern Patna), was one of many small political dynasties of the early historic period whose development included the original growth of urban centers, coinage, writing, and eventually, Buddhism. Under the leadership of Ashoka, the Mauryan Dynasty expanded to include most of the Indian subcontinent, the first empire to do so. Described in some texts as a model of efficient economic management, Mauryas wealth was established in land and sea trade with China and Sumatra to the east, Ceylon to the south, and Persia and the Mediterranean to the west. International trade networks in goods such as silks, textiles, brocades, rugs, perfumes, precious stones, ivory, and gold were exchanged within India on roads tied into the Silk Road, and also through a thriving merchant navy. King List/Chronology There are several sources of information about the Mauryan dynasty, both in India and in the Greek and Roman records of their Mediterranean trading partners. These records agree on the names and reigns of five leaders between 324 and 185 BCE. Chandragupta Maurya 324–300 BCEBindusara 300–272 BCEAsoka 272–233 BCEDasaratha 232–224Brihadratha (assassinated in 185 BCE) Founding The origins of the Mauryan dynasty are somewhat mysterious, leading scholars to suggest that the dynastic founder was likely of a non-royal background. Chandragupta Maurya established the dynasty in the last quarter of the 4th century BCE (circa 324–321 BCE) after Alexander the Great had left Punjab and the northwestern parts of the continent (circa 325 BCE). Alexander himself was only in India between 327–325 BCE, after which he returned to Babylon, leaving several governors in his place. Chandragupta ousted the leader of the small Nanda Dynasty polity ruling the Ganges Valley at the time, whose leader Dhana Nanda was known as Agrammes/Xandrems in Greek classical texts. Then, by 316 BCE, he also had removed most of the Greek governors, expanding the Mauryan realm to the northwest frontier of the continent. Alexanders General Seleucus In 301 BCE, Chandragupta battled Seleucus, Alexanders successor and the Greek governor who controlled the eastern sector of Alexanders territories. A treaty was signed to resolve the dispute, and the Mauryans received Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan), Paraopanisade (Kabul), and Gedrosia (Baluchistan). Seleucus received 500 war elephants in exchange. In 300 BCE, Chandraguptas son Bindusara inherited the kingdom. He is mentioned in Greek accounts as Allitrokhates/Amitrokhates, which likely refers to his epithet amitraghata or slayer of foes. Although Bindusara did not add to the empires real estate, he did maintain friendly and solid trade relationships with the west. Asoka, Beloved of the Gods The most famous and successful of the Mauryan emperors was Bindusaras son Asoka, also spelled Ashoka, and known as Devanampiya Piyadasi (the beloved of the gods and of beautiful looks). He inherited the Mauryan kingdom in 272 BCE. Asoka was considered a brilliant commander who crushed several small revolts and began an expansion project. In a series of terrible battles, he expanded the empire to include most of the Indian subcontinent, although how much control he maintained after the conquering is debated in scholarly circles. In 261 BCE, Asoka conquered Kalinga (present day Odisha), in an act of terrible violence. In an inscription known as the 13th Major Rock Edict (see full translation), Asoka had carved: Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation. One hundred and fifty thousand were deported, one hundred thousand were killed and many more died (from other causes). After the Kalingas had been conquered, Beloved-of-the-Gods came to feel a strong inclination towards the Dhamma, a love for the Dhamma and for instruction in Dhamma. Now Beloved-of-the-Gods feels deep remorse for having conquered the Kalingas.   At its height under Asoka, the Mauryan empire included land from Afghanistan in the north to Karnataka in the south, from Kathiawad in the west to northern Bangladesh in the east. Inscriptions Much of what we know of the Mauryans comes from Mediterranean sources: although the Indian sources never mention Alexander the Great, the Greeks and Romans certainly knew of Asoka and wrote of the Mauryan empire. The Romans such as Pliny and Tiberius were particularly unhappy with the huge drain on resources required to pay for Roman imports from and through India. In addition, Asoka left written records, in the form of inscriptions on native bedrock or on movable pillars. They are the earliest inscriptions in South Asia. These inscriptions are found in more than 30 places. Most of them were written in a type of Magadhi, which may have been Ashokas official court language. Others were written in Greek, Aramaic, Kharosthi, and a version of Sanskrit, depending on their location. They include Major Rock Edicts at sites located on the bordering regions of his realm, Pillar Edicts in the Indo-Gangetic valley, and Minor Rock Edicts distributed all over the realm. The subjects of the inscriptions were not region-specific but instead consist of repetitive copies of texts attributed to Asoka. In the eastern Ganges, especially near the India-Nepal border that was the heartland of the Mauryan Empire, and the reported birthplace of the Buddha, highly polished monolithic sandstone cylinders are carved with Asokas scripts. These are relatively rare—only a dozen are known to survive—but some are more than 13 meters (43 feet) tall. Unlike most Persian inscriptions, Asokas are not focused on the aggrandizement of the leader, but rather convey royal activities in support of the then-nascent religion of Buddhism, the religion that Asoka embraced after the disasters at Kalinga. Buddhism and the Mauryan Empire Prior to Asokas conversion, he, like his father and grandfather, was a follower of the Upanishads and philosophical Hinduism, but after experiencing the horrors of Kalinga, Asoka began to support the then fairly esoteric ritual religion of Buddhism, adhering to his own personal dhamma (dharma). Although Asoka himself called it a conversion, some scholars argue that Buddhism at this time was a reform movement within the Hindu religion. Asokas idea of Buddhism included absolute allegiance to the king as well as a cessation of violence and hunting. Asokas subjects were to minimize sin, do meritorious deeds, be kind, liberal, truthful, pure, and grateful. They were to avoid fierceness, cruelty, anger, jealousy, and pride. Do seemly behavior to your parents and teachers, he cajoled from his inscriptions, and be kind to your slaves and servants. Avoid sectarian differences and promote the essence of all religious ideas. (as paraphrased in Chakravarti) In addition to the inscriptions, Asoka convened the Third Buddhist Council  and sponsored the construction of some 84,000 brick and stone stupas honoring the Buddha. He built the Mauryan Maya Devi Temple on the foundations of an earlier Buddhist temple and sent his son and daughter to Sri Lanka to spread the doctrine of dhamma. But Was it a State? Scholars are strongly divided as to how much control Asoka had over the regions he conquered. Often the limits of the Mauryan empire are determined by the locations of his inscriptions. Known political centers of the Mauryan Empire include the capital city of Pataliputra (Patna in Bihar state), and four other regional centers at Tosali (Dhauli, Odisha), Takshasila (Taxila, in Pakistan), Ujjayini (Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh) and Suvanergiri (Andhra Pradesh). Each of these was ruled by princes of the royal blood. Other regions were said to be maintained by other, non-royal people, including Manemadesa in Madhya Pradesh, and Kathiawad in western India. But Asoka also wrote of known but unconquered regions in south India (Cholas, Pandyas, Satyputras, Keralaputras) and Sri Lanka (Tambapamni). The most telling evidence for some scholars is the rapid disintegration of the empire after Ashokas death. Collapse of the Mauryan Dynasty After 40 years in power, Ashoka died in the invasion by Bactrian Greeks at the end of the 3rd c BCE. Most of the empire disintegrated at that time. His son Dasaratha ruled next, but only briefly, and according to the Sanskrit Puranic texts, there were a number of short-term leaders. The last Maurya ruler, Brihadratha, was killed by his commander-in-chief, who founded a new dynasty, less than 50 years after Ashokas death. Primary Historical Sources Megasthenes, who as the Seleucid envoy to Patna wrote a description of Maurya, the original of which is lost but several pieces are excerpted by the Greeks historians Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and ArrianThe Arthasastra of Kautilya, which is a compilation treatise on Indian statecraft. One of the authors was Chanakya, or Kautilya, who served as chief minister in Chandraguptas courtAsokas inscriptions on rock surfaces and pillars Fast Facts Name:  Mauryan Empire Dates: 324–185 BCE Location: Gangetic plains of India.  At its largest, the empire stretched from  Afghanistan in the north to Karnataka in the south, and from Kathiawad in the west to northern Bangladesh in the east. Capital: Pataliputra (modern Patna) Estimated population: 181 million   Key locations:  Tosali (Dhauli, Odisha), Takshasila (Taxila, in Pakistan), Ujjayini (Ujjain, in Madhya Pradesh) and Suvanergiri (Andhra Pradesh) Notable leaders: Established by Chandragupta Maurya,  Asoka  (Ashoka, Devanampiya Piyadasi) Economy: Land and sea trade based Legacy: First dynasty to rule over most of India. Helped popularize and expand Buddhism as a major world religion. Sources Chakravarti, Ranabir. Mauryan Empire. The Encyclopedia of Empire. John Wiley Sons, Ltd, 2016. Print.Coningham, Robin A.E., et al. The Earliest Buddhist Shrine: Excavating the Birthplace of the Buddha, Lumbini (Nepal). Antiquity 87.338 (2013): 1104–23. Print.Dehejia, Rajeev H., and Vivek H. Dehejia. Religion and Economic Activity in India: An Historical Perspective. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology 52.2 (1993): 145–53. Print.Dhammika, Shravasti. The Edicts of King Asoka: An English Rendering. The Wheel Publication 386/387. Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993. Web accessed 3/6/2018.King, Robert D. The Poisonous Potency of Script: Hindi and Urdu. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2001.150 (2001): 43. Print.Magee, Peter. Revisiting Indian Rouletted Ware and the Impact of Indian Ocean Trade in Early Historic South Asia. Antiquity 84.326 (2010): 1043-54. Print.McKenzie-Clark, Jaye. Distinguishing between Rouletting and Chatter ing on Ancient Mediterranean Pottery. American Journal of Archaeology 119.1 (2015): 137–43. Print.Smith, Monica L. Networks, Territories, and the Cartography of Ancient States. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95.4 (2005): 832–49. Print.Smith, Monica L., et al. Finding History: The Locational Geography of Ashokan Inscriptions in the Indian Subcontinent. Antiquity 90.350 (2016): 376–92. Print.