Marketing Mixmarketing Mix Essay Example for Free

Marketing Mixmarketing Mix Essay 1. Marketing Research : A new product strategy will ultimately need to be tested through focus groups, phone surveys and beta tests. Focus groups are sessions where company managers observe consumers through a one-way mirror. A moderator or interviewer will ask the consumers questions related to the companys product concept, including their likes, dislikes and suggestions for the product. This information is usually evaluated later to help tweak the product concept. After focus groups, companies use phone surveys to obtain a more reliable sample about the markets reaction to the product. 2. Product Positioning: Product positioning is a best practice strategy used for both new and existing products. Small companies typically use a grid when developing a product positioning matrix. The objective of product positioning is to determine which segment of the market to place a product. Companies often use two important product variables in a product positioning matrix. For hot cereal, these variables may include price and time to cook. The product price can be low or high, and the time to cook the cereal can be slow or quick. Consequently, segments for hot cereal may be low price/quick to cook, low price/slow to cook, high price/quick to cook or high price/slow to cook. A small company will usually plot its existing products as well as competitive products within the various segments. The segment with the least amount of plotting points may indicate an opportunity for the company, as that particular segment is under-served. Place of Distribution Strategies Depending on the type of product being distributed there are three common distribution strategies available: 1. Intensive distribution: Used commonly to distribute low priced or impulse purchase products eg chocolates, soft drinks. 2. Exclusive distribution: Involves limiting distribution to a single outlet. The product is usually highly priced, and requires the intermediary to place much detail in its sell. An example of would be the sale of vehicles through exclusive dealers. 3. Selective Distribution: A small number of retail outlets are chosen to distribute the product. Selective distribution is common with products such as computers, televisions household appliances, where consumers are willing to shop around and where manufacturers want a large geographical spread. Pricing Strategies 1. Penetration pricing: Here the organization sets a low price to increase sales and market share. Once market share has been captured the firm may well then increase their price. A television satellite company sets a low price to get subscribers then increases the price as their customer base increases. 2. Skimming pricing: The organization sets an initial high price and then slowly lowers the price to make the product available to a wider market. The objective is to skim profits of the market layer by layer. A games console company reduces the price of their console over 5 years, charging a premium at launch and lowest price near the end of its life cycle. 3. Competition pricing: Setting a price in comparison with competitors. Really a firm has three options and these are to price lower, price the same or price higher. Some firms offer a price matching service to match what their competitors are offering. Promotion Strategies 1. Public relations: Involves developing positive relationships with the organization media public. The art of good public relations is not only to obtain favorable publicity within the media, but it is also involves being able to handle successfully negative attention. 2. Internet Marketing: Promoting and selling your services online using various forms of online marketing techniques such as banner advertisements, videos or social media. 3. Sponsorship: Where you pay an organization to use your brand or logo. This organization usually has a high profile so that you know that your brand will be seen by a large audience. Most common use of sponsorship is with sporting events. The 2012 Olympics being held in London is being sponsored by a number of organizations such as Mcdonalds and Coca-Cola as the event will attract a worldwide audience that will run into hundreds of millions.

Mark Twains Influence on Realism

Mark Twains Influence on Realism Realism brought about events and characters with-in stories that could be easily imagined and related too. The main contributor during the period of realism was Mark Twain with his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain incorporated his own real life experiences into the novels he wrote. Twain expresses many beliefs within society of the time period. Twain accurately and vividly describes settings, places, and emotions. Twains depiction of the morals and events of the main character in the novel are the most important part of how the story incorporates realism. Realism in American Literature was most prominent between the Civil War and the turn of the century. Realism incorporates many aspects of life so the reader is easily able to relate to the characters and events. Social class is very important within this period of writing. The characters are more important than any other aspect of the story, without a well developed and accurate character the story will fall apart. Realism writing does not include any type of poetic vocabulary. The vocabulary used in realism writing is normal speech, terms that people use every day that may not be proper English but a accepted among impersonal conversations. During the time period that this style of writing thrived America was growing and changing as a nation, this provided the perfect habitat for realism writing to flourish (Realism in American Literature). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about a neglected young teenage boy. His name is Huck Finn. His father is a mean drunk. The book begins in St. Peters Missouri where his father and he both live. The book tells about the Huck and Toms adventures in great detail. The novel is told using first person point of view. This viewpoint allows the reader to easily connect with the story because it is told as if the reader was right their interpreting the events himself (Twain). Twain gives the two main characters of the book, Tom and Huck, realistic character traits. Both boys live befriend each other and the longer they are friends the more their friendship grows and develops. The boys portray a nice and sincere attitude, but they use a devious and teenage attitude much more. They both tend to get into trouble like any teenager would (Twain). Twains dialogue throughout the story is common talk. This means the story does not include any poetic writings or anything of that nature. The dialogue is true spoken as if it was just a conversation between to normal people. No overly fancy words are used, just normal well known and common vocabulary. Using common vocabulary within story dialect is a crucial part in allowing the reader to relate to the characters. Mark Twain even tells the reader beforehand within the preface of the book about his dialects: In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremist form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary Pike County dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech (Twain Explanatory). Mark Twains characters are well developed and described. The main character Huck is a thoughtful boy who is very intelligent as far as street smarts go, unfortunately he lacks much of a formal education (Lombardi). Huck is constantly forming his own conclusions about matters going on in the world during his life. An example of his conclusions about important matters in the world is the treatment of black people, Huck feels they are normal humans and should not be treated any differently then himself. This conclusion like many other of Hucks conclusions goes against the grain of society. Tom, Hucks best friend, is basically Hucks other half; whatever Huck lacks in character Tom makes up for. Tom has a wild imagination and is a great thinker. Tom is highly influenced by society, unlike Huck. These influences and the effect they have on Tom encourage Huck is his choice to ignore and disregard the common society thinking and come up with his own conclusions on controversial matters (Byrn e). Mark Twains settings were vividly described. He was able to achieve such accuracy within his description because of past experiences with in his life; most notably his experience as a steamboat pilot. He used a memory of a sunset he had once seen while out on the boat. He describes this sunset in the novel. The vivid description can be seen within just the first several lines of the 1 page description: The first thing to see, looking away over the water, was a kind of dull line that was the woods on tother side; you couldnt make nothing else out; then a pale place in the sky; then more paleness spreading around; then the river softened up away off, and warnt black any more, but gray; you could see little dark spots drifting along ever so far away-trading-scows (Twain 163) Mark Twain clearly influenced the development of realism with his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book was able to be related to be so many that it became very controversial. When the book first came out in the year 1884 it was not long after in 1885 that the book was banned from the Concord Public Library (Lombardi). Even through the banning of the book in some areas it still reached many people and had a huge impact. Twain paved the road for Realism writing and no other novel will have as much influence on the time period as his did. Works Cited Byrne, William F. Realism, Romanticism, and Politics in Mark Twain. 24 March 2004. 24 December 2009 . Lombardi, Esther. About.com: Classic Literature. 4 December 2009. 14 December 2009 . Realism in American Literature. 14 July 2008. 12 December 2009 . Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. New York: Barnes Noble Books, 1885.

Mrs. Mallards Moment of Illumination in Story Of An Hour Essay

MRS. MALLARD’S â€Å"BRIEF MOMENT OF ILLUMINATION† Mrs. Mallard’s "brief moment of illumination" is a very deep and touching story about a lady who is forced to be married to a man she did not really know and did not love deeply with all her heart, as if she is bound with unhappiness for life! Now she has been liberated. The narrator portrays that was feeling a kind of freedom that she could not describe, but does not know how to deal with it. In this essay matters such as this freedom she was feeling, the little love she had for her husband, the "monstrous joy" she was feeling will be discussed. Matters such as women’s issues and their feelings towards life and death are also included in this essay. These matters are all part of Mrs. Mallard’s "brief moment of illumination". "Story of an Hour" was written and published in 1894. This story was written in an era where a lot of questions where risen, about who the dominant sex was and why. This story was written to share with the world how men treated women in that era and how men really felt about women. Women were forced to be with men and were bound to be unhappy. The biggest question was the "Women’s Question". What role the women fulfilled in the society and that the female species were the less dominant species. Men were the overriding species, women were forced to do things they did not want to do and were forced to be with men they did not really love and care for. In the "Story of an Hour" Mrs. Mallard is also force being with a person she did not really know. She never really loved him and cared for him the way she was supposing to. Mrs. Mallard was treated the same as all the women were treated in that era, badly and were abused in many ways if they did not do what th... ...ut it is not. The whole hour is about her inner conflict about her freedom and if she has been â€Å"wildly abandoned† by her husband and the feeling of freedom that she can not handle. This concludes the essay about Mrs. Mallard’s â€Å"brief moment of illumination†. This essay has discussed everything that was mentioned in the introduction paragraph. The paragraph illustrates the narrator’s depiction of Mrs. Mallard’s â€Å"brief moment of illumination† very well. This shows her inner conflict she is fighting inside of her mind and thoughts about the freedom she has received and that she is bound to it and she does not know how to deal with it. Bibliography 1. Starfield, Jane, 2008, Anthology of Poetry & Short Stories (A Reader for 2008) 2. Ferguson, I, 1997, Cross-Currents: An Anthology of Short Stories. Hatfield: Acacia Books 3. www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/hour/

The iPod Essay -- Essays Papers

The iPod Perhaps it has escaped your notice, but it seems that recently everyone is jumping on the iPod bandwagon. Those thin white cords seems to dangle from everyone’s ears, and the tell-tale rectangular bulge is seen in every other back pocket. Well, not only did I notice the bandwagon passing me by daily in the hallways, but I decided to jump on the iPod bandwagon myself. And now the question is, have YOU jumped on the iPod bandwagon The iPod leads the contemporary revolution in portable digital music, and has come to be one of Apple’s hottest selling item. Weighing in at just 5.6 ounces and not much larger than your standard cigarette pack, the iPod is the answer to taking your tunes with you wherever you want to go. That is if you can afford the $299 that you’ll be set back for a 20GB model, or the $399 you’ll dish out for 40GB of iPod magic. But if you just can’t squeeze out that kind of cash, you could always settle for the iPod Mini, iPod’s little sister, that sells for $249, and still holds 1,000 songs - that’s enough to get you through a long weekend, or better ye...

The Reality Of Bertrandes Innocence Essay -- essays research papers

It seems as though in today’s society, suspicion lies in every corner. No one trusts anyone anymore, everyone lies, everyone steals, everyone pretends to be someone they are not. However true or false these statements might be, there is a need in today’s society to be able to explain everything, coming up with every possible lie or predicament within every story. Natalie Davis is from today’s society, and once again, she has found the need to investigate Bertrande Guerre’s role within The Return of Martin Guerre. The only pieces of evidence that are reliable come from Jean de Coras, the main judge in the trial. However, Davis seems to have ignored his findings, and founded her own. For most of her points, there is no written evidence to back her up. She simply read and interpreted the story, as many historians must do to come up with plausible reasons for things; however, she interpreted the evidence incorrectly. This impostor known as Arnaud du Tilh, who played a husband, father, friend, nephew and brother for three years, deceived an entire town. However, Davis has chosen Bertrande Guerre as a co-conspirator, with little grounds to base her conclusion upon. Therefore, I still have found that Bertrande Guerre truly believed that Arnaud du Tilh was her husband, making her an unknowing player in the entire charade.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Natalie Davis made the point that Bertrande must have known that the new Martin was an impostor due to their sexual relationship and the differences therein (110). However, this point is hard to believe due to the fact that Bertrande and Martin were married for nine years without having intercourse, and when they finally did, it was in order to conceive their future son, Sanxi (Finlay, 558). Only a few months after Sanxi was born, Martin disappeared for over eight years, which is a long time for a woman to remember the specific details of a sexual relationship that couldn’t have lasted for more than a few months (Finlay, 558). Even if Bertrande had noticed a difference in the sexual relationship, she would have doubted her recollections, not having any kind of proof or true memories of those sexual experiences (Finlay, 558). This â€Å"new Martin† could have also become more sexually experienced while soldiering, explaining his newfound confidence (Finlay, 558).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The two men seemed to have com... ...wn, Natalie Davis made up a tale of what happened, ignoring the actual story that had been recorded by one of the lead characters who was there at the time, Jean de Coras. While her points had good merit, there was little evidence besides her opinion and suspicion that backed her up. Bertrande de Rols was deceived by this man, just as everyone else was. Whether she enjoyed her time spent with Arnaud is not important, it is whether or not she was fooled. While there were many who were suspicious, and many who were uncertain of Bertrande’s innocence, there was not a majority that truly believed she was a co-conspirator. She was not proven guilty by Jean de Coras nor was no proven guilty by the townspeople. The townspeople had fallen for Arnaud’s acting, and it is certain that Bertrande had fallen for it as well. And as each of these people would say, Arnaud was a wonderful actor, who was educated in Martin’s life and the people within it. Stories such as these are reminders as to why history is not always objective, and that historians have the right to interpret it in any way that they choose. However, a good historian will always have his critic.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Effects of a Strong or Weak Philippine Peso Currency Essay

Two conflicting stories came out of a national paper this week. One announced that exporters are badly hurt by the appreciating peso while the other states that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) claims that the surging currency is beneficial to the Philippine economy. Those stories seem to tell the Filipinos that we cannot have our cake and eat it too. Whenever there is a good effect, there is a corresponding draw back. Let us take the first statement. There are two types of exporters. One is who imports raw materials, processes it and exports the finished product. The other is one who buys or produces the raw material locally, processes it and exports the result. In the first case, we export only labor. In the second, we export labor and raw material converted by labor into finished product. When the peso is weak, more pesos are spent to buy raw materials. The product is sold to earn a strong dollar. Then labor is paid in weak peso. When the peso is strong, there will be less pesos spent acquiring raw material. Then the finished product is sold earning weak dollars. There will be more dollars needed to pay labor in strong pesos. What exporters are afraid of is our finished product will be less competitive in the world market if a strong peso raises production costs. Labor costs will rise because there will be more dollars to be converted to pesos to be spent for labor. What will be affected are the export processing zones. Finished products will be less competitive in the world market. Profits will dive and factories may close. On the other hand, the quality of the peso in the world market is raised. We will need less pesos to service our external debt in dollars. There will be more investors coming because they can earn more than when the peso is weak. Philippine economy will be stronger. There will be more investors coming because the strong peso earned will compensate their efforts. The BSP argues that the peso surge is but temporary. Market forces will eventually force the peso to seek its level. Overseas workers are the ones responsible for the strong peso. When remittances slow down the peso will depreciate. There is a tendency for the overseas workers to live permanently in the place where they work if the government of the country will allow. The sad part of the business is that even if the peso appreciates, it is never felt locally. Local prices will remain the same. Take for example oil products. If the world market for liquid petroleum gas rises, our local prices rise along with it. If it falls the peso price for Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) will remain the same. Even if the peso appreciates, there is still no roll back in LPG prices. There must be something wrong with our economics. Perhaps we would be much thankful that the peso appreciates. We are an importing country. Since birth we have been conditioned to believe that anything imported is excellent. Imported wines, whiskeys, cigarettes, chocolates, perfumes and cars are better appreciated than local products. With the appreciating pesos, plus the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff all imported luxuries will now be within the reach of the locals. The incoming dollars will go out again. Our overseas workers will have to stay longer if not forever just to keep our economy afloat. While economy is on the rise, we do not institute measures to keep it up. Our economic planners must pull their acts together. We still are not aware how the strong peso affects the small and medium enterprises. If there is any benefit from the surging currency, the influence must be felt locally in any way otherwise the natives will never be able to benefit from the situation. Is the surging peso beneficial or detrimental?

Miranda v. Arizona Essay

Early in 1963, a 17 years old woman was kidnapped and raped in Phoenix, Arizona. The police investigated the case, and soon found and arrested a poor, and mentally disturbed man. The name of this man was Ernesto Miranda. Miranda was 23 years old when he was arrested. On March 13, 1963, Miranda was arrested based on circumstantial evidence linking him to the kidnapping and the rape. After 2 police officers interrogated him for 2 hours, he signed a confession to the rape charge. The form he signed included the following statement: â€Å"I do hereby swear that I make this statement voluntarily and of my own free will, with no threats, coercion, or promises of immunity, and with full knowledge of my legal rights, understanding any statement I make may be used against me.† Miranda was not given a full and effective warning of his rights. He was not told of his right to remain silent and his right to counsel. Miranda was found guilty of kidnaping and rape and was sentenced to 20-30 years imprisonment on each count. During the prosecution, Miranda’s court-appointed lawyer, Alvin Moore, objected that because of these facts, the confession was not truly voluntary and should be excluded. In the end of 1966, The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, ruled that the prosecution could not introduce Miranda’s confession as evidence in a criminal trial because the police had failed to first informs Miranda of his right to an attorney and against self-incrimination. The Supreme Court of Arizona detailed the principles governing police interrogation. Arizona ruled that detained criminal suspects, prior to police questioning, must be informed of their constitutional right to an attorney and against self-incrimination.