Marketing Term Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Marketing Term - Research Paper Example Through engaging the consumer in a dialogue that promotes community and goodwill, there was no advertising campaigns until 2004, the company depending on word of mouth to promote its interests and gain a following. That following measures more than 4 million members, worldwide (Bloomberg). The marketing that has been engaged since 2004 has seen some turmoil with the perceived competitor, Weight Watchers, being directly confronted in a campaign, but the adversary fought back with a court injunction which ended that campaign. However, it might be concluded that Curves gained better publicity as being put in a position as a threat to Weight Watchers, so much so that they were directly confronted through legal action to shut down their advertising. This is a wise strategy, however, the company may soon face the same problems that Weight Watchers faces, which is as their targeted demographic ages out and the rising younger set sees them as a dinosaur of their mother’s age, combatin g a dated image will create an issue. Weight Watchers has confronted their problems through advertising that mimics the Jenny Craig advertising, using celebrities to promote their success through publicly visible weight loss on their programs. However, where Jenny Craig has used a middle aged set of celebrities, Weight Watchers used Jennifer Hudson to kick off their campaign, a decidedly younger star. This leaves curves facing the same problems as Weight Watchers in that through promoting a socialized setting, the age group becomes relevant to the attraction to the program. The following assessment will discuss the current and past methods of marketing that have been introduced for Curves. The background of the company will be given an overview in order to provide context in understanding the nature of the current standing of the company. An analysis of the marketing strategies and their results will be assessed for the successes and failures that have been experienced. A SWOT analy sis will then be conducted in order to provide an overview of the nature of the company in regard to how it will impact a marketing plan. The SWOT analysis will be addressed for the ways in which it can be utilized to address the future of the company. Finally, a summary of the marketing direction of Curves will be made with recommendations for addressing weaknesses and threats through exploiting the strengths and opportunities that are present. Background Curves International Fitness for Women has franchises in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia and Asia. The company has well over 6000 stores, with the rate of their expansion earning them a title in the Guinness Book of World Records (Heavin and Colman 2). The first store was opened in Harlingen, Texas, with the first franchise opening Paris, Texas in 1995 with all stores now being a franchised venue (Curves International Fitness for Women). The company was opened in 1992, and by 2003 had expanded to the 6000 stor e mark, placing them in the record book. Hoovers lists more than 10,000 company stores are in existence to date. Gary and Diane Heavin opened the stores with a specific demographic in mind. Gary Heavin had ten years of experience in the fitness industry before designing this model with a specific target demographic (Funding Universe). The intention was to address the needs of women through nutrition and efficient exercise that kept the sessions short, thus providing an easy

Safety Aspects of Food Processing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Safety Aspects of Food Processing - Essay Example Such secondary manufacturers can include re-packers, food caterers, and food retail outlets. As of a decade ago, the working legislation relating to this topic is EC Regulation No 2073/2005. It states that food should â€Å"not contain micro-organisms their toxins and metabolites in quantities that present an unacceptable risk for human health† (European Commission 2005). In addition, existing policy does require that some food business operators be required to demonstrate that the foods the produce comply with the stated criteria related to microbiological material throughout the entire period of time mentioned in the shelf-life. This relates specifically to reasonable and foreseeable conditions of distribution, storage, and use of the food. In regard to labelling, it is important to note that the legal definition of shelf life in Europe is defined as the ‘date of minimum durability’. This means that it refers to the date until which a food can be reasonably expe cted to retain its specific properties as long as it is stored properly. Another important term to note is the ‘use by date’, which relates to a microbiological perspective. Within a short period of time after this date, the food would be deemed to constitute an immediate threat to the health of a human. As such, as the the ‘use by date’ has passed, the consumer should consider the food to be unsafe, but prior to this date they have the expectation that it is, indeed, safe. In addition, the ‘best before date’ is taken to mean to the date until which a food retains its specific properties when it is stored properly. The properties include, but are not limited to, appearance, odour, texture, and flavour. It is one thing to understand the legal requirements of properly setting a valid shelf-life duration for any given product, but it is another thing entirely to do so

Microeconomics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Microeconomics - Assignment Example These goods are traded in the market where the buyer and seller first agree on a price level and then the buyer acquires the good. Thus, consumers have to pay for the good in order to acquire its benefits. Cars and cell phones are examples. In contrast, a public good is one that is available for all and does not necessarily need to be acquired by paying for it. For example, street lights or a light house benefit all instead of one person. The increase in the number of public goods by the government helps it to cut across the system of class disparity and allows everyone to benefit from them without actually paying for the goods. The government thus produces public goods to increase the social welfare of the society. Ans 3) Private goods are paid for by the consumers in order to get ownership of the good. Thus, only the person buying it acquires all the benefits. However, the free rider concept comes into play when one entity such as the government is responsible for providing all the benefits that are equally shared by the people. An example of this can be bridges and roads that are used by everyone while the government builds them. Ans 4) The optimal quantity of pollution can never be zero because any production activity in the economy makes pollution an unavoidable spillover effect. For instance, a car manufacturing company will cause air pollution and for an economy that is operating on a free market basis with no government intervention, even though the cost of the pollution will not be borne by the company, it will be a byproduct of that production process. Thus at any point, the optimal quantity of pollution can never be zero unless all forms of economic activity are halted (Mankiw, 2002). Ans 5) Increasing the gas tax would have a number of adverse effects. Firstly, the cost of other goods will increase with the increase in gas tax. The automobile, aviation and shipping industry rely heavily on gas and will raise their prices in accordance to the increas e in tax so that the costs can be covered. In addition to this, the purchase of automobiles will decrease since the gas tax would result in a higher cost of the car for the consumer. Secondly, the demand for gasoline is considered to be inelastic in the short run. This means that the gas consumption would not decrease with an increase in gas prices. Therefore, an increased gas tax would be a further strain on the costs of manufacturers and consumers. Also, this increase would be reflected on specifically the lower and middle income groups that own fewer vehicles than the higher income group. People in rural and remote areas depend on public transportation and thus a high gas tax would be unfair to the low income groups (O’Sullivan & Sheffrin, 2005). Ans 6) Pollution is defined as damage or harm caused to the environment that we live in. A pollution tax will thus reduce pollution by making large and small organizations to take responsibility for the pollution their economic ac tivities cause. The revenue from these taxes can be used to take measures to eliminate the pollutants that are responsible for harming the environment. For instance, a carbon emission tax can allow the government to invest in projects that reduces industry pollution such as CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage). Moreover, a pollution tax will balance the pollution costs that many organizations may not incorporate in their production proces

Propsal Essay revison Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Propsal revison - Essay Example The immediate effects anticipated in these circumstances are extreme reduction in the ingenuity and creativity among the working group often leading to lower productivity levels. Such type of situations could also result in the lowering loyalty to their task that ultimately causes radical reduction in the profits. Various successful initiatives have been reported across the world towards the retention rate of the employees in the organizations, ex: study at NASA. The aerospace industry faces Herculean tasks of retaining a satisfied team with very few graduating into the employment scene from the schools. Therefore the committed and capable team being forced to look out for alternate employment the shortage of adequate talent and high pressures on meeting the specific business targets. The research on NASA Marshall Space Flight Centre shows that practicing appropriate and innovative ways to retain their employs is fruitful (Herdey et al, 2008). Ineffective understanding and communication are the reasons that often turn employees restless and lead to disastrous outputs. Such a scenario finally ends in job switching, where he hopes to have better environment of work. To take hold of such migration across organizations, different techniques are practiced to boost motivation. And from a large pool of different methods, incentive systems are found to be most widely practiced. But most often the incentive systems make the employees to orient them towards the inventive component rather than achieving organizational goal. Also, an effective incentive, that promotes retention, drastically varies across persons, teams, companies, organizations and customers (Pavla, 2002). Quanta Energized Services, largest electric service contractor which provides total system solutions to the new challenges emerging in the electrical utilities sector resulting from deregulation and open transmission. The major business activities are related to the maintenance,

How Far Do Sociologists Agree That Education Benefits the Ruling Class Essay Example for Free

How Far Do Sociologists Agree That Education Benefits the Ruling Class Essay The debate outlined above suggests that some sociologists believe that education benefits the ruling class, however other sociologists may argue that education benefits everyone or just men. To address this issue I will be looking at both sides of the argument and I will assess to what extent sociologists agree that education benefits the ruling class. Some sociologists; such as Marxist agree with the statement above that education benefits the ruling class. One reason for this is that they believe that education brings about social class reproduction, to benefit them. This means that rich can afford to go to big successful private schools, and then go onto having successful jobs, whereas the poor will continue being poor, as they cannot afford to go to private schools and therefore will not achieve the same grades as the ruling class and will not get as well paid jobs. They believe that the working class do not achieve in education because of their material deprivation and cultural deprivation meaning that the working class will not achieve as much as the ruling class, as they cannot afford to buy books, tutors or equipment like the ruling class can. Another reason Marxists agree with this statement is because they believe that through education the wealthy learn to rule, and the working class learn to be ruled. They believe that there is a hidden curriculum where the working class learn respect, authority, punctuality and hard work. This will then prepare them to be obedient workers for the ruling class, who will then exploit them to make a profit. Furthermore, Marxists believe that education transmits ideology; this means it puts the working class in a false consciousness this means that the working class cannot see that education therefore they do not start to revolve, and do anything about it. According to Marxists meritocracy is just a myth, and education is not fair as it favours the wealthy. On the other hand, other sociologists such as functionalists disagree that education benefits the ruling class. According to the functionalism education benefits the whole of society. They believe that the main purpose of education is secondary socialisation; this is where pupils learn important norms and values e.g. respect, manners, punctuality, and hard work. They learn this through social control and sanctions; these sanctions could be punishments, rewards, formal or informal. Functionalists believe that education helps maintain order in society, and without order there would be chaos (anomie). They also believe that education provides a sense of national identity, like being a British citizen. Another reason that functionalists disagree with the statement is because they believe that education performs occupational role allocation, this is where pupils will get a job according to their talents or skills therefore the most talented or most skilled will get the highest paid jobs. Functionalists believe that education provides the institution of work with skilled workers; this is the idea of organic analogy, where each institution is society work together to benefit one another. Functionalists claim that education is a meritocracy and that education is fair and based on equality of opportunity. They also believe that education provides an opportunity of social mobility, where the working class can move up the social class system if they work hard enough. Another function of education is that it provides child minding, therefore when the child is at school it allows both parents to work and earn money. Another view this is the feminists view, they disagree that education benefits the ruling class, however they believe that education benefits men. They claim that the role of education is to benefit males, to maintain a patriarchal society, where men dominate society. They do this by socialising students into traditional gender roles, where the females learn to be a housewife and the males learn to be the breadwinner. This is achieved through subject choice, and career advice, these are often based on stereotypes. For example, males will learn engineering at school, whereas females will not more domestic subjects such as cooking and sewing. However, this view may not be as relevant today as since the 1980s girls have been achieving better at all levels, which suggests that society is now less patriarchal and girls now have more opportunities. After assessing both sides of the argument, it is evident that education does benefit both the ruling class, and the working class. I think this because although education doesn’t benefit the working class as much, it does teach them important morals such as not to steal etc., I also believe that the education does benefit the ruling class, as it teaches them skills for the future, however I feel as though education is no long patriarchal as girls are achieving better then boys. Overall, I have come to the conclusion that education benefits everyone, some maybe not so much, but I believe everyone gains from education whether it is skills to work, or morals.

Compare And Contrast Federalism Under Fdr Politics Essay

Compare And Contrast Federalism Under Fdr Politics Essay Federalism, a political system which is aimed on establishing a strong central government -which in return is constitutionally mandated to share equal powers with its local and state governments. It sounds straight and simple but some of American historys most enduring and complicated issues have resulted because of this political concept. Before the passage of the US constitution -there were people at one side of the political confederacy the pro-nationals, demanding a strong national government as the key answer for bringing America on its feet after its independence from the British while there were some, pro-states- who believed in investing all the powers in the states as the only solution. The American constitution -later adopted by the founders of the country is a blend of these both sides embedded with federalism. Even, after this historical political settlement -there have been US leaders previously and now- who tend to favor and accordingly set their governments policies e ither being a pro-national or pro-state. For the purpose of this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting federalism under the administration of specific US presidents -FDR, Nixon, Clinton and Bush. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) came into power during the worst economic crisis-the great depression-in the American history. He expanded the governments power not just on central level but at municipal, state and local level as well -in order to better handle the loss caused by the great depression. His philosophy was no matter how big a government might get -it should have involvement and be responsible for its citizens .Its purpose should be to serve the common man on the street. His government was fundamentally dedicated on creating a political system which is largely focused on the welfare and care of its people; to help them out and pull the country out of this economic mess -where banks, stocks and all other major government financial institutions had collapsed. He formulated a program calling it the New Deal which involved on large scale federal-state cooperation in funding and power sharing. He initiated the welfare system, social insurance for the poor, elderly and the une mployed. According to FDR, the only way for the recovery would be if both the central and state governments worked together in joint effort-sharing equal powers. Through this transfer and shuffling of power, he established a system of dual federalism. He is the spearhead of many federal and state run programs that are running in the country today-directly affecting the lives of the millions living in here. I personally feel he was the first one to truly practice federalism in its essence- in his every day policy making and administration while being in power. When republican president Nixon took office, like many of his successors before and after him-had his own judgment about the division and assigning powers from the high level -national authority to the lower state or local agencies. He adopted a stricter managerial approach in the effort of making the overall governmental system more efficient and competent. He felt that the central government had been encumbered with unnecessary load of power and policy implementation which on the other hand could be carried out much more efficiently at the local government level. He based his administration on a pro-state approach-directing money and power from the central federal government and into the hands of smaller locally and state run agencies. He did this by mandating grants-in-aid into block grants -a devolution- by transferring power from the central side and giving much authority and money to the smaller state run governments. He believed that such a pro-state federalism will serve the community better as the state and local agencies have the easy access and better understanding to reach the areas in need. Bill Clinton like Nixon had main aim of making the federalist government more competent in nature but had a watchful approach towards granting more power to states. He was well aware of the importance of states having its self-sufficiency and powers but not at the cost of putting the central government at a vulnerable position. He viewed states as laboratories for implementing and experimenting policies passed by the national government. Although, throughout his reign, Clinton mandated strategies that gave more power to states- but ultimately favored devolution targeted towards making the national government stable and strong in nature. Unlike Nixon, Clinton was not in favor of smaller state run federalism. George Bush like Clinton shared a similar background before becoming the president. Both were governors but Bush era differed from Clintons in the way Bush adopted, shifted and granted powers to the states. Bush was an ardent advocate of small pro-state federalist government. Bush reversed Clintons proposed policies in regards to making states accountable and liable to the national government- in the matters such as setting national standards and rules for environmental guidelines. Bush made it harder for the central government to overrule and interfere in states decisions .He favored rule implementation by the states and less interference of the central government in the matters of the local government. The debate over federalism and the choice of being a pro-state or pro-national is an age old argument for our country. Our presidents- past and present may had differences in political opinion and formulated different policies geared towards handing more power to either states or national level but all shared the same admiration and regard for the government. They all agreed on the vitality and influence of government in a nation. American Federalism- the main idea seeded by the founders of this great nation -is yet to play many roles and touch our lives in many ways in the years to come.

Ernest Hemingway :: essays research papers

Ernest Hemingway was a major American novelist and short story writer whose principal themes were violence, machismo, and the nature of what is called now “male bonding.'; His renowned style for his firmly non-intellectual fiction is characterized by understatement and terse dialogue (Riley 231). Hemingway had a life that included him running away several times. Hemingway had many jobs before becoming a novelist and short story writer. He also had many influences, from his father’s suicide to painters that influenced his writings. Ernest Hemingway, an American novelist and short story writer, whose style is characterized by crispness, childish dialogue and emotional understatement that has made him a major novelist and short story writer (Riley 231).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on July, 21 1899 to his mother Grace Hall and his father Clarence Edmonds Hemingway (Rood 187). Even though he was born into a upper-middle class family, he single handedly revised the Byronic stereotype of the artist-adventurer (Lesniak 20). Hemingway’s childhood was rarely mentioned, other then that he tried to run away from home several times when he was still in high school (Lesniak 23). After Hemingway graduated from Oak Park High School, he went to work, in 1917, as a reporter at the Kansas City Star. In 1918 he enlisted as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Italy. In 1920 he starts working as a reporter and a foreign correspondent for Toronto. After being an ambulance driver in Italy in World War I, he converted to Catholicism and he often referred to himself for the rest of his life as “a rotten Catholic'; (Lesnaik 20). Hemingway married four times during his life, each time to a Midwestern American girl. First he married Hadley Richardson on September 3, 1921. On May 10, 1927 he married Pauline Pfeiffer. On November 21, 1940 he married Martha Gellhorn. Finally on March 14, 1946 he married Mary Walsh. He regarded the end of a marriage as a personal defeat (Rood 187).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hemingway had many kinds of figures. He was a craftsman dedicated to the art of letters who rarely wavered in his adherence to the highest standards of artistic probity. He also significantly influenced twentieth century writing on all levels through his pronouncements and the principles of professionalism which he introduced and lived. Hemingway was also a night-club roisterer, a slick and chromatically unreal advertisement in the rotogravures, unfairly “good copy'; for the gossip columnists, public brawler and braggart, and the “batter’d.