The Rising of the Moon Criminal or Patriot Essay

The Rising of the Moon Criminal or Patriot - Essay Example It is this realization that leads him to make the decision to allow the man to escape. Older than his colleagues, wise in his understanding of the probability that their man will try to escape by boat, our policeman has his eye on the reward and the likelihood of promotion in the start of this play. Encouraging his co-workers to do their duty, he sends them off to put up other Wanted posters, while choosing to stay at the quay alone in wait of the revolutionary. When his man does indeed turn up he is disguised as a ballad singer and the policeman doesn't realize who he is. Claiming to be in town due to the fact that they are holding the assizes, which gives him the opportunity to make some money, the revolutionary tries to get past the policeman but is refused access. It is at this point that he tells the policeman, while pointing at the poster of the wanted man, that he knows who the revolutionist is. Fear is the first factor that the man uses to enforce his plan to get past the policeman, which persuades the policeman to allow him to stay. "There's not a weapon he doesn't know the use of," he says, "and as to strength, his muscles are as hard as that board." ('The Rising Moon', p. 907). And the second is complicity. And, as they sit together, back-to-back, while smoking their

Brand impact on Consumer Buying Behaviour

Brand impact on Consumer Buying Behaviour Consumer driven approaches is widely adopted by the companies in order to enhance countless emerging needs of modern customers. Branding becomes a crucial activities of consumer driven approach and its aim to build a loyal customer base and creation of an effective brand image. In this document, the author presents a research report complied after analyzing the effects of branding on the consumer purchase decision. The research had been carried at the shopping centre called Shoppers Stop in India. The research had attempted to find whether there is positive relation between the positive effect of the brand and the consumer purchase decision. There are so many parity products out there that the only way to differentiate yourself from the others is to create an aura, an image, around your brand. Consumers need a road map; they need to find a way to get from their need to a product purchase thats simple, easy, not full of a lot of noise, and most brands get lost somewhere between the shelf and the consumer mindset. -Karen Benezra, editor of Brandweek The paper also discusses the literature the importance of branding and the consumer purchase decision. It details the research rationale along with the research philosophy, the approach used, the context, sample and procedure. As well as It discussed the significance of the proposed research along with its limitation. A provisional work schedule is also provided. Aims The aim is to determine the extent of the correlation between the activities of branding and consumer purchasing as well as put into perspective the main functions and values branding can offer companies in term guiding valued customers through the often complex process of purchase decision-making. Thus the basic research question would be, how does branding affect the consumer purchase decision? Objectives This research will have the following objectives: To assess whether positive feelings towards a brand will translate into a consumer purchase decision. To establish the changes in the relationship between branding and consumers purchasing decision when other factors such as price are introduced. To examine the consumers tendency to recommend brands and its effect on purchasing decisions of their friends and family. Chapter 2: Literature Review Origin of Branding in Market. After the First World War, the whole world economy was under Great Depression during 1930s and also gives rise to socio-economy problems because of impact of war wages on the people and hence left a dent in peoples pockets and curbed the desire of society to spend and consume. Strangely, the Second World War and the period after the war had seen a different pattern in manufacturing industries that a increased capacity to produce goods whereas the society was left with an ingrained desire to be frugal. Bass Company, the British brewery, claims their red triangle brand was the worlds first trademark. Lyles Golden Syrup makes a similar claim, having been named as Britains oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since 1885. Source: http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/578 What is Branding? The word Brand the Germanic root meaning is burn. In commercial market branding is all about the product attributes that make a lasting impression in a customers mind. As per Karl Marx, people make their own decisions about who to be, how to live, and what to buy, but under circumstances shaped by brands advertising, marketing and publicity. Thus a brand exploits the underlying attribute that is storytelling and emotions which are the buying behaviour. James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising, in 1900. Thus Branding was coined for the first time with commercial explanation. Mr. Thompson appeared as the philosopher of Branding by drawing a straight line between the manufacturer and the consumer. Source: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/hartman/guides/jwt-history.html Human civilization is dependent upon signs and systems of signs, and the human mind is inseparable from the functioning of signs-if indeed mentality is not to be identified with such functioning. Apple Logo Design Apple was selected as main form of branding depending upon the company name. Initially, the logo depicted a small apple shape sitting under a tree with Apple Computer Co set into the frame of the picture. It is this apple that has continued to be used. The first logo design was perceived to be a bit too complex and hard to view, so Regis McKenna worked on the logo some years later and added a bite mark to symbolize the concept of seduction of the customers and the marketplace in general. Next, the monochrome version was replaced with the rainbow-colored logo as a reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which the apple represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It brings to mind that people must pursue their dreams. While this was not initially a deliberate goal, it did encourage business and consumers to consider the Apple brand for the first time and was successful in generating increased profits.Source: Charles Morris, Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Source: http://www.logoorange.com/logodesign-A.php A brand is an end result. Branding is the process by which a brand comes to be. A brand is many, many things, but it is never an accident. Present Day Branding. A branding provides a platform for consumer choice process. Todays market offer different products among thousand for similar offerings, this complexity makes the users to follow their choice that have satisfied already in past. The pattern of this consumer behaviour was also supported by Assael in 1993 with a concept that in a situation of low-involvement of consumer, the consumers completely rely on past consuming experience; hence it provides a clue that consumers with minimum purchasing areas could be targeted by advertisement campaigns. Thus consumer plays a key important role product branding process in current market. Even nowadays a good number of consumer emotionally attach with the brand that helps to understand the impact of image among consumers. With this a natural differentiation concept was introduced by Adcock in 1998, with differentiation process , the company start developing a set of unique differences that help to provide a distinctive identity among other products in market. Hence, differentiation provides a cutting edge for the branding of product in present competitive market. As per Prof. Kevin Lane Keller, author of Strategic Brand Management: The trend in marketing of brand depends upon the changes in the environments around the consumers. A social, cultural, political, economic and technological environment changes the life of human and with this the branding need to adopt the trend for example Online Marketing Social Networking Online-Media such as Face book, MySpace, Google. A corporate social responsibility and sustainability impacting the product image. Philip Kotler in 1999, a brand captures consumers attention through a Six Dimensions of Brand: Attributes A brand will communicate specific attributes, such as prestige. Benefits A brand strengthens a products attributes by communicating a set of benefits that makes it more attractive. Values A brand represents a companys core value and belief system. Culture A brand is representative or targets a target audiences socio-cultural characteristic. Personality A Brand Project behavioural personality patterns of targeted consumers. User A brand can emulate the end user. Identification of Branding Differences step by step Difference 1: A Visual difference, Symbols and logotype. In the seventies, when the phrase generation was being coined and used in any number of contexts such as in movies, music, technology etc, Pepsi annex the beverage style of young adult segment of the inhabitants and dubbed them the Pepsi Generation, in an endeavour to make Coca-Cola seem old and staid. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola executed what was perhaps the most celebrated marketing mistake in history, discontinuing production on its core product, the most recognizable brand name in the world; in favour of a more Pepsi-like formula it dubbed New Coke. This Grand Canyon-size blunder eventually worked in the companys favour when consumers revolted with startling vehemence and Coca-Cola quickly announced it would bring back its revered product, now under the name Coca-Cola Classic. Sales rebounded, and more media attention was lavished on the Cola Wars. The campaign also managed to underline the loyalty and affection so many consumers had for original Coca-Cola-which might very well have been the goal of the company to begin with. Coca Cola eventually dropped the word Classic from its name, and remains the most widely recognized brand in the world to the present. Difference 2: Culture (Hofstedes onion) Difference 3: Personality (Aaker) Difference 4: Identity and positioning (Kapferer) Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty. Brand American marketing association defines the brand as A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one sellers good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name Advantages and disadvantages of branding Advantages: 1. Helps in identifying the goods and services. 2. It stimulates the purchase decision of the consumer. 3. It helps in creating customer loyalty. 4. It helps the company to maintain the leadership position in the market (if they are already market leader) Disadvantages: 1. Requires huge investment. 2. An unsuccessful brand will bring negative image to the company. 3. Customer may not be willing to pay extra just because it is branded Brand equity Brand equity is set of assets linked to a brands name and symbol that adds to the value provided by the product or a service to a firm and/or that firms customer. Components of brand equity: 1. Brand loyalty 2. Brand awareness 3. Perceived quality 4. Brand associations Brand loyalty is consumers commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviours such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, at least on occasion, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. This will help organization to reduce the promotion cost. Brand awareness: The number of customers exposed to the brand name. Higher the brand awareness, higher will be the brand equity. Organizations put all the effort in the introduction stage of the product to create awareness among the customers. 3. Perceived quality: the customer perception about the actual quality level of the product. 4. Brand associations: The attribute of the brand that customer associates with his/ her belief. A person may associate the brand for power, strength or protectiveness. Brand Development Company can develop the brand on the basis of product category and brand name. Now we will discuss the different strategies adopted by companies to develop the brands. Existing New Existing Line Extension Brand Extension New Multi Brands New Brands Line extension: Company uses its well known brand name to introduce additional items in a given product category such as new forms, flavours, ingredients or package sizes. For example, Karnataka Milk federation, Uses its top brand name Nandini to introduce new Items like toned milk, full cream milk, curd and milk powder. It is less risky and requires fewer investments to introduce the product. In the above example Nandini used the extension to meet the excess capacity that it has. The milk procurement was more than the demand from the customer. Hence it started producing the milk powder. But all the products introduced need not to be successful in the market. In case of KMF Nandini Ice creams didnt click in the market. Another risk of line extension is brand cannibalization i.e. Companys brand/items compete each other. Brand extension: A strategy in which company uses one of its familiar brand names to new product categorys items. For example, United breweries (UB) limited group used its flagship brand kingfisher to different categories. Kingfisher was originally a beer brand extended to airlines. Brand extension gives instant recognition to the brand. In the above example people required very less time to know kingfisher airline brand because parent brand was very well Known. Brand extension if it fails then it may hurt the parent brand reputation in the market. Multi brands: The techniques of introducing the product or items in existing product category with a new brand name. For example, Hindustan Unilever uses different brand names for their home and personal care category. The above example shows us that HUL have breeze, Dove, Liril Lux, Lifebuoy and Pears in the bath soap segment itself. It helps company to come out with new features in the product or product category. Organizations adopt this strategy to avoid brand cannibalization in the given category. The major disadvantage of this strategy is none of the brands will enjoy major market share and result in lesser profitability. In case of Hindustan Unilever company had more than 100 brands and was forced to reduce it to 30 power brands. Other brands were not adding enough profit for the company. New brands: The strategy of coming out with new brand for new category products. In this strategy, company believes that existing brands can not be extended to the new category. The new brand strategy requires huge resources to build it. The new category if it already had some brands of other companies, investment requirement will go up. For example, Hindustan Unilever launched Pure it in the water purifier category. The category and brand is new to the company. Consumer Buying Behaviour : Branding a influencing factor What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer buying process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the buying decisions of the consumer. When purchasing a product there several processes, which consumers go through? These will be discussed below. 3- COMPONENTS OF BRANDING Branding is a process of creating a product or company identity a personality creation and development by a number of differential professionals with same objective or goal. 1. Advertising. Its a wonderful thing to create a unique, user-friendly brand that the public is sure to embrace. However, if the public doesnt find out about the brand-and much of the public will find out through advertising-all that effort, time, and money will go to waste. The look and attitude of the advertising also help define the brand in the publics mind. Nike is well known for spending millions on celebrity endorsements for advertising. Its ads are legendary, and its swoosh logo is known the world over without a word being said. 2. Marketing. In devising the personality of the brand and determining how it will be presented to the public, marketing, which is usually done in-house and through consultants, helps to create the entity that the brand will become. Its a fine thing to own the recipe for Oreo cookies, but if you decided to sell the recipe and not the cookies, you would be making a very large marketing mistake. Marketing is not just selling; it knows what to sell and how to sell it as part of a larger plan. What marketing does is to determine the proper audience for a product, and then deliver to that audience what it wants. The target demographic can be as narrow as 15-year-old boys living in the suburbs, or it can be literally anybody. That will depend on the product. But once the demographic is identified, marketing professionals analyze it, make sure the characteristics of that demographic are compatible with the product, and then emphasize the strengths of the product. The strengths of the product here are very specific: They are the strengths that will best convey the personality the demographic wants to see in it. For example, if Philips had tried to market its flat-screen TV to an audience over 65, which traditionally is not warm to change, it might not have been successful, no matter how innovative the product may have been. Instead, the company aimed its ads at people in their twenties and thirties, emphasized the newness and difference of the product, and had a great success. 3. Public relations. If advertising is the juggernaut of public attention, public relations is the stealth bomber. PR generates publicity for the brand, helps solidify the publics opinion of the brand, and defines the brand-all without being perceived by the public A lot of clients dont understand the difference between Branding, PR, advertising and marketing, says Rob Frankel, author of Revenge of Brand X. Personally, I prefer PR to advertising. I like PR because a lot of my Branding program is based on third-party endorsement. Its way more credible and fast-acting than when you pay for ads. Problem/Need Recognition for Future Branding How do you decide you want to buy a particular product or service? It could be that your DVD player stops working and you now have to look for a new one, all those DVD films you purchased you can no longer play! So you have a problem or a new need. For high value items like a DVD player or a car or other low frequency purchased products this is the process we would take. However, for impulse low frequency purchases e.g. confectionery the process is different. Q. What are the new branding challenges and opportunities especially nowadays with the global economic crisis? The current economic crisis presents many challenges but also much opportunity for brand marketers at the same time. Research has show that in past recessions those firms that have been willing to invest in their marketing have emerged in a stronger position than those firms that have cut back spending and reduced their marketing investments. Obviously those marketing investments must be wise ones. Perhaps the most important branding consideration in tough economic times is to establish perceptions of good value. Being seen as low priced or less expensive is not necessarily the answer, the more important consideration is that consumers feel that they are getting appropriate value from a product or service. Value is basically all the benefits the consumer realizes versus all the costs that he or she incurs. It is important to view and these benefits and costs broadly. Benefits include the perceived monetary value of all the bundle of economic, functional, and psychological benefits th at customers expect from a product. Similarly, costs are not restricted to the actual monetary price but may reflect opportunity costs of time, energy, and any psychological involvement in the decision that consumers might have. Top marketers in a recession will be sure to develop marketing programs and activities that optimally balance that equation so that consumers feel the collective benefits outweigh the collective costs as much as possible. That my involve framing the brands costs and benefits so that they are seen in the most positive light possible. Q. What would you single out as the most important message out of your extensive experience in studying brands? The most important message for marketers these days is to make sure they have a deep, rich understanding of consumers and how they think and feel about brands and their products and services. It is so fundamental and may seem obvious, but unfortunately many marketers still fall way short on that score. Consumer Buying Behaviour Q. What is the future of branding? Brands will always be important given their fundamental purpose to identify and differentiate products and services. A good brand makes peoples lives a little easier and better. People are loyal to brands that satisfy their expectations and deliver on its brand promise. In an increasingly complex and busy world, the ability of a brand to simplify consumer decision-making is powerful. The predictably good performance of a strong brand is something that consumers will always value. What will change, however, is the means by which firms will build those brands. Marketers must always be adopting state-of-the-art branding practices to ensure that their marketing programs and activities reflect the always changing economic, cultural, technological, social, and legal environments. There are 4-Types of consumer buying behaviour: Assael 1987 Purchasing Experiences High Involvement Low Involvement Significant differences between brands Complex buying behavior Variety-seeking buying behavior Few differences between brands Dissonance-reducing buying behavior Habitual buying behavior Source: Assael 1987, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action, 6th edition, p. 67 There are four types of consumer depending upon the degrees of involvement and degree of differentiation amongst the brands as per Assael. A displaying Complex Buying Behaviour Pattern is a group of consumer who prefer to expand their beliefs regarding a particular product as a primary step and hence this process will lead them to develop positive attitudes regarding the product. Dissonance-Reducing Behaviour of consumer is classified as the trend in which consumers are highly involved in the purchasing experience but unable to compare among the brand of products offering similar services or features. Thus differentiation becomes the key point as consumers asks for the features or functionalities or price comparison among the brand but in a market which display low differentiation of brands, the consumer purchasing behaviour is influenced by convenience. Displaying Habitual Buying Behaviour is a behavioural pattern as a result of consumers condition where the consumer buying decision depends on the product information acquired passively or the information embedded in their mind via review electronic media or promotional efforts, also the user shows low-level of involvement products. Variety Seeker Buying Behaviour, the consumer buying reaction occurs because of low-involvement in a market that displays high levels of product differentiation , thus they prefer to follow Brand Switching , in order to satisfy their need for diversification. Chapter 4: Survey, Analysis and Findings Introduction The survey was performed in India at Shoppers Stop Mall (New Delhi Ansal Plaza Branch), which has many branches across the country at major cities and in United Kingdom, at St. Anns Shopping Centre (Harrow, London). The survey template was design to understand the relation between a product brand and consumer, in a sense that how much they trust or rely on the brand that they go for the product, in short the impact of branding on consumer purchasing decision. The research was to understand the influence of Brand in a developing and developed country. As the one could easily conclude that the consumer in developed country focus on more on brand image as the brand image define the quality of product whereas consumer in developing focus more on the need rather than quality for example a consumer in India purchasing a television will first look for the price and then maximum features within the price also the product should belong to reliable brand this is one of the key reason that even though India has certain level of free trade open market relation with china , still the Chinese cheap product unable to penetrate the Indian market. Questionnaires There are 150 and 180 interviews have performed in India and UK respectively, the pie chart display the same. The Number of interviews conducted with respect to different age group, the column chart below represent about the survey conduct in India at shoppers stop mall. The below graph display the number of interviews conducted, focusing the age group in UK at St. Anns Shopping Centre. In our survey we have put more focus on the young generation and middle-age group to understand their psychology while purchasing a product and how its being influences by the brand of the product. We also get to know the preference made by female and male group in India and UK. The female group in India and UK both spend their most of their shopping time in costumes and they prefer detail analysis or observation between different brands and they could easily compromise on the brand. Which brand do you use? Brand P Brand Q Brand R Brand S In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Age group? 16- 24 24 35 35- 50 50-70 What to you perceive to be the key attributes of a brand and what do you associate it with? Quality Price Status Personality Aesthetics To what extent brands are important to you? Very Important Important Neither Important nor Unimportant Not Very important Not at all Important 5. How does the Made in trademark influence your buying? Very Much Not much Doesnt Matters Matters Strongly Matters What is the key difference between International and Domestic brands? Quality Price Variety Services Does Culture difference play an important role in regards to your buying decision? Agree Strongly Agree Depends Disagree Strongly Disagree Do you agree shopping is different in abroad then in India? Yes No Do you feel changing market of fashion and technology plays an important role in your buying decision? Yes No What product of that particular brand do you use? Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. How long have you been using this product? 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 year In case of others please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ How did you first chance upon the product? Advertising Word of mouth Display In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Please suggest, if you want to make any changes to the product and why? Are you satisfied with this brand? Extremely satisfied Satisfied Fairly Satisfied Not at all Satisfied Which Cosmetic product brand you prefer? Olay Dove Grainier A combination of mixed product brand. How long have you been using the product XYZ? First Time Regular user Never. What made you use the Product XYZ the very first time? Advertising Word of Mouth Display at shop If anything else, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Have you ever used competitors product? Yes No. If you have used competitors product, then please confirm which product is better in the following terms: Quality Quantity Brand Name Are you: Male Female How did you receive this product? Gift Purchase If other, please specify? How did hear about the sale of this product? Advertising-Newspaper, radio, TV Friend / family Article / magazine Store Others, specify__________________________________ From which store did you made the purchase of this product? Specify. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How many different brands did you look out for this product? Specify. ___________________________________________________________ Findings In developing nations such as European countries, a different trend has been seen because of globalisation and free trade, the market is flooded with many products offering similar features and because of competition, the price of the product has fallen down, European industries has to reduce their cost of goods sales by compromising with the quality of materials or setting up manufacturing industries in developing or poor nation where the quality of production much more oriented towards manufacturing the product instead of manufacture quality product , for example Automobile industries , the number of automobile industries has gone down significantly in past 50 years. As per the research performed by KPMG for Automobile industries, the future of automobile industries will not only be characterized by origin of OEMs. Recommendations Convergence: A Business Concept The concept convergence has already entered into the market with innovation ideas of doing business, in automobile industries; e-Mobility and Car-sharing business are the best example the convergence of brand and business ideas, e-mobility provides convergence between Fiat OEMs and Power Suppliers and Car-Sharing e.g Deutsche Bahan is the convergence between OEMs and mobility providers. From this we could able to figure out that convergence and innovative business ideas not only helps the Brand Convergence A New Business Player Convergence example: E-Mobility and Car-Sharing Assembled Product: Combination of Branded Products In coming future, one could imagine of a product developed like an IT product, for example an IT product such as cloud computing systems , IT for green , Client computing , Advance Analytics (Business Intelligence software) is a combination of many software product provided by different brand leaders. This could be a future business concept across all products , one could think of his own car made up of worlds different brand leaders.

Alfred Hitchcock :: Film Movie Movies Directors Essays

Alfred Hitchcock is among the few directors to combine a strong reputation for high-art film-making with great audience popularity. Throughout his career he gave his audiences more pleasure than could be asked for. The consistency of quality plot-lines and technical ingenuity earned him the recognition of being one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. His films earned him the reputation of being the "master of suspense", and after viewing two of his more popular films, Psycho and The Birds, it is evident why. There is a distinction between surprise, which lasts only a few seconds, and suspense which captivates one's attention the entire length of a film. This is something that Hitchcock realized early on, and applied into his movies. He is one of the few directors whose name on a marquee is as important, if not more so, than any actor who appears in the film itself. Both his style of directing, and that of the movies that he has directed are very unique, making him stand out in the film industry. He pioneered the art of cinematography and special effects, which along with his cameos, are what he is most often associated with. Hitchcock led a long and prosperous life in the movie industry, starting as a teenager and making movies up until his death in 1980, while working on the 54th of his career (Sterrit 3). Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was born on August 13, 1889 in London, England. As a child his parents were very strict with him and they imposed severe and unusual punishments upon him, as what they considered to be discipline. One of these incidents scarred him for life. As punishment for arriving home late one night, young Alfred's father had a policeman friend lock the boy up in a cell for five minutes, "in order to teach him where naughty little boys who come home after 9 o'clock would eventually end up." (Phillips 27). Throughout his career he used the innocent man being arrested and imprisoned in his films, and claimed that forever after he had a fear of the police (Spoto 16). Fear was also a big part of his childhood, which later was evident in many of his movies. "Fear? It has influenced my life and my career." (18) explains Hitchcock, he also had a fear of being alone and of darkness which once again appeared in many of his movies. "...fear you see is an emotion that people like to feel when they know they are safe." (39).

Luck has nothing to do with success Essay

At universities and colleges, sports and social activities are just as important as classes and libraries and should receive equal financial support. With the progress of the times and society. It has become increasingly fast pace of life. We are anxious and hoped that people acquire knowledge by simply learning. Thus we ignoring its importance. In fact, this is wrong. I think it is just as important in college, sports and social activities as well as classes and libraries, and should receive the same financial support. Firstly, sports and social activities can teach us social skills and team spirit. In contemporary society, we need people who can able to unite others and have high emotional intelligence rather than those who can only read books. More and more businesses require people who are not only specialists in their fields, but also skilled in social interaction. What’s more social skills and team spirit are necessary qualities for any students. Obviously, when students participate in sports activities or social practices at the university, they can have a perfect social learning opportunity, such as, sports and charity events. Students can develop a experienced team spirit and collaboration capabilities. Aside from fostering social skills and team spirit, sports and social activities can greatly improve students’ learning ability.These activities can change students’ mood and attention. Indeed, for some students, playing sports and joining in social activities are good stress reducers. Even the most enthusiastic people feel tired if they concentrate on one thing for too long.Frustrated and tired people can do nothing well if they do not recover from their bad situations. Students who have been frustrated in their academic work would be well-advised to play some sports or join in social activities. However, I know that academic learning is the most important task of students in college.But I think it can not bring students communication and physical fitness never be a university recognized by most people school. Such schools are not conformed with the current wave of social development and age. In  fact, almost all famous universities have plenty of sports teams and social groups, and universities provide adequate financial support with these events. None of these universities have weakened their academic standards because of social movements or sports. In summary, I agree with that universities and colleges should spend enough money on academic education and amateur events to help students for their future development.

Marketing Final Paper Essay

Yum! Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company with over 38,000 restaurants in over 110 countries and territories and more than 1 million associates. Yum Brands is also a leader within the Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) industry in China, with over 3,500 restaurants in the region (i.e., Taiwan, Mainland China, and Thailand), more than 1,800 of which are located in Mainland China. Yum Brands operates in the Food Service Industry, which will never be replaced or outdated due to increasing technology or increased competition. Consumers will always need to consume from the Food Service Industry. Growth and consumption is guaranteed with increase of the world population and expansion to additional countries world wide. In 2010, the company increased its net income by 10% from $824 million in 2009 to $1.16 billion in 2010. Yum Brands continues to show strong sales, profits, and growth. Yum Brands is the worldwide leader in multi branding, which offers consumers more choice and convenience at one restaurant location from a combination of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W or Long John Silver’s brands. Yum Brands also shows great Corporate Social Responsibility in the industry. Yum! Ranked #337 out of 500 on Newsweek’s 2010 Green Rankings U.S. list #62 on Corporate Social Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens List of 2010, #33 in 2009. Yum Brands has cemented their products with unique taste differentiation by making their chains the leaders in the industry. A&W is Root Beer and KFC is fried chicken. Yum Brands has demonstrated a strong business plan and corporate goals for competing in the global market. Introduction Yum Brands holds a strong position as the number 2 company in the Food Service Industry. The food Service Industry is a necessary industry that will not see great change due to innovation or a new competitor entering the market. The market is strong and consistent based off consumer needs. The fast food industry is cheap and cost effective, providing excellent services to consumers at the lowest possible prices. Yum Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company with over 38,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories and over 1 million employees. This shows the size of Yum Brands, a global presence that will continue to increase Yum Brands has also displayed global business and marketing strategies. * Build leading brands across China in every significant category * Drive aggressive international expansion and build strong brands everywhere * Dramatically improve U.S. brand positions, consistency and returns * Drive industry-leading, long-term shareholder and franchisee value David C Novak has been CEO of Yum Brands (YUM) for 6 years. Mr. Novak has been with the company for20 years. The 53 year old executive ranks 1 within Forbes rankings of highest paid restaurant CEO’s. While most consumers are unaware of the parent corporation, Yum Brands is silently taking a more controlling share of the global food industry. Its well-known brands include Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco-Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants. Yum Brands continue to show growth that will put it on par with the leader in the Food Service Industry, McDonalds? Despite having more locations than McDonalds, McDonalds annual revenue of $23.1 Billion dwarf Yum Brands at $11.3 Billion Overview of Yum Brands Yum! was created on October 7, 1997, as Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc. an independent company, as a result of a spin-outfrom PepsiCo, which owned and franchised the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands worldwide. Because of the company’s previous relationship with Pepsi, Yum! Brands has a lifetime contract with PepsiCo, with notable exceptions being the contract of A&W Restaurants with Dr Pepper Snapple Group to be the exclusive restaurant provider of A&W Root Beer. Yum Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company with over 37,000 restaurants in more than 110 countries and territories. There is probably a Yum restaurant near you. Its well-known brands include Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco-Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W Restaurants. There are 14,001 stores internationally including 3,664 locations in China. Yum has 17,476 stores in the U.S. A total of 77% are owned by franchisees. The company implements practices and procedures to maintain a high level of service including Customer Mania Training and CHAMPS (which measures operational basics like Cleanliness, Hospitality, Accuracy, Maintenance, Product Quality and Speed). A&W Restaurants, Inc., based in Louisville, Ky., is the longest running quick service franchise chain in America. Since 1919, A&W All-American Food has been serving a signature frosty mug root beer float and All-American pure-beef hamburgers and hot dogs. There are over 600 A&W All American Food outlets in 13 countries and territories around the world and nearly 600 points of distribution at Yum! Brands multibrand restaurants. There are approximately 344 A&W All-American Food restaurants in the U.S. and more than 290 in 11 other countries. KFC Corporation, based in Louisville, Ky., is the world’s most popular chicken restaurant chain specializing in Original Recipe, Extra Crispy and Colonel’s Crispy Strips with home-style sides, Honey BBQ Wings, and freshly made chicken sandwiches. Since its founding by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952, KFC has been serving customers delicious, already-prepared complete family meals at affordable prices. There are over 12,000 KFC outlets in more than 102 countries and territories around the world serving some eight million customers each day. Long John Silver’s, Inc. based in Louisville, Ky., is the world’s largest quick-service seafood chain, specializing in batter-dipped fish, chicken, shrimp and hushpuppies. Inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Treasure Island, Long John Silver’s was founded in 1969. Today, there are more than 1,000 Long John Silver’s, Inc. restaurants worldwide, and over 350 additional points of distribution in multibrand restaurants. Pizza Hut Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is the world’s largest pizza restaurant company specializing in Pan Pizza, Thin ‘N Crispy pizza, Hand-Tossed Style Pizza and Stuffed Crust Pizza. There are more than 6,100 restaurants in the United States and more than 4,900 restaurants in over 92 countries and territories around the world. The company is the recognized leader in the pizza category. Taco Bell Corp. is the nation’s leading Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain serving tacos, burritos, signature Quesadillas, nachos and other specialty items. Taco Bell serves more than 35 million consumers each week in more than 5,100 restaurants in the U.S. Marketing Strategy Product Yum Brand is in the food service industry but they also look to market their restaurant chains, as individuals own 80% of Yum Brands restaurant chains. Yum Brands is the largest restaurant supplier of chicken, tacos, fish, and pizza to the consumer market and they sell very recognizable products. In their marketing of products, Yum Brands focuses less on individual products and more on the brand as a whole. After conducting comprehensible market research, Yum Brands found that the majority of people purchasing from one of their restaurants are not looking for a specific product. Yum Brands found that the majority of consumers choose Yum Brands because of their convenient locations, low prices, and the quality of food is high. KFC sells the most recognizable brand of chicken in the world, although they have many competitors, none of their competitors have as many locations or as much brand recognition as KFC. However, there have been some large selling Items, which Yum Brands has chosen to market individually, such as the KFC 12 piece bucket and Taco Bell’s Crunch Wrap Supreme. With large ticket items, Yum Brands has designed custom meal deals focused around these items. Instead of simply offering chips and a drink or a biscuit, Yum Brands has focused on supersized meals and the marketing strategy of getting the most for your money. They do this by supersizing the meals consumers purchase at a price increase that is both favorable to the consumer and beneficial to costs. Price The goal of Yum Brands is to compete at the lowest price possible and they do this by owning distribution centers around the world and controlling the process that food comes into one of their restaurants, from the farm to the customer. Because Yum Brands is the largest supplier of chicken, tacos, fish, and pizza to the market they have a competitive advantage over their competitors simply because they can move more product, thus they can provide lower prices. This industry’s customers are characterized as highly price sensitive so they can easily switch to a product that is like in quality and service but offered at a lower price. Also, switching costs are quite low. Customers do not have to incur any cost for not buying from a firm. Place Yum Brands has more physical locations than any other restaurant in the world. Yum Brands operates over 38,000 restaurants in 110 countries. Yum Brands has focused on convenience for all consumers in the structure of their restaurant chains. With large physical location presence in the market, Yum Brands can ensure stability as well as growth. Recent expansion into China has also proved to be a booming market for more physical locations and sales growth. Yum Brands continues to surge in revenue and market share with each additional restaurant opened in expanding markets such as China. Promotion Unlike competitors such as McDonalds who attempt to brand their products like the Big Mac, Yum Brands focuses on controlling the entire market. KFC chicken is an American cornerstone of culture. KFC dominates the chicken market because of the great reputation and wide brand recognition of Colonel Sanders. There are fierce advertising battles among the large restaurant chains McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Taco Bell. Because brand recognition and price so greatly affect consumers, marketers want to make customers aware of deals occurring at their chains. The Food Industry is one of the most heavily marketing industries in the world. In 2010, the fast food industry spent $4.2 Billion in advertising. Analysis Yum Brands has shown significant, consistent, large financial growth in the last year. (YUM) has a market cap of $23.99 billion with a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.75. The stock has traded in a 52-week range between $45.94 and $57.75. The stock is currently trading around $52. On July 14th, the company reported second quarter revenues of $2.82 billion, compared to revenues of $2.57 billion in the second quarter of 2010. Second quarter net income was $$1.16 billion compared to net income of $824 million in the second quarter of 2010. Yum Brands has shown significant financial growth over the past year, and projects continued growth and expansion through 2012. One of YUM’s competitors is McDonald’s Corporation (MCD). McDonald’s is currently trading around $90 with a market cap of $90.14 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.68. McDonalds pays a dividend that yields 2.8% versus YUM, whose dividend yields 2.2%. YUM is one of the largest food service company’s in the world. In 2010, the company increased its net income by 10% from $824 million in 2009 to $1.16 billion in 2010. YUM is an international company that is rapidly increasing its overseas earnings. In 2010, YUM took in $755 million from China while taking in $700 million in the United States. On September 15th Jim Cramer endorsed YUM. YUM has a policy of paying out 35 to 40% of its profits in dividends. Over the last five years, the company has done well and has increased its dividend by 34.7%. I believe that YUM will continue to increase earnings, and that the dividend and the stock price will follow. This ratio shows us the percentage of total assets made up by goodwill and other intangibles is called the Intangible Asset Ratio. Heiserman, creater of the ratio, says he views anything over 20% as worrisome, â€Å"because management might be overpaying for the acquisition or acquisitions that gave rise to the goodwill.† Yum! Brands has an intangible assets ratio of 11%. This is below Heiserman’s threshold, and a sign that any growth you see with the company is healthy (Moore). The strengths of Yum Brands is in their global reach and consistent financial growth. Also Yum Brands operates several large chains in a strategic move to diversify their assets and sales. However, their largest competitor McDonalds, has also shown significant financial growth and expansion. In 2010 McDonalds saw a global sales growth of 5.0% and earnings per share growth of 11%. Although, McDonalds is also showing large profits and increased growth, Yum Brands is increasing at a faster rate. Yum Brands saw a 10% growth in sales in just the third quarter of 2010. Yum Brands is a low cost leader in the food industry with unique taste differentiation. The wide availability and unbeatable values of Yum Brand chains make it convenient and affordable for customers to buy from Yum Brands. Yum Brands has cemented their products with unique taste differentiation by making their chains the leaders in the industry. A&W is Root Beer and KFC is fried chicken. Yum Brands has shown an excellent demonstration of Focus Strategies by not trying to compete with McDonalds. Yum Brands does not offer hamburgers, instead they have focused on cornering the market in Tacos, Fried Chicken, Pizza, Fish, and fountain beverages. This strategy is key to their continued growth. By letting McDonalds control burgers and fries, Yum Brands can slowly take control of all other consumer needs in the fast food industry. This strategy will lead to Yum Brands surpassing McDonalds because Yum Brands is showing much greater growth. However, McDonalds revenues are still much greater than Yum Brands. In 2010 McDonalds brought in $23.1Billion to Yum Brands $11.3 Billion. Yum Brands has great Corporate Social Responsibility and leads many initiatives around the globe. In Australia, KFC has been working on a Closed Loop recycling project for the past three years. This program has attracted never before seen government funding and is a world leading QSR recycling initiative. No other QSR in Australia (nor have we found elsewhere in world) is doing anything on this scale and impact. KFC has been awarded $400K from the Australian Packaging Covenant and state governments to go towards the infrastructure of the new â€Å"Split Bin† to support this initiative. In addition, 100 percent of waste oil is recycled. Yum! Ranked #337 out of 500 on Newsweek’s 2010 Green Rankings U.S. list #62 on Corporate Social Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens List of 2010, #33 in 2009 The company is expected to enjoy a number of tailwinds in 2012 including lower interest expense due to favorable debt issuance over the past couple of years and retirement of the April 2011 bonds as well as around 20 million currency translation benefits in China. Although Yum’s market is exposed to risks, such as changes in interest rates such as food cost pressure, wage inflation in China, competition, unexpected margin pressure, inability to execute its growth plan, and food safety. Foreign currency exchange rate risks exist as international operating profit constitutes around 50% of the company’s operating profit. Key variable factors affecting the U.S. results include consumer spending, gasoline prices, housing market conditions, consumer credit, and stock market volatility. Taco Bell, which accounts for more than 60% of the total U.S. earnings, is presently the most important domestic brand. The recent Taco Bell lawsuit related to the content and quality of its beef products has negatively impacted the sales. Although, on April 18, Alabama-based Beasley Allen law firm voluntarily withdrew the allegation, YUM expects the negative impact to continue in 2012. KFC and Pizza Hut are the primary concepts, accounting for nearly 96% of total YUM restaurants within the YUM Restaurants International (YRI) division. Each concept offers sit-in as well as take-home options for customers. YUM has over 38,000 restaurants in over 110 countries. YUM is also a leader within the Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) industry in China, with over 3,500 restaurants in the region (i.e., Taiwan, Mainland China, and Thailand), more than 1,800 of which are located in Mainland China. Yum Brands is the worldwide leader in multi branding, which offers consumers more choice and convenience at one restaurant location from a combination of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W or Long John Silver’s brands. Yum Brands has seen substantial annual growth for the past 2 fiscal years. Yum has seen tremendous growth in china with over 50% of Yum’s income coming from outside of the United States. Yum is putting all its chips in China, and growth there was strong. Same store sales grew 19% in the quarter, compared with a 6% increase a year ago. Margins, though, eased and fell to 21.3%, from 25.2% a year ago. Operating profits surged 13% to $301 million. Store sales in the U.S. fell 3%, compared with a 1% gain a year ago, while operating profits hit $143 million, down 16% from a year ago. Internationally, the company earned $163 million (up 15%) and saw system sales growth increase by 13% (Fontevecchia). In May of 2011, Yum agreed to purchase Chinese hotpot chain Little Sheep for HK$4.56 billion. The deal spent more than 4 months in anti-trust review by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, to determine whether or not the transaction would result in a monopolistic positioning of Yum in the country’s restaurant industry. The Chinese Ministry just approved the deal in November of 2011, according to Little Sheep representatives. This new acquisition should continue to increase growth in China. Yum recently raised its 2012 earnings per share forecast to $2.85, excluding one-time items, meaning growth of at least 13 percent, despite what Chief Executive David Novak said were â€Å"disappointing U.S. results. That compares to its previous forecast of a 12 percent gain. The forecast comes ahead of Yum’s annual investor day on November 30th and two months after the company sought to reassure Wall Street that business in China remained on track. With this reassurance, Yum will continue to expand, giving investors a strong reason to invest. The share price went up in response to this news (Reuters). In direct growth, Yum Brands far exceeds any other competition in the industry including their largest competitor, McDonalds. If Yum Brands continues this net growth, they are on par to surpass McDonalds, becoming the global leader in the Food Service Industry. The corporate structure of Yum Brands is strong, the company is continuing to increase employment opportunities and expand their staff. David C Novak has been CEO of Yum Brands (YUM) for 6 years. Mr. Novak has been with the company for 20 years. The board of trustees overseas consistent growth of the company and the core values of Yum Brands have served them well thus far in the Industry.