Case asos Essay

As Seen On Screen launched as an online retailer in 2000 and is now the UK’s largest online fashion and beauty retailer. The company now has over 35,000 branded and own label products available. ASOS has websites targeting the I-JK ; much of Europe, USA, and Australia and ships to over 190 other countries from its central distribution centre in the I-JK. ASOS has been increasingly successful through marketing their products and brands online without the facility of a physical store like rivals such as Topshop and River Island. There are a number of factors which have contributed to ASOS’s success ncluding no limitations on space to display items; the website is easy to navigate around; it’s accessible 24 hours a day and can cater to busy lifestyles; ASOS runs promotional offers for students which is a large part of their target audience as young adults and it also plays host to a number of popular high street brands such as River Island and French Connection. ASOS’s sole online presence means it has no limitations on space or stock unlike physical stores and it is therefore easier to display a larger range of products in a single place. This factor means that ASOS can target a larger social demographic as hey can offer a larger range of products. There main demographic is a low-middle class, 16-25 age group with a small-medium disposable income. They especially target this audience through their own brand. However, because of ASOS’s online presence and unlimited space they are also able to offer premium and luxury brands as well as second-hand and vintage clothing appealing to a broader market. In terms of behavioural segmentation, the consumer behaviour of ASOS’s prime target audience has changed over years and it has become increasingly difficult to shop within allocated opening times that physical stores are restricted too. Online retail means people can shop from their home or office – or any other location from a computer, tablet device or smartphone and Internet access. The product range that can be found on the ASOS website is more extensive than most competitors as from there own brand to hosting other brands such as French Connection and River Island. The fact that they can host a wide range of brands adds to the convenience factor for shoppers as they are able to browse several brands by only visiting one site. The ranger of low-end – premium brands that are offered ensures in targets all markets and can easily meet customer needs. roducing short videos of models in products to help customers further scrutinise a potential purchase. This helps to convince people that an item is right for them and combats the inability to ‘try before you buy’. This provided differentiation from their competitors and also almost eliminates the need to purchase goods physically. From a marketers point of view, ASOS having a presence solely online is has an advantage for a number of reasons. Firstly, they dont have the cost of overheads that a physical store would. Secondly, through marketing products online there is more opportunity to expand and target other markets. A strong online presence is an easy way to target global market from one base – this is illustrated as much of their sales and revenue growth is due to international expansion. It also allows them to extend their range to children, men and other countries while taking into consideration geodemographic segmentation as many places have different cultures, religions and climates. However, although marketing fashion online can be very beneficial it does have some disadvantages. One disadvantage is the returns of products are higher than physical stores this is probably because consumers are not able to try before they buy. However ASOS do what they can to keep this to a minimum and have been successful as they have lower returns than most other catalogues. This could be due to catwalk facility or sales of brands that are also available on the high street so people may have seen them physically in-store for example, River Island. As ASOS do not have a high street presence they need to put in more effort to enhance its brand recognition which possibly means spending more money on advertising & marketing specific items. Almost all of ASOS’s main competitors have both physical and online access which could put ASOS at a disadvantage. Finally, there will be some consumers that would fall under ASOS’s target market that will never be influenced to buy online and this is when a physical store would be beneficial. ASOS have a strong, loyal customer base with positive reviews and feedback on the excellent service they provide and their diverse, up-to-date range of products. ASOS are also recognised as an ethically involved brand promote social responsibility – this all draws new consumers and ensures their brand and products are displayed in the best possible light. An issue that may concern some consumers hen it comes to online retail is the delivery and returns however ASOS has maintained an excellent reputation for speedy and convenient returns as well as smooth, easy and free returns. ASOS have also proven to be very innovative with successful mobile interfaces, an app, and online and print magazine providing a variety of platforms to showcase their products consistantly and rapidly while also highlighting popular products, competeitions and promotions. It also ensures their audience have even easier access to products while on the move – again catering to the lifestyles and behaviours of their segmented market. ASOS take advantage of this. So far, they have been successful at interacting with their customer via social media, blogs and their website. Many of it’s competitors for example H;M (who have the biggest facebook shopping fanbase) and Zara already have a strong social media presence so ASOS need to ensure it remains at the forefront. Although ASOS have many strengths there are also threats that could tarnish their reputation for example the fact that they sole trade is online could be seen as a major risk if they were to be affected by IT failure; something ASOS have no control over. Ultimately this could mean loss in sales and reputation as a reliable website. People generally have concerns regarding the increased risk of online hacking, ASOS could have something in place for this. Finally, there is growing competition online as competitors are becoming more aware of success online has to offer and therfore ASOS need to think of ways to differentiate their brand. There are areas where ASOS are at a disadvantage to their competitors for example, their lack of ‘brick & motar’ with no physical shop to display products. As a result, ASOS would only be suitable for people with internet access. There is also no facility to try before you buy which may make their audience reluctant as they may be concerned about the ease of returns despite reviews. The ASOS website and product range is also quite extensive and could become overwhelming. Despite ASOS growing success, especially in the current recession, they still have opportunities to build their brand and expand. It would be beneficial to target customers outside of its usual market and expand on male ranges and plus size ranges as there is a growing market for both of this areas. There is also a variety of ways to ship goods cheaply now and it would be beneficial o explore these and offer them to their customers.

An in Depth Study of Marketing Strategies Followed by Marriott International Globally and in India

SYNOPSIS In this essay the author would like to share briefly about what is marketing. What are the four P’s of marketing i. e. the marketing mix? Also discuss the need for marketing in general as well as in the hospitality sector. In this essay the author would concentrate mostly upon the marketing approaches followed in the hospitality industry. Also the essay discusses in detail the marketing strategies adopted by the Marriott International globally and the marketing strategies followed by the J. W. Marriott Mumbai. The essay critiques these strategies and the author offers his insight upon these and what other strategies may be followed to further enhance the hotels performance. Chapter 1: Introduction There are many ways to define what is marketing the better of these definitions are all customer oriented and are based on customer satisfaction. Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. – Philip Kotler What the author is trying to say is that marketing is the interaction of the seller with his buyer to make the buyer/consumer purchase the product or service the seller is trying to sell. Anything an entrepreneur does to sell his product or service to his potential customer can be termed as marketing or a part of it. Often people confuse the term ‘marketing’ to mean the same as ‘advertisement or publicity’ thought to some extent this may be true but in reality advertisement and publicity are small aspect of marketing. Marketing today is not just advertising ones product or service it is the process of building ones brand. Marketing is basically ones strategy for allocating their resources such as time and money in order to achieve ones objectives although no marketing strategy shall work for you as long as one identifies their potential customers and targets them. The consumers that need your product or service shall purchase them any way but what marketing does is it makes these potential customers aware of the products or services that you are providing. Hence marketing is vital for any and every establishment as it is the key element in improving sales and hence increasing profitability. Often it may happen so that you are offering a better product or services but due to lack of appropriate marketing strategy your competition may steel away your potential customer. Thus this brings us to why is marketing so important for each organization. Marketing is a large topic covering a range of aspects such as public relations, advertising, sales, and promotions. A few years back the common belief in organizations was that the employees in the marketing division were drawing large salaries for no work that they did, organizations believed that marketing was a process that was simple and could be done by anyone. This thought process may still be seen in some firms but today most organizations recognise the importance of marketing. In today’s competitive market were every organization offers a superior product, service or a combination of both it is only the marketing strategy the organization adopts that gives it the edge over their competition. In the given market scenario where consumers are educated and well aware one can not expect to sell an inferior product to their consumers they may succeed at first but that is where the organization shall start loosing their brand value and shall not be able to retain their customers hence in the long run it shall still be a loss. But taking an opposite situation where the establishment is offering a superior product or service at a competitive rate but employees little or no marketing strategies shall have even lower sale and hence lower profitability. So to succeed a mix of quality and its publicity is necessary so that the establishment’s potential consumers are aware of what the organization has to offer. With apt marketing strategies an organization can build a brad name for itself so people shall recognise the name whenever they see it. In such a case it may often happen that a newer establishment say ‘X’ offering the same product at a lower price may not be able to steel the original establishments customers as they will recognise the brand and were perceive that the product or service offered here is superior to a brand such as ‘X’ they have never heard of. Such is the importance of marketing it does not only help take to product to its consumers it helps retain those customers. Marketing helps the firm in understanding what their customers expect from the organization, with this knowledge it helps fulfil any other needs the customers may have from the organization which is beneficial to the organization on many levels. Micro and Macro Marketing Largely speaking, micro marketing is concept that deals with introduction or familiarization of given product to its most suitable segment which is its group of potential consumers. In Micro marketing, the objective is to craft or establish the most useful way to persuade individuals or a group of people to give a higher consideration to your designated product over the potential competitors. Micro marketing’s final goal of sales is which may be achieved by following a sequence of steps that are determining the customer and product relations, implementation, segmentation and by measuring of results. Other than this, there are many various ways and different modes to market to ones consumer which include branding, word of mouth, placement of product, and many other such ways. With the current technological advancement greater opportunities have been made available with the help of computers, the internet, by sending emails, text messaging, pod casting, interactive advertising and P2P networks. These new methods have nearly replaced all the old approaches such as print marketing. Take for example, today news papers and magazines are increasing relying on online marketing over the traditional methodology. The terms, macro marketing refers to a much broader point of economic contact amongst larger business entities. Macro marketing is the umbrella term for volution of inter and intra actions that sway larger entities such as global markets in Asia and U. S. to interact in terms of private business. Although one may propose that macro marketing is an idea which is built on micro marketing, one can assume the reverse impact as well. It is obvious that small building blocks of global economy which is micro marketing will have an effect on the larger picture or say the larger building blocks such as macro marketing may have an influence the micro marketing by altering the very dynamics of markets, demands, and many similar factors. By this we can say that the two concepts are inter-dependent. The interaction between macro and micro marketing is what determines the outcome of marketing efforts. Chapter 2: Content In this document the author would like to about the importance of marketing in the hospitality industry. Marketing is necessary in the hospitality industry for both profit and the welfare of the industry. Marketing helps in improving room occupancy and number of covers as primarily it brings in more customers. Other than this how it affects the welfare of the organization is by giving the organization the knowledge they need to bring their product and services up to their customers requirements this helps in customer satisfaction hence ensuring the guests return stay or visit for a meal apart from this it helps in brand building for the organization as the best publicity is one that spreads by word of mouth and it is only a deeply satisfied guest that goes out and praises the hotel he/she stayed at. Marketing is not just a set of skills or techniques that may be used to enhance satisfaction for many organizations it may represent the very way of doing business. Marketing is not just outside the hotel employees need to market what they have to offer to the guests that are staying with them as well. What the hotel has to offer must be made aware to the guests staying at the hotel this is not only to help increase revenues but it also assist in improving guest satisfaction. To plan a marketing strategy a number of decisions must be taken first some of which are, firstly the head of the marketing department must sit with the other HOD’s including the corporate heads and get an understanding of what are the objectives they plan to obtain from it other than this putting together the objectives of marketing in general budget allotted to the same must also be decided. Before planning a marketing strategy the marketing employees must know their property well, they must have complete knowledge of the prime prospects the property has to offer and their competitors. To start with they must set up realistic objectives that can be achieved easily and then begin formulating their marketing plan. A marketing strategy must be disciplined where in all the decisions that lead to production are in a sequence with a sound strategic plan. The marketing plan must be achievement oriented but at the same time it must be flexible so it is applicable to all the departments of the hotel and should be adjustable if required to increase effectiveness. To achieve a marketing plan that can fulfil these requirements one may use the four factors of the ‘marketing mix’. Marketing Mix’ is one of the most popular terms in marketing it is also known as the four P’s of marketing as it is based on four main factors that are product, place, price and promotion. The four P’s are parameter that a manager can use to control the marketing environment so as to obtain positive results from the target market. Neil Borden in 1953, in his American M arketing Association presidential address, took the idea of ‘James Culliton’ (1948) one step further and the term â€Å"marketing-mix† was coined. After which a prominent marketer by the name E. Jerome McCarthy, proposed a four P’s classification in 1960, which has seen wide use ever since. The author would like to elaborate what are these four P’s and their importance in establishing an efficient marketing plan. †¢Product – an object or service that is produced on large scales with set volumes taking in to account a market study that helps decide this volume of production. †¢Place – represents the place the object or service may be purchased. In the case of an object it may also refer to the modes of distribution of the object to the target market. Even for certain services this may apply such as outdoor catering but in the case of the hotel industry this may often not be possible so it applies more only to the location only. Although the channels through which it may be promoted may remain the same. †¢Price – would represent the price a customer must pay to purchase the object or use the service. The price is determined different factors such as the costs involved, the competitor’s price but most importantly what is the perceived value for the product or service for your target market. Promotion – is basically the communication a marketer would use to promote his/her product or service in the market this may be of any sort such as advertising word of mouth or through public relations. Advertising is any kind of communication that has to be paid for such as on the television or the radio, etc. where as public relation is where the firm does not pay directly it is in the form of endorsements, sponsorshi p deals, trade fairs and exhibitions. Largely defined, optimizing the marketing mix is the key duty of marketing. Offering a product or service with the appropriate mixture of the four P’s marketers can enhance their results and marketing effectiveness. Making a small change in the marketing mix is considered to be a tactical change and a large change in the four P’s is considered strategic. The author would talk about the marketing strategies adopted by the J. W. Marriott Mumbai also a brief about the Marriott International in India and globally. In order to do this the author would first talk about Marriott International first so we have an idea as to why these marketing strategies may have been adopted. Marriott International, Inc. is a global operative and franchisor of a broad assortment of hotels and associated lodging facilities. Its world renowned â€Å"Spirit to Serve† company culture, customer focus and employee-centred practices have led to the company being called the most admired in its industry (Fortune Magazine). Marriott International’s legacy can be traced back to founder J. Willard Marriott's experiences as a Mormon missionary who later started operating a root beer stand. He and his wife, Alice, opened the stand in Washington, D. C. , in 1927. From there to now where the Key Bridge Marriott in Arlington, Virginia that is Marriott International’s longest operating hotel, and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009. This goes to show that Marriott has come a long way. Their son and current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, J. W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr. has led the company to spectacular worldwide growth. Today, Marriott International has over 3,200 hotels and lodging properties located in the United States and in 66 other countries and territories. 1927: J. Willard Marriott got married to Alice Sheets in Salt Lake City, Utah, and moved to Washington DC with his new bride. That spring, J. Willard and Alice opened a nine-stool Root Beer stand, which they later call â€Å"The Hot Shoppe. † Winter 1927/1928: Hot Mexican food items are added to the menu at the â€Å"The Hot Shoppe† 1929: The Hot Shoppe Inc. , officially incorporated, invents curb service. 1934: Hot Shoppe expands to Baltimore, Maryland. 1937: They began airline catering begins at Hoover. This division was named â€Å"In-Flite Catering† and served to the Capital, Eastern, and American Airlines. 1939: Marriott landed their first ever food-service management contract with the U. S. Treasury. During World War II, The Hot Shoppe’s feed thousands of workers who moved to the nation's capital to work for the defence industry. 1945: The 1st Hot Shoppe’s cafeteria was established at McLean Gardens, Washington DC. Hot Shoppe’s also landed their first government feeding contract. In-Flite got their first airport terminal food-service contract at Miami International Airport. 1953: Marriott stock became public at $10. 25/share and sold out in two hours. 1955: Marriott Food Service got their first institutional and school feeding contracts at Children's Hospital and American University. Marriott's Highway Division opened several Hot Shoppe’s on the New Jersey turnpike. 1957: Marriott opened their 1st hotel, a 365-room property by the name ‘Twin Bridges Motor Hotel’ in Arlington, Virginia. 1964: J. W. Marriott, Jr. , was named President. 1965: Marriott Foundation was established. 1967: Corporate name is changed from Hot Shoppe’s Inc. , to Marriott Corporation. The company opened their Fairfield Farm Kitchens, a food production and purchasing facility in Beaver Heights, Maryland. In-Flite opened a facility in Venezuela; Marriott acquires Camelback Inn, its first resort property, and bought over Bob's Big Boy Restaurants. 969: Marriott's 1st international hotel opens in Acapulco, Mexico. 1972: J. W. Marriott, Jr. , was named CEO. 1973: The Company obtained their first hotel-management contracts. 1975: Marriott opened their 1st European hotel in Amsterdam, Holland. 1976: The Company opened two theme parks, both called â€Å"Great America,â₠¬  that were located in Santa Clara, California, and Gurnee, Illinois respectively. 1977: The Company celebrated their 50th anniversary and the sales toped $1 billion. 1979: A new corporate headquarter was built in Bethesda, Maryland. 1981: Opened their 100th hotel in Hawaii. 982: The Company acquired Host International, Inc. 1982: Marriott acquired Gino's and converted it to Roy Rogers. 1983: 1st Courtyard hotel was inaugurated. 1984: Marriott entered the vacation, time-share and senior-living markets. 1985: J. Willard Marriott, Sr. , passed away. Marriott Distribution Centre opened in Savage, Maryland. 1987: Marriott acquired Residence Inn Company and entered the lower-moderate lodging segment with Fairfield Inn. 1989: 500th hotel was inaugurated in Warsaw, Poland Bridges. Marriott also started a Foundation for People with Disabilities. 990: Pathways to Independence: which was Marriott's Welfare to Work Program was established. 1993: The Company split into two Marriott Internatio nal and Host Marriott Corporation. 1995: Marriott acquired the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. 1997: Marriott acquired the Renaissance Hotel Group and introduces brands such as TownePlace Suites, Marriott Executive Residences and Fairfield Suites brands. 1998: Marriott opened their 1,500th hotel. Sales reached $8 billion. Sodexho Alliance acquired Marriott's food-service and facilities-management businesses. Marriott acquired 98% of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC. 1999: Marriott acquired the ExecuStay corporate housing company. 2000: The 2,000th Marriott property opened in Tampa, Florida. 2002: Marriott celebrated their 75th anniversary. The company now had over 2,300 hotels, 156 Senior Living Services Communities with over 200000 associates, and were operational in 63 countries and territories with annual sales of over $20 billion. 2002: Marriott announced the sale of its Senior Living Services Communities and the Marriott Distribution Services. 002: Marriott opened its 500th extended-stay hotel, which comprised of a total of 400 Residence Inns and 100 TownePlace Suites. 2002: Fairfield Inn opened their 500th hotel in Rogers, Arkansas. 2002: Marriott opened their 2,500th hotel worldwide, with the completion of the 950-room JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa that was located in Phoenix, Arizona. 2002: Marriott had increased its North American market share to 8% total. 2003: Marri ott revenue totalled up to $9 billion in 2003 and in $476 million as gross profits. Marriott added over 31,000 rooms and timeshare units in the year 2003, bringing the global system to 2,718 hotels and timeshare units which made up for the unbelievable 490,564 rooms that Marriott now had globally. 2003: Marriott completed the sale of their Senior Living Service Communities and the Marriott Distribution Services. 2003: Marriott Courtyard opened their 500th hotel in Minneapolis Downtown and SpringHill Suites opened their 100th hotel in Dallas-Addison, Texas 2004: Ramada International opened their 200th hotel in Amsterdam. Marriott revenues totalled to a sum of $10 billion in 2004 and $594 million as net profit. 500,000th room opened in London, located at the West India Quay Marriott Hotel in Canary Wharf district of London. 2004: Marriott Rewards welcomed their 20,000,000th member. Marriott Vacation Club International celebrated their 20th anniversary. 2005: Marriott announced the sale of Ramada International hotels. Marriott and Whitbread completed the transaction, forming a 50/50 joint venture to got hold of Whitbread's portfolio of 46 franchised Marriott and Renaissance hotels of more than 8,000 rooms. As element of the joint venture agreement, Marriott took over running of the hotels, and the joint venture intended to sell them to new owners subject to long term Marriott management agreements. In 2007, Marriott celebrated two significant milestones in Marriott's history. The first was the 80th anniversary of our founding and the second was 50th anniversary of their entry into the hotel business. The 80 year old heritage of innovation and spirit to serve, Bill Marriott launched a blog in January that was called Marriott on the Move. On January 8th 2007 Marriott. om set a record by generating more than 55,000 reservations in one day, posting a record 55,109 reservations that generated over $17 million in gross revenue. Starting from February, restaurants in more than 2,300 Marriott hotels all through the U. S. and Canada no longer used partially-hydrogenated oils which were a primary source of Tran’s fats, this culmination of an eight-year effort. Marriott is honoured with 20 07 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award from U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. The company is well on its way to meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 6% per guest room by 2010. The J. W. Marriott Mumbai is the only hotel of the brand ‘J. W. Marriott’ in India. The J. W. Marriott Mumbai is located in a fashionable and up-market Juhu area . It overlooks the scenic waters of the Arabian Sea, J. W. Marriott Mumbai is the preferred hotspot of Bollywood celebrities and stars. This world class resort style hotel is merely 20 minutes from the domestic and the international airports and is in close proximity to most of Mumbai's major business parks. The Hotel is home to the only one of its kind spa in Mumbai called ‘The Quan Spa’ and the stylish nightclub ‘Enigma’. At the J. W. Marriott Mumbai they have world class Food and Beverage offerings, the Hotel houses some of India’s restaurants that specialise in Italian, Thai, Teppanyaki and Indian cuisines respectively. As Mumbai is the Financial Capital of India so the hotel had plenty of business travellers but due to its location and the hotel being celebrity hotspot leisure travellers preferred to stay at the Marriott over the other properties in Mumbai. The J. W. Marriott Mumbai is a 355 room property spread over five floors. It has 9 meeting rooms and a total of over 16500 sq. t in meeting space. S. W. O. T. Analysis of the J. W. Marriott Mumbai Strengths – †¢Location (Place) – Built in Mumbai the financial capital on India in the celebrity strewn locality of Juhu. It is located on the beach with a beautiful view of the Arabian Sea a luxury business hotel that offers even its business travellers the feel of living in a resort. †¢Ease of Access – it is just 20 minutes away from both the domestic and the international airports and is closely located to the business parks in the city. †¢Food and Beverage outlets – the J. W. Marriott Mumbai has three world class speciality restaurants Indian, Italian and oriental cuisines respectively along with this they have a 24 hour multi cuisine coffee shop, a cake shop, a formal bar at the lobby level and a nightclub. All together the hotel ensure that a guest staying with the Marriott shall never find the need to go outside the hotel for any of their Food and beverage needs. †¢Brand – the J. W. Marriott is one of the highest recognised brands under Marriot International there are only 40 around the world and only the one in India so making it exclusive. It is a brand that is looked up to globally hence for someone that has never been to Mumbai even shall book here looking at the brand alone. †¢Service – the Marriott around the world is renowned for their culture ‘Sprit to Serve’. This goes to show that the service at the J. W. Marriott Mumbai was exceptional and always ensured that their customers were more than just satisfied with their stay. †¢The hotel has nine meeting rooms, fast internet access in the rooms as well as in all the public areas in the hotel along with any other services a business traveller may need made available at the push of a button. The J. W. Marriott houses a one of a kind ‘Quan Spa’ and other recreational facilities such as a pool overlooking the sea along with a salt water pool yoga sessions held daily. Weaknesses – †¢The J. W. Marriott Mumbai was built a quite some time back it came into operation a few years after it was completely furnished so even thought the hotel has been renovated a few times it still require a major up gradation in its interiors especially the bathrooms fixtures. Though its location is in a popular area that is strewn with celebrities it is still located in the suburb hence the niche business cliental that has work in south Mumbai usually do not prefer to stay here. †¢As the Marriott has a mix of both business and well leisure travellers it can not concentrate on either type of the cliental completely and often cannot market the hotel appropriately. Opportunities – †¢The J. W. Marriott Mumbai would increase customer satisfaction considerably by refurbishing the rooms and bathrooms. Competitive pricing would help increasing the hotel business. †¢It is the only hotel of its standard in the vicinity. Threats – †¢There is traffic congestion upon the road right outside the Marriott during rush hour which makes it hard to get in or out of the hotel even. †¢The hotel has s ecurity threats as it is right on the beach. The author would now talk about the marketing strategies adopted by the J. W. Marriott Mumbai. Guest loyalty programs – Marriott rewards programs is loyalty program, where when a guest spends 1000 dollar and earns 10 points or 2 miles Guest after collection certain amount of points can redeem them with free stay at any of Marriott property. Other than the obvious where this helps in enhancing guest satisfaction. This helps the company by getting loyalty from guest and it also ensures that the guest stays only in Marriott properties world wide. Guests get to different level after spending certain nights and the rewards increase as the level increase. The various levels are as follows base level that is the entry level above this is the silver level where the guest a 72 hr prior reservation the then there is the gold level where the guest gets a 48 hr prior reservation two way transfer lounge access and so on to platinum and platinum premium where the guests get reservations 24 hours prior all the other advantages along with P6 amenities. Along with this the guests get points for every purchase and discounts at the food and beverage outlets as well as at the spa. Corporate rates – special rates offered to corporate houses or companies judging by the business they will bring in the future. Package rates – special rates for guests taking an all meals inclusive plan or even for a single meal. Group rate – a special rate for a group staying with the hotel as they bring in volume sales. Online marketing, advertising online for the hotel and what they have to offer. Regional offers – special regional offers that the hotel may offer during the time of need such as a slack period. By advertising on the hotel cars to increase awareness in the target market. By improving performance of the new employees and to improve their talent and motivating them so they in turn will help increase guest satisfaction. These are the marketing strategies that are followed globally and at the J. W. Marriott Mumbai. Chapter 3: Critique Although the J. W. Marriott Mumbai offers numerous promotional offers to its customers as part of its marketing strategies but there are still some shortcomings at that the author would like to elaborate on. Firstly the J. W. Marriott targets both leisure travellers as well as business travellers hence its marketing strategies are mixed and do not completely target either of the markets. Hence they loose out customers in both these sectors the business travellers may prefer to stay at the business hotels in South Mumbai and the leisure may prefer to stay at the resort hotels located at Mud Island as these hotels not only offer better holiday packages but are also more cost effective. Guest loyalty programs today are very common every hotel chain offers their own loyalty program hence there is nothing unique about these programs any more and they fail to draw customers so marketers today say that running these loyalty programmes is not cost efficient anymore. The author would like to suggest as to what marketing strategies according to him the J. W. Marriott Mumbai must practise in order to perform better. To start with at the Marriott they must devise separate packages for leisure travellers and for business travellers this way not only does the hotel have larger number of targeted clients but by targeting them separately the hotel can identify their needs separately and increase customer satisfaction by this considerably, it shall also assist in improving guest satisfaction considerably. The hotel must capitalise on their view and promote it on the basis of that. As all the hotels shall offer the same services but the advantage they have here at the Marriott is that they can offer the guest he/she may not get anywhere else in Mumbai. The hotel can also promote the hotel as a celebrity hub this may help increase the accommodation as leisure travellers may like to know that they are staying at a hip location percentage but will drastically the number of covers and the spa and other such recreational activities usage by the locals. The hotel is located very close to both the domestic as well as the international airports hence providing an ideal stay for guest that are on a tight schedule and have no time to waste in travel. The marketers at the Marriott can devise a marketing strategy around this as well. The J. W. Marriott has some of the finest restaurants in the city it also houses one of the most popular night clubs in the city so this may be used to attract leisure travellers. Chapter 4: Conclusion In the document above the author stated the marketing approaches that Marriott uses globally and in their Mumbai property. The author then offered his insight on these approaches and offered a few other approaches that the hotel may adapt to in order to perform better. But we must take into account that even though flawed or cost ineffective some marketing strategies such guest loyalty programs may not be discontinued as firstly the guests that are already using these programs shall be deeply dissatisfied other that this since most hotel chains today are offering these programs the guests today expect to get such offers and may not choose to stay with the hotel if such are not in place. So though not having these programs may be profitably in the beginning but a global brand like Marriott cannot afford to loose out on customers on a long term basis at such a small price. What the author would like to conclude by saying so is that not much may be done about the marketing strategies globally but a marketing division in each hotel must be present that shall have decision making authority so as to implement regional marketing strategies based on the four P’s of the marketing mix or even out side them to ensure that the hotels performance is enhanced. Bibliography Books †¢Effective Marketing, Alan H. Anderson and Thelma Dobson †¢The Great Marketing Turnaround, Stan Rapp and Tom Collins †¢Marketing-Led Strategic Change, Nigel Piercy †¢Marketing Management (2005) , Prentice Hall Kotler Philip, Keller Lane Web Pages †¢www. blog. marketo. com/blog/2007/01/why_you_need_ma. html †¢www. marriott. com †¢www. CitizenBase. org †¢www. marketing. about. com †¢www. themarketingmentor. com †¢www. marketmyproducts. com

BESCO Measurement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

BESCO Measurement - Essay Example The unit used for the y-axis as well as the and x-axes is 1. On the x-axis, each unit is used to represent 10 years. The time period covered in the graph runs from 1950 to 2010. On the y-axis, the rate of development runs from 0 to 700,000. Each unit is used to represent 100,000 units of development. The markings on the line of the graph are used to show series of development. For the first 10 years, which is between before time in record to the mid 1950’s, there was no much change and hence it can be said the development then was constant. Moving on further towards 1960, there was a very slight increase in development. The time period between 1970 and 1980, the rate of development of the fad rose higher by a few units. The rate of development was gradual from the time data used to fill the graph started being collected till the mid 1980’s, the rate of growth recorded according to the graph was a bit gradual, since the line graph remains constant during this time period. However, rapid development started being recorded as from the mid 1980’s and onwards. 1990 marked the beginning of another series and from then, rapid rates of development can be seen from the graph. Between 1990 and 2010, the rate of development in the ten years alone rose from 50,000 to 290,000. This was one of the highest rates of development recorded in the time period. This sharp can be due to a number of factors. However, this is something that we cannot be able to tell from the graph. The year 2000 marked the beginning of the final series on the graph. Between 2000 and 2010, a sharp increase was recorded according to the graph. The steep line shows this high rate of development of the fad. The actual figures of the development increased from 290,000 in 2000 to 610,000 in 2050, which was the end of the time period under

Pholosophy Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Pholosophy Questions - Essay Example The rest of the personality is developed by the society. In order to be flexible, individuals must doubt their views and beliefs. This doubt holds critical importance in the journey to discover the truth. It may lead an individual into impasses and dilemmas initially but eventually doubt leads to a point that does not leave any more room for doubt. This elimination of doubt creates a sense of irrefutable authenticity in the beliefs and views of an individual. The degree of doubt presented by Descartes’ first meditations is astounding. Descartes takes the measure of doubt to a whole new level which even involves doubting one’s innate senses. He presents arguments and situations that clarify the need for such doubts. This also questions the existence of oneself, which he mentions as ‘I’ (Williams, Descartes & Cottingham, 1996). The diversity of opinions in the world has created so much room for error. If everyone firmly believes that his/her views are qualifi ed, then who is right and who is wrong. Surely there has to be one path towards the truth; therefore doubting all of the opinions including one’s own is necessary to filter out the real truth. The fact that Descartes takes the degree of doubt to another level stems from his idea to even doubt one’s basic senses of perception upon which all knowledge is based. The idea that senses of perception can deceive an individual does not cross logic since they have deceived people in the past. Our senses have deceived us in matters of observation of minute and distant objects. This is a reasonable claim to support the argument of doubting our senses. However, Descartes cannot reject the authentic of a certain set of basic knowledge such geometry and arithmetic. The first argument presented by Descartes in favor of doubting one’s senses relates to dreams. Dreams feel real until we are woken up from them so who is to decide if the present situation is not a dream but in fac t reality. Being asleep and awake are two different things so it is possible that one of these states is actually the reality but what if both these states are actually a part of an unrealized dream. If the present is not a reality but actually a dream then the mind and body do not exist in reality; they are mere illusions. This is the argument upon which Descartes doubts the authenticity of his senses; However, Rene further presents another side of the picture by drawing an analogy from a painting. Whatever a painter paints on the canvas comes from what he/she observes around him. Even if the painter paints something completely out of this world, he/she still uses the colors that are around him thereby testifying the existence of these colors and objects in the painting. Similarly dreams can be imagined as our canvas and whatever we see in them is a reflection of the things that we observe while we are awake. No matter how irrational the dreams may be, they are still influenced by the reality as we perceive it. So what we see in dreams must actually exist, however, the dreams may not be entirely based on the reality but perhaps carry only the nuance of reality. This argument basically means that dreams do not testify the existence of the body and all its senses, in fact it testifies to the existence of basic knowledge such as geometry and arithmetic, which cannot be doubted. All other knowledge such as physics and astronomy are based on them. The concepts presented in these

Explore the main reasons for political behavior in organizations Essay

Explore the main reasons for political behavior in organizations - Essay Example Imbalance between personal ambition of employees and interest of the organization. A sense of competition among employees whereby one employee tends to create a better impression on the management and presents are dark image of the others Is politics necessarily a negative force Politics play a central role in all organizations, but questions are now increasingly being raised on its effects on an organization. It is a common practice to paint organizational politics in black but a growing body of evidence suggests that managing it can have extremely powerful positive effects (Butcher and Clarke 2006) There are several real time examples where politics has proved to be helpful for the organization A recent report asserts that 58% managers say 'they have experienced the constructive use of office politicc and 61% say they have personally engaged in political behaviour which resulted in a positive outcome for their organisation'. (Park R. The Power of Constructive Politics) References Butcher D and Clarke M Using Politics in Organisations ,Smart Management Coady, C "Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands," in A Companion to Ethics, ed. P. Singer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), p. 373. For references to the extensive literature see Coady's article and M. Stocker, Plural and Conflicting Values (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990) pp. 9-10. Hoch C What planners do : power, politics, and persuasion Chicago, Ill. : Planners Press : American Planning Association, 1994. www.roffeypark.com/research Summary "32% of managers believe it simply isn't possible to use office politics constructively because human nature is so appallingly selfish that people will always guard their... The sources of power (people at higher position referred to as legitimate power, groups in position to help, people in position to punish and reward referred to as coercive and reward power respectively) A recent report asserts that 58% managers say 'they have experienced the constructive use of office politicc and 61% say they have personally engaged in political behaviour which resulted in a positive outcome for their organisation'. (Park R. The Power of Constructive Politics) Coady, C "Politics and the Problem of Dirty Hands," in A Companion to Ethics, ed. P. Singer (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), p. 373. For references to the extensive literature see Coady's article and M. Stocker, Plural and Conflicting Values (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990) pp. 9-10. "32% of managers believe it simply isn't possible to use office politics constructively because human nature is so appallingly selfish that people will always guard their turf and abuse their role power" Roffey Park, 2006 Politics at the organizational level is similar but not the same as world or national politics. The former is best defined as the use of power and influence to gain personal ends. In some cases this is done with a complete disregard for the employer or the organization.

F-35 LIGHTNING II Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

F-35 LIGHTNING II - Research Paper Example This involved the use of military scientist to focus on defense strategies. The expertise was aimed at providing military capabilities of various nations involved. Moreover, as threat to international peace and stability continues to take shape, the field of military science continues to rise at the same rate. This necessitated development of fighter aircrafts meant to control and protect the airspace. This field is hoped to reach its epitome in the 21st century. This paper discusses  F-35 LIGHTNING II. F-35 LIGHTNING II is a recent generation fighter designed in United States. Several features make it outstanding among other fighter planes. These factors include adoption of recent technological advancements, and low cost. The original intention of developing F-35 was to serve all branches of the America military including air force, navy, and Marine Corps (Military Factory, 2012). Additionally it was also meant to serve the Britain military. F-35 is being developed, and has three airframes each with a particular purpose, but the three mainframes depend on one engine type. This is a recent advancement of its kind rivaling all other models. It is believed to offer a precise ground strike on its completion and entrance on market in 2016. F-35 will offer guided ammunition and bombs, high level of space command, and efficiency in elimination of any threat posed on air (Military Factory, 2012). F-35 has high capabilities of multitasking when directed to a particular target. Moreover, F-35 can be able to analyze situation in a complex battlefield and enable a pilot to have sufficient time to act. This information is also transferred to other allied forces in efficient manner. The cost of maintaining stealth is also low. F-35 is also able to encounter any threat from a very long distance such as a weapon and oncoming plane. F-35 was based on the idea of the US Joint Strike fighter program. The selection of Lockheed was based on lower financial cost that was envisage d in the long term. The lift fan of F-35 was improved significantly and this makes it more competitive than X-32. Cooling system was improved and this reduced chances of hot gases going back to the engine as it thrusts on the air. The lift fan offers enough space for fuel in both X-35A and X-35C models (Military Factory, 2012). Different groups funded the project of F-35. F-35 emanated from three models X-35A, X-35B, and X-35C (Buescher, 2001). The initial text of X-35A took place in 2000 and trials were made on Edward Air Force Base. After these trials, it was later converted into X-35B STOVL model. X-35C served to assist the two earlier models in case a problem arises (Duran, 2007). F-35A was first tested on December 15 2006 in Edward Air Force Base. First flight of X-35B took place in 2001 and hover cycle was achieved. STOVL F-35B test took place later in 2008. Additionally, F-35B achieved its initial flight in early 2009 and was able to refuel on air on August 13, 2009. X-35C we nt on air for the first time on December 16, 2000 (Buescher, 2001). Testing was done on its capability to land. It recorded improved performance in terms of low-level, low speed approaches that was the target of US navy. Testing was completed on X-35C on March 2001. The identity of F-35C was first disclosed on July 28, 2009. F-35 testing was complet

Analysis of VSauce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Analysis of VSauce - Essay Example Creative re-engineering and several developmental phases enables VSauce to incorporate diversified mechanics that have seen them shift the focus from educative and informative channels to more scientific and comprehendible gaming channels and protocols that necessitate the collaborative impact and views and/or technical development from the users and designers in the community. This gives the channels a competitive advantage compared to other sites in that the diversity of the views and generative aspects from the collaborations help the site in development and design of cutting-edge features. Customization of videos in terms of quality and the subject matter, video, gaming, sports and the interactive aspects, offers freedom of exchange and transfer of knowledge. This merits attention as it incorporates the diversity of age, social and cultural background, economic wellness and freedom of choice from the variety which is the functional perspective of websites and their applications ( Brown 8). Vsauce incorporates the education aspect in the provision of digital, clear and chronological scientific motion pictures in the field of science giving the audience/ academic visitor a variety of videos which actualize the theoretical package taught in classroom atmosphere. This aspect diversifies its operations to more of a blog, content and archive site giving convenience to the variety of users/visitors. Also the incorporation accommodates diversified interests of a single visitor by harmonizing and providing multiple solutions in one site unlike other sites that will give specific solution to a specific interest/problem. For instance, introduction of VSauce2 that has five recurring segments to cover unusual knowledge and technology, â€Å"MindBlow†, a segment that covers the inventions that are useful and their significance to the society are not only humorous but touches the collaborative and the educative aspect of the invention part learnt in schools and in h istory. Also the â€Å"FAK† segment for facts and knowledge, which involves trivial questions, acts as a mental developmental program for all ages which gives the site credit in creativity aspects and collaborative ones as the channel’s work is from the users. Creativity is evident in the way VSauce incorporates the diversity of artistic talents from the users and the community in general. The incorporation of different â€Å"phases† of VSauce with time has seen developments in the users’ contribution in realizing the user’s talents and in line with the growth and development goal of the site and giving back to the society. For instance, the ‘BiDiPi’ segment that stands for build it, drive it and play it, incorporates the talents of the communities and the site user/fans and brings the competitive aspect of the site to the users which act as a motivational tool.

Texas Board of Criminal Justice Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Texas Board of Criminal Justice - Term Paper Example The nine board members have a tenure life of six years a period within which they appoint directors of the department, set rules and formulate relevant policies necessary for the successful operation of the department. The board members operate democratically and reach most of their operational decisions via a secret vote. Currently, one Oliver J Bell a former army officer and a graduate of the United States of America military school chairs the board. He was first elected the chairperson of the board in 2004 and later was reelected in 2009. He thus is in his third year in office in his second time. Since his appointment to the helm of the board, Bell has executed a number of changes through the inception of policies that he considered effective. He ordered a revision of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional system making Texas one of the states in the country with the most effective and transformative correctional facilities. further heads the health department within the board and is responsible for the introduction of a number of health policies that benefit not only the felons but the society too. The correctional society is comprised of the criminals, the staff of the correctional facilities and the rest of the society extending the parameters of the facilities (Weitekamp, 1993). An effective health policy that covers the interests of any of these parties influences the rest; this understanding led him to introduce effective health policies that do not only safeguard the health of the inmates but also the health of the prison officers and the rest of the society. Other members of the board include Tom Melcher who is the vice chairperson and chairs the rehabilitation and reentry program committee. The committee oversees the seamless return of convicts into the society. Leopoldo Vasquez is the secretary to the board and chairs the audit review committee; the committee ensures accountability and effective utilization of the department’s resources.

Women in the Early Republic Essay Example for Free

Women in the Early Republic Essay Women played a big part in their husband’s roles in government, although they were not allowed to vote at this time. Women like Dolley Madison made their husband’s presidency more successful. Women also became more involved with the churches, and education. They believed that it was important for women to be as educated as men. Women made up most of the church congregants, as they had for a while. In New England colonies, they started to let women work alongside men on church committees, deciding on the admission of new members, debating doctrinal points, and hiring ministers. Quakers especially liked this; they had always found much talent in women ministers. Unlike the men, the women did not prepare their speeches ahead of time; instead however, they spoke from the heart. One woman, after having a near death experience, became known as â€Å"the Publick Universal Friend†. Jemima Wilkinson claimed that she was no longer a woman, nor a man. She dressed in men’s clothes, wore her hair in a mannish style, and preached openly in Philadelphia and Rhode Island. She ended up in New York with two hundred and fifty followers. This was only part of the change that women had in the early republic. Girls had started attending school also; this started in the North and eventually moved down to the Southern states. They usually went to public schools called district schools, and they offered very basic education. Often girls attended summer sessions and were separated from the boys. By the 1830s, many private academies had opened for teenage girls. These schools had the basics they would need such as drawing, needlework, music, dancing, and talking in French; however, they also had Latin, theology, algebra, geometry, chemistry, and physics the same as most teenage boys would learn. Emma Willard founded Troy Female Seminary in New York, and Catharine Beecher founded Hartford Seminary in Connecticut, and they turned out to be the most prestigious seminaries. Both schools taught teaching, because they believed women made better teachers than men. This was especially important for the students attending Hartford Seminary because most of them did not have a father. That meant that they needed extra practice for employment. There were many men who did not like the idea of omen having an education, because they did not want the women to outsmart them. However, there were men that appreciated their wife’s help. James Madison’s, for example, helped him a lot with the presidency. She threw many parties, which they called â€Å"squeeze†. These â€Å"squeezes† were a big deal, and many people were invited to them. At these parties many people made new friends and were able to make deals, trade information, acquire information, or gain political information, and many people took advantage of them. Many people referred to Dolley Madison as ‘presidentress’. Mrs. Madison also threw many gatherings with her close circle of friends, who would talk about their husband’s roles in the government. This was never even thought of by women before, and men definitely would have never allowed it. As time passed from the start of the colonies to the 1900s women were able to do many more things. They were finally allowed to get an education, teach in churches, and also they could have more meetings about their thoughts on the government.

Gambino cleaning products salesman Essay Example for Free

Gambino cleaning products salesman Essay Description of the proposed system Description of the problem A new system of calculating and reporting on cleaning products salesmen is to be designed and implemented. Cleaning products salesmen commission is based on a set of data which is the monthly sales of cleaning products sold by the salesmen. Objectives The new system must: Â  Be automated as far as possible, needing no thorough knowledge of spreadsheets, databases or any other software in order to operate it. Â  Have fitted controls to ensure precision and completeness of data input. Â  Take into account commission payments from monthly sales. Print commission reports for each of the salesmen, and a summary report showing total paid to each salesman and overall total. Include an option to delete commission records previous to a given date so that the file does not increase for an indefinite period. The proposed new system can be shown in a level 0 data flow diagram as follows: A level 1 Data Flow Diagram of the proposed system is as follows: User functions 1. The Commissioning Salesman in the Sales Department will be responsible for entering all details of new cleaning products salesman and new products. 2. An Accounts clerk will have special responsibility for the commission system. 3. The Accounts clerk will enter each month the sales of each product, giving quantity sold and gross sales value (i. e. quantity X cover price). 4. Every 6 months, the Accounts clerk will produce the Commission reports for each cleaning products salesman. This will show the commission that has been earned in the previous 6 months. A payment is then recorded and a cheque issued to each cleaning products salesman to whom commission is due, together with the Commission statement showing sales details, and the statement from the Accounts system the total amount due. Database specification Menu structure The many functions of the Commission System will be accessed by means of a front-end menu, which will have the following structure. The data model There are three main entities in this system related in the entity relationship diagram shown below. Because a many-to-many relationship cannot be applied in a relational database, an additional entity named Salesman/Product is introduced. The ERD can now be drawn as follows: The database for Gambino cleaning products salesman system specification will have the following tables: tblSalesman (SalesmanID, Surname, FirstName). Foreign key in tblSalesman/Product ProductName Text (40) Product title tblProduct SalesTeam Text (40) All salesman who sell a product tblProduct Price Currency Product price tblProduct StandardCommission Number Percentage commission on each product sold 1-10 tblSalesman/Products BonusCommission Number Bonus percentage commission on each products sold 11-20 tblSalesman/Products SalesNumber Number 1=Standard commission 2=Bonus Commission 1 or 2 tblSales QuantitySold Number Number of products sold tblSales GrossValue Currency Data Dictionary Input Specification Three input forms will be required. frmProducts. This will be used to enter product details. frmSalesman This will be used to enter details of a salesman and all products on which they receive commission. The commission percentages for each product will be entered in a subform of the main form. Validation methods: The Product ID will be selected from a drop-down list of existing Product IDs. Once a Product ID is entered, the product name will be automatically displayed. frmTransaction This form will be used to enter transactions. Validation methods: Only valid dates will be accepted. The Product ID will be selected from a drop down list of existing Product IDs. Once a Product ID is entered, the product name will be automatically displayed. Selecting a radio button so that only a valid alternative can be selected will choose the transaction type. Process Specification Commission Calculations To calculate the commission for a given transaction, a query has to be performed to combine attributes from tblTransaction, tblProduct, tblProduct/Salesman and tblSalesman. The calculation of the commission is performed as follows: If TransactionType = 1 (i. e sales) ThenRate = StandardCommissionRate ElseRate = BonusCommissionRate endif Amount = Rate * GrossValue. These processes will be carried out in qryCommission. This query will be the source of both the commission report and the summary report. Maintenance Each year, transactions prior to a given date will be removed from tblTransactions. This prevents the transaction file from becoming too large and slowing down the system. The maintenance will be carried out as follows: Run a Delete query to delete records from tblTransaction. Test Plan Tests will be carried out using valid and invalid data and data at the extremes of acceptable values. The following test data will be used. tblSalesman Salesman ID Surname Firstname STEVED Stevens David. Test urpose Expected result 1 Select enter data from main menu, then select Products. To check if the menu options work and that a Products form opens at a new record. Products form opens at a new record. 2 Enter data from test data set. Try entering an invalid date i. e. 3/9/2001 To check the menu options work and that the Salesman form opens at a new record. Salesman form opens at a new record. 3 Select Enter Data from Main menu and then select Salesman. To check if the menu options work and that the Salesman form opens at a new record. Salesman form opens at a new record. 4 Enter data from test data set. To check if valid data is accepted. All valid data accepted. 5 Try entering product ID of BB113. Test that no product can be entered unless it exists on product table. Record rejected. 6 Select Enter Data from Main menu and select Sales To check the menu options work and that the sales form opens at a new record. Sales form opens at a new record. 7 Attempt to enter a new sale with date 3/9/2001 To test if date is validated. Error message will appear on leaving field. 8 Select reports from Main menu then select Product details. Test to see if the Product details display all products entered. All products appear on the report. 9 Select report from the Main menu then select Commission report. Check to see if Commission report details are correct. User is asked to enter start and end dates for report. All commission is calculated correctly. 10 Select Reports from Main menu the select Summary report. Check that Summary report is correct. User is asked to enter start and end dates for report. All totals are calculated correctly. 11 Add 2 transactions for dates in 1999. then select Maintenance from Main menu and identify deletion of records prior to 31/12/1999 Check that Maintenance option deletes records prior to date user enters. The two records are deleted from table. 12 Add a transaction for 31/12/1999. then select Maintenance from Main menu and identify deletion of records prior to 31/12/1999. Check that maintenance option deletes records for date user enters. The record is deleted from table. 13 Select Exit from Main menu To check if the main menu option works correctly. Database closes. Development Plan The planned schedule for development is given below. Week beggining Task Comments 29/01/2004 Detailed design spec 29/01/2004 Tables created 01/02/2004 Input forms created 15/02/2004 Queries and reports created Reports on products and salesman 21/02/2004 Standard commission report created 27/02/2004 Procedures for clearing file developed Clearing records prior to given date 29/02/2004 Testing and modifications 03/03/2004 Testing and modifications 06/03/2004 Documentation 08/03/2004 Installation and entry of master file data. A period of parallel running will follow with reports produced from old and new systems. Conclusion The system will be implemented by Microsoft Access 2000. It will run on any existing PC. The database will be accessible from any of the Departments which are responsible for keeping the data up to date. These departments include Accounts and Sales departments. The system is expected to be tested and installed by the end of April 2004. Sunit Dhadra 12K AVCE ICT AVCE ICT Unit 1 Sunit Dhadra 12K AVCE ICT.

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing

Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing Your manager has been to a marketing seminar on The Service Dominant Logic. He has asked you to produce a paper on the implications of implementing an SDK programme within the firm embraces both the strategic and tactical implications and the costs and the benefits. Implications of service-dominant logic Nowadays, we need to set up strategies and tactics in a new way due to the huge changes happening in both consuming and marketing environment. Due to the more and more important role marketing plays in corporate operation, understanding and implementing strategy from marketings view could offer firms a useful means to reconfigure corporate value and management concept. In 2007, the revised definition of marketing by AMA (American Marketing Association) illustrates that marketing is a system of vale transaction in essence. Briefly, all forms of goods should be regarded as service. Goods are the physical expression of one or more capabilities, and product is the main type that companies offer, while service, according to Vargo and Lusch (2004), is the application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills). Stephen L. Vargo Robert F. Lusch (2004) also explained that marketing has shifted from the goods-dominant logic (G-D Logic) to service–dominant logic (S-D Logic) which is applicable to all marketing offers (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). They further identified that in fact, all economy is the service economy, and product is just the carrier and physical appearance of the service (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). Apparently, what firms offer is the physical product, but in fact all what they supply is just one kind of service, one solution. Kotler (1977) indicated that the real importance of product to us is not the ownership but the service that we could get from them. Also, there is a growing focus o n services in the marketing because service industry dominants the worlds economy nowadays, for example, eighty percent of the current U.S. GDP is derived from the services industry, which employs over 80% of all employees (Ford and Bowen, 2008). The S-D logic intimates a very different kind of purpose and process for marketing activity and for the firm as a whole: to provide service to stakeholders, including customers, stockholders, and employees (Lusch and Vargo 2006, p. 283). All companies should notice that the real implication of serve-dominant logic is the customer satisfaction not the continual innovation and improvement of products, unless this kind of innovation and improvement is for better satisfying customer needs. Firms blind focus on improving products quality and technology would let them ignore the change of customer needs, which will keep them away from customers. Whenever companies can have the service-dominant view, they will be more rational to make strategies. Especially when managing production innovation, firms will not only keep an eye on the product itself but develop the production more efficient based on the services need to be satisfied. So under the serve-dominant logic, firms should firstly be c ustomer-oriented, continually satisfy customer needs; then firms should enhance the service consciousness and improve service quality, which is a fundamental approach to attract new customer, build customer satisfaction and cultivate customer loyalty (Brodie and Little, 2006). A significant change over the 100 years is that customers could actively choose their favourite products from only passively accept corporate product. This is the result of the market competition, is the inevitable phenomenon among the transformation from the sellers market to the buyers market. In the traditional product times, corporate implement the market-and-sell producing value, producers and consumers are completely separated (Baker, 2003, P454). In the past, companies blindly manufacture, ignoring whether or not customers will accept, what they only care is selling products out for profit. However, this method isnt effective anymore because current customers have a lot of alternative choices, part of them are even finicky, they will only choose the product and service satisfying their needs, they will not waste any interest on anything they dont like. In consideration of this situation, more and more companies become smarter. They abandon the obsolete production concept, turn ing to use the sense and response marketing view as the guide, put customers in the core position of the corporate operation. More than that, firms start to involve customers in the process of product design, producing, evaluation. During the whole process of value creation, customers is no longer a passively accepter, but be regarded as the co-producer. The key element of value creation is to cooperate with customers (Normannand Ramirez, 1993). Thus it can be seen that, customer participation is extraordinary important to companies, the interaction between customers and firms is extremely important, especially for the future corporate. In his book â€Å"future shock†, Alvin Toffer explained the upcoming â€Å"experiential industry†, in which customers would not only satisfy with the basic functions products and services offer, they would be willing to allocate high percentages of their salaries to live amazing experiences (Toffler, 1994). In this kind of â€Å"experience economy†, companies will never again simply produce goods, but become an experience platform, co-create value with the customers. Dell and Starbucks are both good examples. Corporate could be regarded as an aggregation of various resources, validly managing these resources could create profit and value. Firms used to believe that tangible resources such as the land, equipment, and materials are the most important assets, because without these resources, companies are unable to organize manufacture. However, in the current service-dominant times, the key resources have changed to be intangible resources like knowledge, experience, technology and innovation etc (Vargo and Lusch, 2004). It can be said that they are base of corporate competence and core capability. This is not to say that those tangible resources are not important any more, but that their importance has comparably diminished, which is because that the buyers market is the dominant in the current economic environment, customers have unprecedented wide range of choices and their needs are escalating, only the high knowledge and technology based products will be favoured by customers. On the o ther hand, simple physical product without high knowledge and technology is losing competence, which prompts companies to transfer to the knowledge and technology intensive ones. Constantin and Lusch (1994) defined the physical and natural resources to be the operand resources, while the knowledge, technology and innovation kind of resources are be defined as the operant resources (Constantin and Lusch, 1994). This transaction of the focus of resource reveals one fact which is that current corporate competition is no longer the simple competition based on the product, but the full competition based on the knowledge, technology and human resources. If company want to be the winner in such intensively competitive environment, it must set up its own core capability and competitive advantage. Modern corporations more and more emphasize on transferring value from the tangible resources to intangible resources, insisting on creating corporate value through operant resources (Vargo and Lus ch, 2004). S-D Logic emphasizes that knowledge is the fundamental source of competitive advantage, as based on a firms ability to make differentiated use of information flow throughout its value creation chain of suppliers, distributors, and customers (Ford and Bowen, 2008). Also, the transaction of focus of resources requires corporate to make an important change on strategies, which is to be the learning organization. Only learning could increase the group knowledge, experience etc intangible assets in the organization, could create core value. Firms not only need to carry out the internal learning, but also turn its attention to the broader external environment and the whole value chain. Not only requires adaptive learning but also innovative learning. It is indicated by S-D Logic that customer value is created through service experiences and relationships, especially in the co-creation and sharing of resources, including skills and knowledge (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006). Within the S-D Logic, the customers is a prosumer and co-creator of value, which can lead benefits to both themselves and service providers (Baker, 2003, P461). In the product times, value is almost decided by the producer, value is included in the tangible resources, reflect on the product; however, in the current service times, value is decide by the consumers. Whether or not one product is valuable, how much value it has, thats not producers call, after consumers judgement, its value is embodied in the consumers recognition and acceptance. So this is like that a drop of water is much more valuable than a diamond in the dessert, which is determined by peoples needs. The definition of Customer Perceived Value (CPV) given by Kotler (2003) is the differenc e between the prospective customers evaluation of all benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived alternatives (Kotler, 2003, P60). So it can be seen that value relies on customers perception and judgement to a large extent. Customers will make their most important judgments of value received through direct service interactions with firms and on service-ability of goods-in-use (Ballantyne and Aitken, 2007). It can also be said that the time-logic of marketing exchange is open-ended, from pre-sale service interaction to post-sale value-in-use (Ballantyne and Varey, 2006). Baker (2003) said that: â€Å"all marketing is about value proposition.† (Baker, 2003, P452). The service-dominant logic brings marketing innovation to the fore through the sharing of new ideas and knowledge within the firm, and between the firm and key customers and suppliers (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006). The effect of transition of value determination on strategy is that corporate must implement the innovation process and service progress based on the customers, play close attention to their need, opinions and suggestions, which means that marketing research, product test need to be taken regularly, ensuring customer needs could be satisfied. It is the only way to receive customers recognition and acceptance and let the value of product could express. Also, firms need to maintain stable long-term relationship with customers, set up various social, structural and emotional connections to enhance customer loyalty and customer lifetime value (Aitken and Ballantyne etc all, 2006).Lean solution which fits the S-D logic and the customers role as co-creator could be applied by companies make hands-on strategies, such as continuing improvements, do it right the first time, and management commitment (baker, 2003, P467). Also, there are some principles should be followed (Baker, 2003, P467; Womack and Jones, 2005b, P61): Solve the customers problem completed by ensuring that all the goods and services work, and work together. Do not waste the customers time. Provide exactly what the customer wants. Provide what is wanted exactly where it is wanted. Provide what is wanted where it is wanted exactly when it is wanted. Continually aggregate solutions to reduce the customers time and hassle. In the service times, companies more and more recognize the importance of customers who are the direct origin of profit. Old trading ideas do not emphasize the relationship with customers, ignoring customer needs and satisfaction lead to companys reducing profit and increasing costs. With the further deepen understanding, more and more emphasize on the core position of customers, companies gradually recognize the importance to keep the relationship with customers. This is also one result of the continual development of marketing theories applied to practices. During the process of development, many new concepts have been put forward, such as the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Customer Equity (Kotler, 2003). Managers find out it is possible to reduce costs on one side, and attract more new customers by word-of mouth to receive more profit on the other side through building relationship with customers and maintaining customer loyalty. Strategically, corporate choose customers more carefully, they find out that it is not effective to be indiscriminate customer choosing. Companies discover that not all of the customers are profitable; some customers will even bring negative gearing to them, which is because the too high cost to get customers and/or too short customer lifetime circle, and this is called the lost-for-good customers type. Sherden proposed to change the â€Å"20-80† rule with the following: â€Å"20-80-30†, first 20% of customers contribute with 80% to the enterprise profit and half of these profits are used to cover the enterprise losses generated by the last 30% of the unprofitable customers (Sherden, 1994). According to this situation, companies start to consider how to measure customer value, how to identify profitable customers, which lead to the CLV evaluation. What companies could do is to model profit on both an annual basis and on a CLV basis to determine customer value in terms o f potential profits and CLV (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P63). For example, Electro plc collected data analyze its customer acquisition and retention economics at the segment level, by doing so it can clearly identify which segment need to be concentrated on and which one is the waste of investment (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P53). Through this assessment, companies could find out the most important customers and abandon those unprofitable customers. And adopt different marketing strategies and different resource distribution (such as different pricing policies, quality and level of service) to different categories of customers. Firms very focus on building up stable long-term relationship to achieve the supplier-customer win-win relationship (Baker, 2003, P469). IBM is good at it CRM, it can make the best use of every opportunity contacting with customers to impress them and increase loyalty to company, and finally enhance corporate profit and reduce cost (IBM, 2009). For example, its CRM outsourcing service provide reliable methods, new ideas and innovative thinking to help firms enhance customer-oriented marketing, sales and the effectiveness and efficient of services (IBM, 2009). When companies are pursuing the long-term development, especially when we hope to build a permanent operating institution, we must have a broad view, not only focus on customers current value, but also create and enhance customers lifetime value. Firstly, companies need to ensure the quality of its products could satisfy customers need; then, companies need to be able to provide good â€Å"consumption experience† to attract customer participation and build their loyalty to your brand. Tactics could be that firms not only provide after-sale service, but actively offer lifetime service, cultivate â€Å"lifetime customers†, create lifetime value in further (Lusch, Vargo, and Malter 2006). CRM regards that the total value of the firms customer base is an important driver of company profitability (Kotler, 2003, P52). In order to set up a comprehensive customer database, high-quality, timely, and accurate information need to be collected such as customers demographics, past purchase etc and then put into a data warehouse. And the database could be used by companies on marketing like to identify customer response, make attractive or timely offers ect. However, Kotler (2003) also identified three problems of database marketing: firstly, companies need to spend a large investment in computer hardware, database, software, analytical programs, communication links, and skilled personnel to build and maintain a customer database; secondly, it is difficult to get everyone in the company to be customer-oriented in and to use the available information; thirdly, customer may not want to keep a relationship with the company, some of whom may even think that their personal informatio n should not be collected (Kotler, 2003, P55). And some real examples tell us that the database marketing is not helpful to every companys CRM, reasons of failure of CRM implementation could be the high cost, poorly designed system, ignorance by collaborators (Kotler, 2003, P56). Conclusively, we are facing a totally different consumption and marketing environment, so we should also change our ideological foundation of making strategies. Major changes include that marketing has shifted from the goods-dominant logic to service–dominant logic; customers could actively choose their favourite products; the key resources have changed to be intangible resources; customers become a co-creator of value; maintaining customer relationship becomes more and more important to companies. So strategic and tactical implications to companies are: be customer-oriented, continually satisfy customer needs; enhance the service consciousness and improve service quality; increase customer participation; marketing research, product test need to be taken regularly to ensure customer needs could be satisfied; carry out adaptive learning and innovative learning within the company. Two main types of benefits could be brought to companies: reduce costs and increase profit and valu e through CRM. However, the initial investment is expensive, and it is hard to make ensure everyone one in the company could be customer-oriented, also, some customers may refuse to maintain relationship with firms. Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long term, and the tactics is the specific actions implementing strategy(Johnson and Scholes, 2002, P 10). New Definition of Marketing (est. in 2007): Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large( AMA, 2007). â€Å"Future shock† is a book written by the sociologist and futurologist Alvin Toffer in 1970 The Pareto principle ( also knows the â€Å"20-80† rule) states that it is possible for 80% of the companys profit to be provided by 20% of the total number of customers (Sherden, 1994). Customer lifetime value (CLV) is defined as the net present value of the future profit flow over a customers lifetime (Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne, 2002, P62) According to Bill Inmon (1992), a data warehouse is a database that contains the following four characteristics: subject oriented, non-volatile, integrated and time variant (Todman, 2001, P32). Bibliography: Kotler, Philip (1977), Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control, 3d ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Crosby, Philip (1979). Quality is Free. New York: McGraw-Hill. 0-07-014512-1. New Scientist, 19 March 1994, pp. 22-25. Harvard Business Review, 71, July/August, 1993, pp. 65-77 Sherden W.A. (1994) Market Ownership: the Art and Science of Becoming no 1, New York,Amacon Chris Todman (2001) Designing a Data Warehouse: supporting customer relationship Management. Hewlett-packard Company, Prentice Hall PTR, Upper saddle river, New Jersey 07548 Johnson, G. and K. Scholes (2002). Exploring corporate strategy : [TEXT ONLY]. Harlow, Financial Times Prentice Hall. Martin Christopher, Adrian Payne, David Ballantyne (2002) Relationship marketing : creating stakeholder value. Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002. Kotler, Philip (2003), Marketing Management 11th (international) ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Baker, Michael John (2003) The marketing book (5th Edition) Oxford :Butterworth-Heinemann. Printed and bound in Great Britain by the Bathe Press, Bath S. L. Vargo and R. F. Lusch (2004). Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. Journal of Marketing, 68:1{17, January 2004. Brodie, R.J., Glynn, M.S. and Little, V. (2006), â€Å"The service brand and the service-dominant logic: missing fundamental premise or the need for stronger theory?†, Marketing Theory, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 363-79. Robert F. Lusch, Stephen L. Vargo (2006) Service-dominant logic: reactions, reflections and refinements Marketing Theory, Vol. 6, No. 3, 281-288 (2006) Robert Aitken, David Ballantyne. Phil Osborne and John Williams (2006) Introduction to the special issue on the service-dominant logic of marketing: insights from The Otago Forum Marketing Theory 2006; 6; 275 Lusch, R.F. and S.L. Vargo, Eds. (2006). The Service-Dominant Logic of Marketing. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe. Lusch, R.F., S.L. Vargo, A. Malter (2006). â€Å"Marketing as Service-Exchange: Taking a Leadership Role in Global Marketing Management,† Organizational Dynamics (forthcoming). David Ballantyne and Robert Aitken (2007)Branding in B2B markets: insights from the service-dominant logic of marketing, Journal of Business Industrial Marketing Volume 22  · Number 6  · 2007  · 363–371 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0885-8624] AMA (2007, December 17, 2007 ). AMA Definition of Marketing . Retrieved 7th Nov 2009, from http://www.marketingpower.com/Community/ARC/Pages/Additional/Definition/default.aspx. ROBERT C. FORD and DAVID E. BOWEN (2008) A Service-Dominant Logic for Management Education: Its Time. Academy of Management Learning Education, 2008, Vol. 7, No. 2, 224–243. IBM (2009) Build sustainable competitive advantage and accelerate time-to-benefit in marketing, sales and service http://www-935.ibm.com/services/th/index.wss/offerfamily/gts/e1028096 (Available) Accessed on 13th Nov, 2009

guilty as charged :: essays research papers

In William Goldings, The Lord of the Flies, an illegal killing took place. Unlawful homicides vary from First degree murder to Manslaughter. Second Degree, murder is a killing which is deliberate and planned in combination with felonies. When Piggy had gone to Castle Rock to retrieve his glasses, he ended fighting Jack. While the boys were disputing a rock was thrown at Piggy subsequently making him fall and die. Jack then proceeded to scream to Ralph that that’s what he deserved, approving Piggy’s murder. The Jury should find Jack Merridew guilty of Second Degree Murder in the death of Piggy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Granted, Jack Merridew himself did not kill Piggy; however, he did plan to kill anyone who was in his way when stealing Piggy’s glasses. â€Å"We’ll keep along the sands. Then if he comes, we’ll do our dance again† Jack had planned to kill Ralph, just like they killed Simon in their dance, if he meddled with his plans. Piggy just happened to be the one who interfered with Jack’s plans. Jack’s followers listened to what he said, and Roger rolled the rock at Piggy, killing him. Jack never really cared for Piggy from the start. He wanted him out of his way so he could become chief; he was the only thing that kept Ralph in charge. Jack would have done anything for that position, and Piggy interfered, which resulted in his murder. Jack did plan to kill someone, and Piggy happened to be first.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In addition, Jack treated Piggy with extreme cruelty. Jack's brutal behavior toward Piggy exposed his evil side. This could be why he wanted to kill him, as they began arguing since they had first met. Jack also felt a desire for power; Piggy would never grant him this supremacy, which led to violence either physically or verbally. After Jack let the fire go out, Piggy reprimanded him leading to frustration in Jack; â€Å"This from Piggy, and the wails of agreement from some of the hunters, drove Jack to violence. The bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach † Jack could have hit anyone else but struck Piggy, showing his deep hatred for him. All Jack needed was the opportunity to kill Piggy, and he would have taken it just like when he punched him in the stomach.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Essay -- Literary Analysis, Zora Neale Hu

In Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston, the relationship between Janie and Nanny is one of great dispute over if it is healthy or not. The idea that the most influential person in Janie’s life is also the one who triggered her struggles when she was becoming a woman is sadly ironic. Nanny’s true influence on Janie is brought to light through symbolic, and decaying diction, Biblical, and Greek Mythological allusions, and natural metaphors, by describing Janie’s journey to womanhood, through finding her own opinion, acquiring a stable life from Nanny, her maturation, and what she gained when becoming a woman. Through the use of symbolic diction, decaying diction, and metaphors, Hurston illustrates Janie’s inner struggle around accepting Nanny’s opinions as the correct ones. Inside Janie’s conscious self, â€Å"There is a basin in [her] mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight†¦Ã¢â‚¬  where she can think freely with thoughts that are, â€Å"†¦untouched by words† (24). This is a place where Janie can flourish by thinking about ideas without being inhibited by peer pressure. To truly understand the ideas formed in Janie’s mind, it is necessary for Janie to get in touch with her body and herself. However, through symbolic diction, it is clear that Janie’s impressionability leads her to not completely understand these thoughts; she has not reached the level of maturity necessary for this level of self-reflection. These qualities cause Janie to have the tendency to mirror Nanny’s opinions on issues, even when she internally disagrees with them. This tension is demonstrated when, â€Å"Nanny entered this infinity of conscious pain again on her old knees† (24). The â€Å"conscious pain† (24) which Janie speaks... ... Nanny’s ideals, values, and opinions. Every aspect of Nanny was drilled inside of Janie, and once Nanny died, Janie was finally a free woman. The reason Janie was able to truly become a woman was because she realized that she was able to become a woman because when Nanny died she set her free. During the journey that Janie went through when she became a woman she gained self-knowledge, and understood on a deeper level why Nanny did things. While Janie matured, it looked at first glance like Nanny was hindering her advancement. However, Nanny’s controlling actions were justified by her belief that she was doing the right thing, and that God would look after Janie. It is difficult to become a person unimpeded by what other people think, it took Nanny’s death for Janie to be released of an important influence, and never return to this time in her life.

All human beings have a deep need for affection and respect Essay

Do you think that Steinbeck conveys the message that nearly all human beings have a deep need for affection and respect? Yes I do think that Steinbeck conveys the message that nearly all human beings have a deep need for affection and respect because there is a lot of characters in the story that are very lonely and depressed, they need someone to talk to and to discuss their own problems with. Curley’s wife is very lonely and she doesn’t have anyone to talk to. She is the only woman on the ranch and isn’t treated properly. She has a dream to become and actress and she tells us the story about the time she was talking to a man and he told her that he would send her a letter back to become an actress and she is still waiting on the letter. She should be respected and it makes us release it. George and Lennieà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s dream is to ‘liv of the fata the lanà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. This means that they dream to buy their own land and be there own boss and work there every day. They also want to be fed from there and Lennie wants to ‘tendà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ his rabbits. As soon as candy finds out that George and Lennie have a dream, Candy ‘buysà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ in to it by offering all his savings. Lennie and George are outcasts and exiles, the reason for this is for the fact that they are itinerant workers and they always work together and go everywhere with each other. This makes them outcasts because they always go everywhere together where as compare to other people at that moment in time every one went on their own. Crooks is lonely and no one talks to him, he doesn’t sleep in the bunkhouse with the other ranch-hands because he is black. This shows the racism at this time. When Lennie goes in to his room he tells Lennie to get out of it because he wasn’t allowed in their rooms so why should Lennie be in his room. It shows the way he is rejected from the others and that he has a need for deep affection. Curley is very bossy and he thinks that everyone is afraid of him. He bullies people because this is the way he can talk to people. He thought that he would be able to bully Lennie because Lennie looked stupid and very shy, but after he hit Lennie a few times so as soon as George told Lennie to hit him back he did so. Every person has a need to convey their affection and in Of Mice and Men Steinbecks shows this in different ways, with the different characters.

Malawi Less Developed Countries Essay

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, ranking 160th out of 182 countries on the Human Development Index. Progress towards reaching the Millennium Development Goal of eradicating extreme poverty has been limited. According to the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report for 2009, about 74 per cent of the population still lives below the income poverty line of US$1.25 a day and 90 per cent below the US$2 a day threshold. The proportion of poor and ultra-poor is highest in rural areas of the southern and northern parts of the country. Country indicators GDP per capita average annual growth rate (%), 1990-2012 1.2 Underweight (%) 2008-2012*, moderate & severe 12.8 Secondary school participation, Net attendance ratio (%) 2008-2012*, male 9.7 Secondary school participation, Net attendance ratio (%) 2008-2012*, female 10.4 GNI per capita 2012, US$ 320 Literacy rate, adult total (% of people ages 15 and above) 74.77 Infant mortality rate 71 HDI( human development index) 0.388 All these indicators show Malawi is a LDC according to the UN criteria for the identification of an LDC. Reason for the low levels of development in Malawi Despite the availability of better technologies, the productivity of most crops has not improved since the 1970s, largely as a result of declining soil fertility. Also contributing to the low yields are poor access to financial services and markets, unfavourable weather, small landholdings and  nutrient-depleted soils, coupled with limited use of fertilizers. The use of improved varieties, together with fertilizers, better crop husbandry and irrigation, has the potential to greatly improve yields. Post-harvest losses are estimated to be around 40 per cent of production. The recurrence of shocks frustrates attempts to escape rural poverty. The most common shocks are weather-related, such as crop failures and increases in the price of food. Illness or injury is also very common, as are shocks associated with death of family members, heightened by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which has affected 11.9 per cent of the population. Shocks often force households to sell assets, thereby undermining their ability to engage in productive activities. As a result, poor households have to adopt costly coping strategies such as selling assets, withdrawing children from school and reducing food consumption. Poor rural people in Malawi are unable to diversify out of agriculture and tend to remain underemployed for part of the year. More than a third of rural households earn their livelihood only from farming or fishing. An additional 25 per cent combine work on their farm with other jobs, largely in agriculture. Other income sources tend to be limited to poorly paid agricultural labour. Few economic opportunities combined with the marked seasonality of rainfed agriculture leads to labour shortages during the critical phases of the cropping season, with underemployment for the rest of the year. Access to education, a major driver of relative wealth, is highly inequitable as well. Almost 30 per cent of poor children do not even start primary school, which is free in Malawi. Secondary and higher education is largely confined to non-poor households, mainly due to the required enrolment fees. Limited access to markets and services is another constraint. Poor rural people tend to live in remote areas with few roads and means of transport, which limits their economic opportunities. Access to financial services is severely restricted, especially for smallholder farmers. Only 12 per cent of households have access to credit. What is being done to tackle Malawi’s problems? In May 2002, the Government launched the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy (MPRS), with the goal of achieving â€Å"sustainable poverty reduction through empowerment of the poor† over a three-year period. The MPRS achieved a modest decline in poverty levels while real gross domestic product (GDP)  growth averaged only 1.5 per cent per annum. In 2005, the MPRS was reformulated as the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS), which remains the overarching policy framework for social and economic development. Under the MGDS, real GDP growth for 2006-09 averaged 8.4 per cent and is expected to continue to be strong, helped by increased revenue from mining. While growth was somewhat lower during 2009-10, it seems that Malawi will weather the global financial crisis. The fiscal deficit has been brought down, and debt relief under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative has greatly reduced the burden of debt service. Notwithstanding good recent performance, the a bility to maintain a level of economic growth to ensure poverty reduction remains limited by: ï‚ §the narrow economic base; ï‚ §the small domestic market; ï‚ §poor infrastructure/high transport costs; ï‚ §erratic power supply and heavy reliance on energy imports; ï‚ §the presence of the State in the business sector; ï‚ §Government intervention in key markets; ï‚ §and weak management capacity in the public and private sectors. Agriculture provides over 80 per cent of exports and contributes some 34 per cent to GDP; services make up 46 per cent of GDP and industry 20 per cent. The performance of agriculture is therefore critical for the economy. Average growth in the sector is highly dependent on climatic factors, and reached nearly 7 per cent during the 1990s and 9 per cent between 2002 and 2006, with a drop to -9 per cent in the 2005 drought. Growth has subsequently recovered with improved seasonal conditions, boosted by the Farm Input Subsidy Programme. The Farm Input Subsidy Programme was launched in 2005-06 to increase agricultural production and ensure food security, by providing government-subsidized agricultural inputs to smallholding farmers. The scheme has coincided with a significant jump in maize production, although it is unclear how much of this is attributable to the subsidy and how much to improved seasonal conditions. The subsidy programme is now a firmly established pillar of agricultural policy. However, it presents a number of policy dilemmas: †¢the cost of the programme is so high that most  other initiatives have to be sidelined, including the extension and research services needed to ensure optimal use of the inputs; †¢the programme has tended to displace commercial input purchases by farmers; and the distribution of inputs has tended to favour the more food-secure households.