Marketing channel article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Marketing channel article - Essay Example The competition is reacting accordingly in order to ensure Amazon does not steal market share away from them. â€Å"Companies like Walmart, Best Buy and Toys â€Å"R† Us have already announced that they will not be undersold and will match any competitors’ prices in a printed flyer or website† (Loeb). The use of a matching pricing strategy can help retailers retain market share, but it does so at the expense of lowering profitability. The pricing strategies that are being used by major retailers are benefiting the customers who are going to be able to obtain bargain prices on many products. Best Buy plans to match competitors prices as well, but this firm believes that they have a competitive advantage over Amazon because they are able to physically show its customers the products they want to buy in their showrooms, while at the same time offering great prices though its website. For other retailers such as Toys R Us Christmas season is more important to them since most of their yearly sales are dependent on the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas. A matching pricing strategy was an obvious move for them due to their dependency on Christmas sales. Amazon is leading the pack this Christmas season by offering daily sales on a high variety of items. The pricing strategy of Amazon intends to increase its market share as much as possible. It all starts on Black Friday for Amazon with deals on popular items such as sm artphones, diamond rings, and Wrangler jeans. After Black Friday the company intends on adding deals each day on different items in order to motivate buyers to make purchases. Last year Amazon lead the industry with 2,840 prices changes on Black Friday. Most of the prices changes were down, but some went up in order to offset the loss of profitability of reducing prices. This article showed that pricing is a critical factor that affects the buying behavior of consumers. Companies competing for market shares

Business to Business Marketing Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Business to Business Marketing - Case Study Example Storage Open Market Modified Rebuy /New Task Toys and sporting Barbie Lego Fisher Price Bratz HotWheels Straight Rebuy Women's wear Contempo Girl Express Secret Love Bonds Solutions Sports Now Bub2b Beachley Straight Rebuy 2.0 NETWORK SURROUNDING KMART 3 Overview of Products acquired from Upstream Supplier: The supply chain of a company contains three parts: 1) The upstream that which includes suppliers and their sub-suppliers and their sub-suppliers etc. 2) The internal supply chain which includes all the processes used in transforming the inputs received from the above suppliers to the outputs, from the time the inputs enter an organization to the time that the product(s) go to distribution. 3) The downstream which includes all the activities involved in delivering the product to final customers, including the "afterlife" that is, where the product ends up after it has served its useful life - recycle, reuse, refuse, etc. K-MART is one of the largest retail networks of the world. In view of keeping the organizational purchasing process transparent and systematic, K-Mart utilizes a "Supplier Diversity Program" by Diversity Business.com. They have completely outsourced their vendor management to Diversity Business.com. K-Mart believed in Supplier Diversity and for this they have a specific Supplier Diversity Program. Supplier Diversity Mission Statement "Kmart is committed to improving the economic position of minority owned businesses. Our diverse store locations require that we go above and beyond to meet our customers' expectations. It is our goal to actively seek qualified, reliable, minority owned vendors that can provide a strategic advantage to Kmart." (www.diversitybusiness.com) It... 2) The internal supply chain which includes all the processes used in transforming the inputs received from the above suppliers to the outputs, from the time the inputs enter an organization to the time that the product(s) go to distribution. 3) The downstream which includes all the activities involved in delivering the product to final customers, including the "afterlife" that is, where the product ends up after it has served its useful life - recycle, reuse, refuse, etc. K-MART is one of the largest retail networks of the world. In view of keeping the organizational purchasing process transparent and systematic, K-Mart utilizes a "Supplier Diversity Program" by Diversity Business.com. They have completely outsourced their vendor management to Diversity Business.com. "Kmart is committed to improving the economic position of minority owned businesses. Our diverse store locations require that we go above and beyond to meet our customers' expectations. It is our goal to actively seek qualified, reliable, minority owned vendors that can provide a strategic advantage to Kmart." (www.diversitybusiness.com) It can be seen that it would be difficult to analyze which one of the numerous suppliers is more important for K Mart.

Development Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Development Administration - Essay Example In foreign policy, Neoliberalism is a proponent of the opening of foreign markets via political means, through diplomatic means, economic pressure and if needed be, then military might as well. In this context, opening of markets implies free trade and international division of labor. Neoliberalists mostly favor multilateral political pressure through various international organizations and treaty devices such as the WTO, the World Bank and the African Development bank. It promotes reducing the role of national governments to negligible. It encourages privatization over direct government involvement and evaluates success in the overall economic gain. To build on efficiency and increase employment, it works to reject and alleviate labor policies such as minimum wage and overall bargaining rights. It is a vehement opponent of socialism, protectionism, fair trade and according to some critics it is a major obstacle to democratic rule. Similarly these critics argue that labor rights and social justice should be prioritized over international relations and economics. In the United States neo-liberalism has been linked with positions that support free trade and welfare reform. It does not oppose Keynesianism and environmentalism in these areas. In the American context, for instance Brad DeLong is a very avid defender of Neoliberalism, despite being a Keynesian, someone who has constantly supported income redistribution and also a fierce critic of the Bush Administration. It is also colinked with the Third Way aka social democracy under the New Public Management movement. Those supporting the US Version of Neo-liberalism put it forward as a pragmatic position that focuses on what works and what doesn’t work. The concept emerged during the 1980s as an alternative to the famous interventionist approach of the Democratic Party and the anti-government Pro Business approach of the Republican Party. Charlie Peters, Robert Reich, Lester Thuron, Gary Hart, Paul

Educational Reform in the Antebellum Period Essay

Educational Reform in the Antebellum Period - Essay Example This movement also fought for the expansion of schools. They compelled the government to allocate public funds towards public schooling systems so as to meet expansion needs. They also advocated the need of public schools to be accountable to state governments and school boards. As a result, the government was forced to finance public schools (Simpson, 2004). The government also came up with laws that made elementary school attendance compulsory. In subsequent years, education became universal. The impact it has had on me as a twenty-first-century learner is the fact that through the government, I have the ability to access various learning resources. Consequent results of the movement’s fight also included government’s establishment of a practical educational curriculum system. Quality of education had become a major concern for most people. Most philosophers at the time insisted on a system that would not only enable people to read and write, but also one that would h elp eradicate poverty through innovation and creativity (Simpson, 2004). Similarly, people developed the perception that, the more educated they were, the more productive they became. Over the years, these ideas have contributed to the general development and improvement of educational curriculums. As a learner in the 21st century, the impact these ideas have had on me is that I can access quality education that has expanded my thinking and reasoning capacity to a great extent. Moreover, I have developed a value system.

Arthur Miller Essay Example for Free

Arthur Miller Essay We then created a scene based on knowledge gained through the play text and the discussions and showed it to the class, and received in return their comments. However our teacher did not believe any one in our group had the characters as believable as they could, and thought they needed improving. She decided upon giving us an extremely beneficial exercise into do as a class, which would make us look deeper into our characters, as so there fore convey a better example of that character in our scenes. We all had to stand up, facing our teacher, in a way we believed our character would stand, also incorporating facial and bodily stance. At that time, the character I was playing was Eddie, a respectable legal Italian immigrant living and working amongst the Italian community in New York. I had from previous exploration into the character a visualisation of the type of character Eddie was. The type of man who was tight fisted and bolshy, yet thoughtful of those important to him. This exercise backed up my thoughts on Eddie, and allowed me to make an accurate physical and tonal picture of how Eddie should be acted; tight fisted, yet in no way a mad man, but with a cold expression on his face. We also used freeze frames in many of our scenes, whether it was to change, open, or close scenes, they were useful to us so we knew when to stop or pause. And they were also useful to the audience so they could see a clear distinction between different parts of scenes, or changes of scenes. In one scene we used a large amount of stage to allow the use of levels in a creative way around the stage. We were all in a group of four, and had only one speech from one character to create a scene out of. We devised amongst the group, which would be the most effective way of delivering the characters speech to the class. We decided upon cutting the paragraph in certain areas, into sentences, which could then be allocated to individuals. We then composed ourselves to being character involved, who happened to be Alfieri, and mapped out where each of us was to stand. We decided to start the scene in a freeze frame, but to let the end flow, with repetition of the final line, the voice dynamics getting quieter as the words trailed out. We thought this effect would be good in conveying an inner voice speaking, and would also allow for the next group to add their scene, the following in the play, onto it. The use of mime was also rather important in this scene as well. With hand gestures and facial expressions the climax could be reached, the true expression of the person could come out, making a more believable performance. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Digital Communication in Business

Digital Communication in Business Introduction The aim of this report on â€Å"Digital Communication† is to summarise the broad concepts of a technology that has made rapid strides in all facets of our life. The objective is to understand the concept, analyse its relevance in the field of business and assess the current and future trends. Fundamentals of Digital communication The fundamentals of digital communication is stated as â€Å"in a digital communications system, data is transmitted from one location to another by mapping bit sequences to symbols, and symbols to sample functions of analog waveforms The analog waveform passes through a band limited (possibly time-varying) analog channel, where the signal is distorted and noise is added. In a conventional system the analog sample functions sent through the channel are weighted sums of one or more sinusoids; in a chaotic communications system, the sample functions are segments of chaotic waveforms. At the receiver, the symbol may be recovered by means of coherent detection, where all possible sample functions are known, or by non coherent detection, where one or more characteristics of the sample functions are estimated. (Kolumban, Kennedy Chua (1997).  Digital communication systems, by definition, are communication systems that use such a digital sequence as an interface between the source and t he channel input and similarly between the channel output and final destination The idea of converting an analog source output to a binary sequence was quite revolutionary in 1948, and the notion that this should be done before channel processing was even more revolutionary. By today, with digital cameras, digital video, digital voice, etc., the idea of digitizing any kind of source is commonplace even among the most technophobic. The notion of a binary interface before channel transmission is almost as commonplace. For example, we all refer to the speed of our internet connection in bits per second. (Gallager, 2006). Digital communication tries to convey the information from a source such as a computer to a receiver as effectively as possible. â€Å"Modulation† is a process where the digital information is mapped to a sequence of symbols which has varied properties of an analog electromagnetic wave called the carrier. At the receiver, the signal to be received is selected by a channel filter, demodulated, interpreted, and the information is recovered. Conversion of the digital information stream to an analog signal for transmission may be accompanied by encryption and coding to add end-to-end security, data compression, and error-correction capability. A channel encoder introduces algorithmic redundancy into the transmitted symbol sequence that can be used to reduce the probability of incorrect decisions at the receiver. Modulation is the process by which a symbol is transformed into an analog waveform that is suitable for transmission. Common digital modulation schemes include amplitude s hiftkeying (ASK), phase shift keying (PSK), frequency shift keying (FSK), continuous phase modulation (CPM), and amplitudephase keying (APK), where a one-to-one correspondence established between amplitudes, phases, frequencies, phase and phase transitions, and amplitudes and phases, respectively, of a sinusoidal carrier and the symbols. The channel is the physical medium through which the information-carrying analog waveform passes as it travels between the transmitter and receiver. The transmitted signal is invariably corrupted in the channel. Hence, the receiver never receives exactly what was transmitted. The role of the demodulator in the receiver is to produce from the received corrupted analog signal an estimate of the transmitted symbol sequence. The role of the channel decoder is to reconstruct the original bit stream, i.e., the information, from the estimated symbol sequence. Because of disturbances in real communications channels, error-free transmission is never possible . (Kolumban, Kennedy Chua (1997). Types of Digital communication The different types of digital communication are the internet and email, cell phones, high definition television and other electronic communication (Sarokin. D, 2015). He quotes â€Å"in 1962 the idea of the internet was born†. Relying on packet switching the digital transfer of short bursts of data globally connected computer networks quickly developed into sophisticated digital communication technologies. Email over the network was introduced in the 1970s and has since grown into one of the most widespread forms of digital communication. Agnelli (in Vanderbeeken 2004, p. 2; see also Agnelli et al. 2004) argues that mobile phones have led to the overlapping of digital and physical space, so that physical presence no longer implies attentiveness or availability, and distinctions between public and private space are eroded. Digital communications is mainly associated with telecomunications and electrical engineering. Pedrozo and Wilska (2004, p. 4), the adoption of mobile pho nes has been ‘one of the most conspicuous social changes to happen over the last ten years. HDTV (high definition television) is a television display technology that provides picture quality similar to 35 mm. movies with sound quality similar to that of todays compact disc. Some television stations have begun transmitting HDTV broadcasts to users on a limited number of channels. HDTV generally uses digital rather than analog signal transmission. HDTV and standard definition television (SDTV) are the two categories of display formats for digital television (DTV) transmissions, which are becoming the standard. (Techtarget.com, 2008). Digital communications have become ubiquitous in modern society and encompass a wide variety of technologies. Remote controls, keyless entry devices, walkie-talkies, Bluetooth earpieces, GPS satellites, cash registers and credit cards are among the many technologies that communicate digitally with people and with other devices. Futurists have coined the term The Internet of Things to refer to the trend of enabling thousands of types of devices, from light bulbs to washing machines, with digital communication capabilities. Given the sophistication of the instantaneous transmission of digital data, it can be easy to overlook the more mundane communication activities. We store digital data on many types of physical media, including CDs, DVDs, flash drives, tape and compact memory chips. Every time you hand a friend or colleague a file, whether you transfer it electronically or pass along a DVD, you are engaged in a form of digital communication. (Sarokin. D, 2015) Importance of Digital communications in business Long, Sarah M (2010) states social life in the United States today is changing rapidly with the growing use of Web 2.0 technologies. Many realms of social life are being reorganized in different ways by the spread of computers, the internet, cell and smart phones, Ipods, and similar communications and information technologies. More business is transacted by ecommerce and many jobs are being restructured by the centrality of computers and access to the Web. Many people participate in politics through the internet, clicking to donate to political causes, sending letters to Congress via email, and mobilizing people for protests through list serves. Education ranging from K-12 to college is increasingly reliant on computers and access to information through the Web. Even personal life, ranging from family life to friendship to intimate relationships are being affected by these new technologies as all kinds of social interactions are mediated by technology. In this context, Ernst Young (2 011) states that the real imperative in a world where ‘everything’ is digitised is that businesses need to pursue innovation to disrupt their own business model before the competition does. Without innovation strategies, companies will lose their competitive advantage in an increasingly commoditised world. There is no time to lose, as technology change accelerates and new digital platforms and devices are emerging. Furthermore, the expectations of the new ‘generation Y’ or ‘digital natives’ mean that companies must keep up with the pace of change or lose relevance. It further states that businesses must use digital channels to create seamless and consistent engagement in the view of the pace of technology change that is increasing exponentially. The challenge of most businesses would be to face loss of control over the customer relationship since the proliferation of digital channels and devices gives consumers greater access to information, an d the means for communication and collaboration. The physical world is being replicated in the digital world through digital communities, businesses and assets, fundamentally changing the way consumers engage with businesses and each other. It also states the need to engage digitally with suppliers and employees. Therefore the use of use digital technology to enhance traditional business models, transform existing business models digitally and Invent entirely new business models or different engagement models. There is an increased competition and the risk of commoditization. Digital channels lower barriers to entry and increase globalisation, leading to a spiral of intensifying competition and commoditisation. Innovative organisations are taking the opportunity to diversify, bringing cross-industry convergence and blurring of the boundaries between industries. Previously physically distinct products and sectors now compete with one another, over less clearly defined customer bases. Many companies are already developing responses to the challenge of digital by moving from a transactional to an ‘interactional’ relationship with their customers. They are inviting their customers to become part of the RD process, the design process and the go-to-market. They are also encouraging them to participate in the post-sale support process, and taking advantage of ‘prosumerism’ as a low-cost way to provide service. It is through differentiation and innovation that organisations can create the shift in mindset necessary to win in the digital game. Current future trends It is assumed that the future trends in digital communication will continue to be important and digital literacy will continue to develop distinct registers. Convergence refers to the capacity to integrate technological functions in a single device. Hence, the mobile phone doubles up as camera, MP3 player and so on – or the home media system deals with music, TV, telephonics and e-mail. The general direction of convergence is to allow for access to multiple media from a single source. Convergence pairs up with portability, because as devices become more compact and wireless connection becomes more affordable and more ubiquitous, the possibilities of being able to use all media, more or less at any time or place, increase. Pervasiveness suggests that digital technologies will feature in more and more areas of everyday life, becoming even more closely interwoven with the way we get things done. As this pervasiveness increases, it is also likely that technological innovation will focus on making devices and their interfaces more transparent – in ways that touch screens and desktop icons begin to suggest. (Kaul, 2012). Digital is changing the world, and progress is not linear. In a world where a smartphone is no longer just a smartphone, but a potential revolution. Not every digital initiative will work for every organisation, and it is important to assess capability and capacity for change before deploying a digital strategy. In general, the more holistic the initiative is, the greater the chance of success.  Ernst Young (2011). The next step in digital communication as reported by Reuters (2014) in the Times of India edition is the WebRTC. This free browser-based technology looks set to change the way we communicate and collaborate, up-ending telecoms firms, online chat services like Skype and WhatsApp and remote conferencing on WebEx. Web Real-Time Communication is a proposed internet standard that would make audio and video as seamless as brows ing text and images is now. Installed as part of the browser, video chatting is just a click away with no need to download an app or register for a service. WebRTC allows anyone to embed real-time voice, data and video communications into browsers, programs more or less anything with a chip inside. The use of a WebRTC-compatible browser like Mozillas Firefox can be made to start a video call just by sending someone a link. By the end of the decade, consultants Analysys Mason reckon there will be 7 billion devices supporting WebRTC, nearly 5 billion of them smartphones or tablets. Automatic voice and video encryption means web conversations should be safe from eavesdropping or external recording. Those championing WebRTC say the technology isnt so much about challenging whats available today, but more about creating opportunities for new products and services tomorrow. Conclusion In conclusion, Das (1998) states â€Å"most of the technological developments in digital communication has been very rapid and has taken place in the last two decades. As a result , the senior professionals and academics have not been able to keep pace with these developments and therefore there is an urgent need to update the knowledge in these areas.Moreover,it is very necessary that our electrical engineering students specializing in communications must have a strong base in digital communications systems as well. The reason being the rapidly advancing price/performance capability of computing, storage, and bandwidth is contributing to an adoption rate for the digital infrastructure that is two to five times faster than previous infrastructures, such as electricity and telephone networks. (Core Edges Blog, 2009). REFERENCES Core Edges Blog, (2009) ‘Core Digital Infrastructure Technologies improve exponentially without stabilizing. Das.J (1998): Review Of Digital Communication Ernst Young (2011):  http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/The_digitisation_of_everything_-_How_organisations_must_adapt_to_changing_consumer_behaviour/$FILE/EY_Digitisation_of_everything.pdf [Accessed:11 March 2015] Gallager, Robert (2006) course materials for 6.450 Principles of Digital Communications I, Fall 2006. MIT OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Downloaded on [9/03/2015] Kaul.V( 2012): The Digital Communications Revolution Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies Volume: 2 – Issue: 3 – July – 2012 [Accessed:11 March 2015] Kolumb ´an.G, Kennedy. M.P Chua.Leon.O (1997): The Role of Synchronization in Digital Communications Using Chaos—Part I: Fundamentals of Digital Communications Long, Sarah M., Exploring Web 2.0: The Impact of Digital Communications Technologies on Youth Relationships and Sociability (2010). Sociology Student  Scholarship.http://scholar.oxy.edu/sociology_student/2 [Accessed:10 March 2015] Pedrozo, S. Wilska, T.-A. (2004) Mobile phones and young people’s consumer identities: a comparison study between Finland and Brazil. Proceedings of Digital Generation: Children, Youth and Media. London: Institute of Education, University of London, 26–29 July. Reuters (2014) http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/WebRTC-the-next-step-in-digital-communication/articleshow/45493950.cms [Accessed: 9th March 2015] Sarokin. D (2015): Types of Digital communication http://www.ehow.com/info_7999188_types-digital-communication.html [Accessed: 9th March 2015] Techtarget (2015) http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/HDTV-high-definition-television [Accessed: 9th March 2015]

Stories as Attitudes :: Sociology Essays Research Papers

Stories as Attitudes Curiosity seems to be innately part of the human experience. With this propensity towards curiosity comes our seemingly insatiable need to search for answers to the world's many unanswered (and conceivably unanswerable?) questions. Perhaps the most important of these questions regard the origin of the world, of life, and of us as human beings. The need to account for our own beginnings can be seen throughout history, as multiple explanations have been offered from diverse cultures, religions, philosophies and disciplines. For example, "the folklore of even the most primitive human tribes indicates that they had given some thought to questions about the origin and history of the world" (Mayr, 2001, p.1). This "urge to account for a beginning" has indeed led to many different answers and justifications throughout time, the most popular and noteworthy being the stories of creationism and evolution (Mayr, 2001). These two accounts at first appear to be entirely irreconcilable, thus spark ing centuries of heated controversy and debate. The purpose of this discussion is not to attempt to resolve the age-old arguments among creationists and evolutionists, but instead to investigate the psychosocial reasons behind the power of each side's assertion that they and they alone are "right". According to the definition of an "attitude" (i.e., "any cognitive representation that summarizes our evaluation of an object, which may be the self, other people, things, actions, events, or ideas"), the stories/explanations that we come up with to account for the world around us are nothing more than attitudes (Smith & Mackie, 2000, p. 247). Evaluating the inherent characteristics of attitudes will allow us to gain insight into new (and more useful?) ways of thinking about persuasion (i.e., "the process by which attitudes are developed, reinforced, or changed by communications"), thereby allowing us to further understand why conflicting stories, specifically the stories of creationism vs. evolution, can be perceived as tremendously threatening (Smith & Mackie, 2000, p. 248). People form attitudes/ create stories because they are useful in mastering the social environment and in establishing important connections with others. It is a well- known fact in psychology that once an attitude is formed, it becomes very closely linked to the representation of the object to which that attitude has been ascribed (i.e., the attitude object) (Smith & Mackie, 2000). This cognitive connection helps us to negotiate our interactions with these attitude objects in two ways: through the "object appraisal or knowledge function" and/or the "instrumental or utilitarian function".