Video games made me burn my house down Essay Example for Free

Video games made me burn my house down Essay It’s finally the Thursday night. You’ve seen the advertisements on television and have been waiting for this night for months. You have heard all of your friends talking about it. Tonight, your favorite video game is being released at midnight. You’re getting fidgety just thinking about it. You started counting down the clock as it ticks its way to midnight. Though the clock just past eight, you can’t stand the anticipation. You get in your car, start the engine, and head to the nearest GameStop. Knowing that you are staying up all night for this great, once in a lifetime event, you make a pit stop at Starbucks to get the highest caffeine on the menu. When you arrive at the store, you see a line of people already snaking outside of the store. The sight of the endless line is daunting, but that cup of coffee you got earlier keeps your spirit high. After you fing a parking space, you move toward the end of the line. While waiting, you make new friends, talking excitedly about the game; things like: rewards, tricks, strategy, and glitches. While talking and having fun, time flies, and it’s almost midnight. This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for, finally within your grasp. Everyone is restless at the door; but something is not right. The door is not opening. With racing thoughts, you notice the crease of those around you. What is happening? Why isn’t the door opening? You’ve been waiting so long for the door to happiness to be opened. After an hour of nothing happening, you get in your car and head home. The next morning, you wake up to the sound of the television. Disappointed that it isn’t the game that you’re supposed to be playing, you move to turn the TV off. Just as you’re about to press the button, the news comes on. The news reporter reports a new law has been passed that video games rated M have been banned for sales. Apparently, statistics have shown that M rated video games leads to violence in teenagers. While we know this is fictional, video games haven’t been banned in real life†¦ yet. In today’s society, video games are overwhelming popular, especially in teenagers. With signs of violence frequent in society, video games are an easy victim to blame for. If we don’t acknowledge fictional facts about video games, they might really be gone forever. Video games don’t cause violence in children, and in fact improve cognitive and social skills. First of all, video games don’t cause violence. It always has been a myth. The idea that video games cause violence has not been supported by any research. ProCon. org quoted Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, co-founders of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, in their book there has always been a â€Å"big fear† that video games are a causation for violence in today’s society. They continue to point out that with millions of children and adults playing these games, the world has not been reduced to chaos and anarchy (n.pag. ). With more and more video games being produced, the number of gamers increases. Still we see no correlation in both subjects. ProCon. org quotes another researcher Henry Jenkins, Ph. D. at University of Southern California, â€Å"According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. † He continues to say that even though America has 90 percent of its boys and 40 percent of its girls playing these video games, the majority of kids who play do not commit anti-social acts. Jenkin also quotes a 2001 U. S. Surgeon General’s report, â€Å"The strongest risk factors for school shooting centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure† (n. pag. ). Even though violence is around every day in our lives, video games should not be the blame of the problem. If anything, video games are helping children. The first benefit of playing video games is that it teaches children work with one another better. There is no ‘I’ in team, which video games will teach to the children. ABC news reported series of experiments published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, â€Å"Researchers found that participants who had just played a ‘pro-social’ game which require characters to work together are more likely to engage in helpful behavior in real life than those who play ‘neutral’ games like Tetris. † â€Å"Upsides of social games can even extend to the physical world,† also reported by ABC news, â€Å"Players of the popular social game on Facebook met a challenge from its creators and planted 25,000 trees in the game world in 25 days, leading the game’s developer to plant 25,000 trees in real life† (n.pag. ). With games today that all promotes the co-op play, children learn the idea of teamwork is needed to achieve a common objective. Thus, this activity leads to co-op play in the physical world. The second benefit of playing video games is that they teach children cognitively. Hope Gillette quotes Dr. Pamela Rutledge, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center, in her article, â€Å"Video games and your children: Pros and cons,† that video games create a multi-sensory experience for players. She also said that players could often feel as if they were transported to another world, just like when we say, â€Å"I was lost in a good book. † Players’ brains create a simulation of life for the experience, and by making progress through the game; they learn how to get around easier over time (n. pag. ). ABC news also reported a recent study from the Education Development Center and the U. S. Congress-supported Ready To Learn (RTL) Initiative found that a curriculum that involved digital media such as video games could improve early literacy skills when coupled with strong parental and teacher involvement. Interestingly, the study focused on young children, and 4- and 5-year-olds that participated showed increases in letter recognition, sound association with letters, and understanding basic concepts about stories and print. ABC recognizes college students as well saying, â€Å"Students who undergo a 3D virtual simulation at Loyalist College in Ontario reported that the number of successful test scores increased from 56 percent to 95 percent (n. pag. ). The educational benefits of video games are way overlooked by society, but once in plain sight, it’s easy to see. Video games are not as dangerous as society portrays them to be. Not only do video games promote educational growth, they also help an individual to work with others. Correlation shows that as video games become increasingly popular and violence never seems to cease, but correlation does not imply causation. So implying video games cause violence in society is like saying that Pac-Man affected us as kids, and we’re all doomed to be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.

The Language Gap Essay -- Language Development, Mastering Language

Mastering language is an important milestone in human development. When language is developed, the world opens up and a person is able to communicate their needs and interact in a meaningful way. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky even believes language is the most important tool we have in learning. Our basic learning skills are taught to us through an "informal education system consisting of parents, other grown-ups, peers and even the media" (Sigelman, C. & Rider, E., 2009, pg. 277). Formal education then takes over, teaching the language skills necessary to read, write and problem solve. Both formal and informal education play a large part in development and when one of these is compromised language development can suffer. Infancy and early childhood are an important time in language development. Infants are unable to say meaningful words in the first 10 to 13 months of their lives, however this does not mean they are doing nothing these months. Infants are using this time to listen to the speech that is going on around them, absorbing these words and sounds for use at a later point in their development. According to research infants are able to distinguish between phonemes, or the building blocks of words. These are sounds like b, p, and t. Infants also display evidence that they understand word segmentation, and understand a sentence is not one long word, but a string of several words put together. They are also sensitive to the intonation of language as well. This is the variations in pitch, speed and loudness used when we talk, so "before they ever speak a word, infants are†¦sensitive to the fact that speech falls between clauses, phrases, and words rather than in the middle of these i mportant language units" (Sigel... ...o find time to interact with their children if they are having to work all day to support their family. A solution to this problem might be to provide financial support to these parents so one of them would be able to work a part-time job. This would give these parents more time to interact with their children, with out devastating their finances. When the children are able to enter pre-school programs then the assistance could end and the parent could return to full time employment. Informal and formal education, are important parts of a child's language development. Often, the children of underprivileged families experience deficiencies in their informal education, putting them behind their privileged peers when they enter kindergarten. This is why support programs and programs to educate underprivileged mothers and their children are so important.

Health Care Operations Essay

In a healthcare organization, there are issues, like any other organization. The difference is that in this type of organization, peoples’ health or even their lives can be at stake. Therefore, there is little room for error and all issues must be addressed as soon as possible so that the impact can be controlled and minimized. One such issue can be the overcrowding of the emergency department at hospitals. Many hospitals face this problem especially at the time of disasters and calamities. At times of emergencies, injured people can be flowing in. At times like these, there is always a shortage of space, doctors, supplies and medical attention. Such a problem can have a great negative impact. To analyze the root cause of this problem, following is a ‘five whys’ section aimed at getting to the root of the problem. Why-1 Why is the emergency department being overcrowded? There is not enough space to accommodate the incoming patients. There is mostly a lack of beds, rooms, doctors, medical supplies and treatment. At times of emergencies, the patients coming in are severely injured and need medical attention. With limited resources, these patients do not get enough attention and the delays can cause complications in their medical conditions. Injuries and illnesses can be worsened and lives can be lost because of this lack of space and resources. Why-2 Why is there a lack of space and resources in the hospital? Â  The lack of space can be a design flaw or a problem during the planning phase when the operations scale were being mapped out and discussed. The lack of resources can have the same cause as well i.e. the planned scale of operations was underestimated. Why-3 Why was the scale of operations underestimated? The medical facilities needed in the surrounding environment or locality were underestimated; the planning team did not realize that the locality would need emergency medical facilities on a larger scale. Why-4 Why were the emergency medical needs of the locality underestimated? The survey and requirements analysis done before planning out the operations of the hospital were either done poorly or not at all. This can have several causes too like unskilled researchers and lack of expertise. Failure to look at all social aspects and the lack research backing the healthcare facility plan can be the root causes of the problem. Thus, all projects need to be started off after thorough research and planning so that future issues can be looked after.

Harley Davidson Company Essay

Situational analysis Harley Davidson, an international motorcycle company, started out as a small three man operation in 1903, by the Davidson brothers and William Harley manufacturing heavyweight motorcycles. This included financial services for the motorbikes, accessories and branded apparel. It experienced great success during both World Wars, and managed to survive the trying times of the Great Depression. After World War II, Harley Davidson brand begin to build on the image of the V-twin cylinder engine established in the 1920’s by shifting from manufacturing military bikes to recreational ones. During the 1970’s and 1980’s Japanese competition nearly destroyed the company. Competitors introduced technological advanced bikes at a lower cost due to mass production. Technological advances and economics of scale and efficiencies made competitor’s products superior in some instances. Harley responded by a re-evaluating its marketing strategy centered on a lifestyle image. This included a re-organization and brand building program, including the Harley Owners Group (HOG), Harley Davidson was able to re-capture its market share. It established these groups along with better customer service that helped it establish itself as a dominate company in the motorbike industry. It had a differentiated focus and various target markets as the environments changed. It was positioned effectively as a way of life with a sense of freedom as opposed to selling the best motorbikes. The marketing campaigns focused more on the lifestyle associated with the product and worked on its social image. The marketing team used differentiation to create more awareness of the product by reinforcing Harley from a psychological perspective as a symbol of freedom, developing and maintaining relationships. Harley Davidson South Africa was established in 1996 and has prospered due to very high annual growth rates. It succeeded as an emotionally driven brand, one that customers choose for a sense freedom, biker image or as a status symbol. It is this emotive response that Harley Davidson capitalizes on in its marketing strategy and that is re-enforced with the Harley Owners Group magazine, events and the international customer rental service. Despite the company’s success it faces some unique challenges. Currently all merchandise  is imported from the U.S.A., as a result pricing decisions are problematic relative to competitors. Harley continuously evolved its brand but lacked focus on black upcoming consumer (black diamonds) and on women initially. It will need to do some valuable market research and determine the best way forward with very careful implementation of the strategy to best target black diamonds and increase growth in this ‘untapped’, high disposable i ncome market. 1: Product Policy Product Policy is defined as â€Å"A strategic rule or rules covering how a good or service is promoted to potential consumers† (Kotler and Keller, Year!). Harley-Davidson has since grown from one dealership to seven independent dealerships between 1996 and 2007. Harley product policy was to focus more into customers’ needs rather than the company, this is the strategy that was introduced in the early 1980’s and was subsequently implemented in South Africa. These customer-orientated services have differentiated the company from competitors, in the minds of customers in South Africa as it was about image, sense of Freedom and status. This help in dismissing the myth / reputation of its â€Å"bad boy† image. This was seconded by the gender split of 28% female and 72% of male’s riders in South Africa. Harley South Africa set  out to promote Harley’s into females who are independent with high salary income as the new market segment; the strateg y was to treat them as equals and as owners in their own right. Post 2007, the product policy changed to â€Å"Black Diamonds† with an effort to attract and increase the black market into Harley riders. Their marketing strategy was different as it had done very little above the line advertising, dealers were given freedom to determine their own promotional activities modified to their own client’s needs and demands. Classification: Specialty goods – Customers are willing to make an extended search to find Harley and in some cases, might be willing to travel 20 or 30 KM to find the bike. â€Å"Marketing mix† is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the process of bringing a product or service to market. The Product which is one of the 4P’s is used in defining the marketing mix and is categorized into 4 pillars namely Product Mix; Product Design; Product Development and Product Life Cycle (Kotler & Keller, 14th Edition) 1. PRODUCT MIX: Product policy lies at the heart of the marketing mix and encompasses all qualitative aspects of the products offered. Product-mix refers to the range of products offered by an institution. Offering products that are valued and demanded by customers is key to the success of Harley in South Africa. 2. PRODUCT DESIGN The goal of product design is not to create a different product to satisfy every possible client need. Harley should design products that respond to several different needs with only a few variables. Product design variables must be appropriate for the markets that the Harley has decided to target. 3. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT Product development is the process of continually refining client-oriented products. It includes several phases, such as exploring customer needs, screening ideas, evaluating products through pilot testing, revising product  design based on the results and finally, launching the products. All of these phases are intertwined. 4. PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE Below is the summary of the four phases of the Harley product life cycle which include introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Core Benefits of owning a Harley: * Harley members have an enduring relationship built on trust and dependability supported by good service and meaningful advice as most of the riders especially females had no technical capabilities of some of the riders. * Become part of the Harley family which include meeting with business associates, share a cup of coffee with new riders and also talk to a friend. This has made most riders to have a â€Å"sense of belonging†. * Harley offer in-house finance and insurance program for riders / customers. * A full one-year membership in the Harley Owners Group (H.O.G) comes with every purchase of a new, unregistered Harley motorcycle. * Associate  memberships for H.O.G family members and passengers also benefit and become part of the Harley family membership. * Owner’s memberships are renewable at a discount and they can also become a member for life. * Full access to the company’s website, magazines each year, and a subscription to the special member publication, toll-free customer service and even a touring handbook for trip planning. * Harley also organizes and sponsor special events for H.O.G members including bike parades. * Analysing the Brand equity of Harley Davidson: When purchasing a Harley, the customer is endowed with an added value of a sensation of freedom offered by the product, the sense of belonging and a sense of exhibitionism offered by a Harley. Harley Davidson does not market the functional purpose of the bike but rather the emotional and psychological attributes of freedom and belonging. The success of the marketing approach and achievement of brand promise of such psychological attributes are well evidenced by the successful financial performance of Harley Davidson. The following case facts indicate that Harley commands higher prices, market share and profitability: * Steady share of half the USA heavyweight motorcycle market in 2006; * Annual growth in unit sales in South Africa had averaged 46% over the past few years. * Harley still held the majority share in SA market, an estimated 67%. The above indicates that Harley Davidson has strong brand equity credentials. We can further analyse the brand equity of Harley Davidson by applying one of the Brand Equity Models, ‘The Brand Resonance Model’ (Kotler and Keller YEAR) and applying the 6 fundamental building blocks of the resonance model to Harley Davidson: Building brand Equity The right brand knowledge structures targeted at the right consumer can build substantial brand equity (Kotler and Keller YEAR). An analysis of how Harley uses the 3 brand equity drivers (Kotler 2014) to build brand equity: 1. Brand elements – Harleys brand benefits are less concrete (freedom, sense of belonging etc) and thus it ensures that its brand elements focus on emotional and psychological attributes. E.g. slogans such as â€Å"The fun is not in the destination, the fun is in the journey†. In addition company marketing themes never emphasize on the bikes mechanical specifications but rather the associated lifestyle for owning a Harley. 2. Marketing activities – product/service – Lifestyle – How do customers make contact with the Harley brand: * Internal Branding – Harley’s primary focuses is on internal branding Harley makes extensive use of marketing through its brand community, the H.O.G. H.O.G members have a consciousness of kind† or sense of felt connection to Harley. i. H.O.G. as a channel for internal marketing has proved to be more effective than Harley’s external  marketing campaigns. ii. HOG is not organic but company-sponsored and facilitated because it’s one of the main and primary marketing activities. iii. H.O.G is a business strategy. The entire business model supports the H.O.G. iv. Harley’s cultivation and engineering of the H.O.G plays a significant role in growing and strengthening the brand * Individual Customer marketing v. Harley places a lot of marketing attention and focus on the individual customer. Significant investment is made towards dealerships being well equipped to cater for H.O.G meetings, vi. High individual customer focus pays off in terms of, significant sales arising from repeat customers, accessories, customisations of initial purchase, trading upwards after initial purchase etc. vii. Individual marketing to women on a personal basis as they walked into the store with their husbands or partner’s. This was successful in building brand equity amongst female customers. * External Branding is minimal. Harley does not do much mainstream advertising. This has a benefit of cost saving from not having to rely heavily on mainstream high cost advertising channels. Harley prefers to grow through existing dealerships. For example, Dealerships are equipped with coffee areas where staff can connect with customers that walk into the stores. 3. Leveraging secondary associations * Harley frequently associates itself with charity rides and motorcycle events. This allows it an opportunity to build on its brand promise of exhibitionism and belonging While applying the logic of the brand value chain (Kotler 2014) backwards, high profitability & market share arise from strong customer awareness and customer associations, which in turn arise from successful marketing programme investment. It could be inferred that Harley has generated valuable return from its marketing approach consistently over a period, indicating successful brand equity building over the years. Target Market: Harley Davidson’s new target market is the, ‘Black Diamond’. This has been their focus as they believe this market has potential. In 2007 the market totalled 2.6 million, while they managed to make sales totalling 709. This meant they had 27% of their target market. This was a drop when compared to the previous year. Post 1994 this target market has had opportunities that did not exist before. We also saw the emergence of BEE, which continues to make Black people more financially stable. This therefore makes this market an ideal market to focus on. Market profile: As much as the female rider target market is growing (28% by 2007) and has potential Harley needs to understand that there are still cultural issues that this market has to deal with. Such issues include that fact that for the black community for a woman to drive a motorcycle it might be not acceptable. Therefore, this would need Harley to come up with strategies to deal with this cultural perception in order for them to benefit from this market. Future product policy: Product Portfolio: Harley Davidson has managed to introduce accessories which are priced differently. This works as those that cannot afford to buy the motorcycles can still settle for other biker accessories thus improving margins. Harley needs to continue to widen its product mix. Usually a biker will buy one bike unless they can afford to buy more, therefore for Harley to continue gaining from this consumer they need to also focus more on their accessories which not only bikers like but also non bikers and family members. It was mentioned that 70% of the purchasers were non bikers. Harley however needs to be careful that its product system does not disadvantage its brand. This is seen as an exclusive brand and one needs to be careful that a product diversification does not bring down the value of the brand and result in consumers perceiving it as cheap. It is therefore important that we keep the current product portfolio as exclusive as possible to protect the brand. With the increase in fuel prices, Harley might need to consider a two-way stretch where they might need to produce cheaper motorcycles which are more  fuel efficient to encourage people who might not want to consider investing in a Harley due to costs. Strategies for growth: Driving in a Harley club is a spectacular moment, whether or not the bike itself was bought for show. Cruisers are differentiated products and Harley is the leader in that market but that is a double edge sword as its guaranteed popularity and high expectations as a result. They are effectively selling a lifestyle and for more people to buy into it and to keep those on board they need to focus on strengthening the product differentiation, design, brand and service differentiation. Bikes as an extension of personality and customers will associate with a product that delivers on the highest promise. The design of the bikes and features that are most useful and necessary to the rider are important, the customisation has resulted in unique end products for each customer, the quality in terms of performance and conformance need to me maintained at a level above the competition. Because customer needs and tastes vary, the service levels required to keep customers happy also varies, the service dimension of the business is therefore important in creating a strategy. By creating awareness about the product and pricing mix and different after sales service options available to the customer (delivery, training, consultation, HOG, maintenance and repair options), Harley Davidson SA can bridge the information gap and appeal to a larger market. Targeting the Black diamond: This is one of the fastest growing segments in the South African economic context, the majority being young and qualified and earning a more than descent constant salary. Mostly growing up post apartheid, this group is less stereotypical and more adventurous and likely to try new things than was previously not associated with the age segment. This is the new financial muscle of the South African economy and Harley Davidson should explore it purely as a potential market for its affluence and exploratory capacity if not for its perceived desire for opulence and status. As a product that provides pleasure, fun and value, there is no reason not to tap into this virgin market that hasn’t yet grasped its stance or identity  relative to the previous politically influenced generation. Harley-Davidson Services According to Kotler and Keller, †The customer will judge the offering by three basic elements: product features & quality, services mix and quality, and price† (Refer to Fig 12.1). In our technologically age it is now easier for any company products to be replicated and even produced much cheaper too. This makes the element of â€Å"service quality and mix† very important to marketers. The service quality and mix Harley-Davidson offers to its customers will be a source of competitive advantage. The customer value hierarchy diagram places an ‘augmented product’ at a very high level (Fig 12.2). Customers will value an augmented product because of its additional features and services that come with it. Harley-Davidson should aim for service differentiation at all stages of the buying process and after purchase: (Ordering Ease, Delivery, Bike-riding training, customer consulting, maintenance and repair). The customer service personnel employed by Harley-Davidson will affect the quality of service. The company would need to ensure that they hire and train the right people for the jobs. Employee satisfaction would be critical to making sure the employees have a positive attitude as they work with customers. The marketing department at Harley-Davidson has to understand the needs and wants of their customers in order to satisfy them. Customers are concerned with reliability, service dependability and maintenance costs of the motorbike. A service-quality management system would also need to be set up plus monitoring systems to ensure that all customer complaints are handled properly.

Trelawny of the Wells Summary and Analyzation essays

Trelawny of the Wells Summary and Analyzation essays Arthur Wing Pinero's Trelawny of the Wells was one that I personally was open-minded to when required to see the production at the Ruth Halls Theatre. Because theatre and art interest me, I expected the production of Trelawny to be quite well. When I came to the Wednesday production, I wanted to examine the design qualities and aspects of the play. In a previous theatre class, I tried to examine the acting quality and styles of the production, but failed to recall as much as I would have liked for the response paper. Although the plot of Trelawny of the Wells was disappointing and bland, the costume, sound, scene, and lighting design helped enhance the performance of the actors and suspense of the audience. The beginning of the first act of Trelawny was confusing. There was not a clear connection to what the characters names were and it was difficult to understand what Mr. Albett was saying. I found myself fiddling through the program trying to figure out whom he was speaking to. I do understand that actor playing Mr. Albett had to use slang type of English, but it was frustrating trying to figure out what was being said. The costume design of this scene had me very interested because the social class of the characters could be determined by their clothing. I first questioned Tom Wrench's costume because I seen a few tears on his shoulder and knee and thought it was the fault of the costume designer, but throughout the production I realized that he was a gypsy and could not afford the lavish The color contrast used for the costume design in the first act was very apparent and positive. Rose Trelawny was introduced in the first act in a white dress that was of higher class than Mr. Wrench's clothing even though they were both employed by the Wells theatre. One could recognize that Rose must have been looked high upon because of white gown, which represented pureness in ...

Building Blocks Lesson

Building Blocks Lesson I have a story to tell, and I want to do it in one-liner bullets. The lesson is clear. See if you note the trend: My lesson = Began writing mysteries. = Finally published a mystery. = Joined Sisters in Crime (SinC) to be with other lady mystery writers. = Became a moderator for SinC to be seen and remembered as a lady mystery writer. = Was invited to help start a local South Carolina chapter of Sisters in Crime. = A year into the local chapter, the president said libraries were seeking authors to speak. = I immediately applied, spending much time on the application. = The library had a grant to hire writing teachers. I knew grants and volunteered time to get it off the ground. = I was selected = The SC State Library asked me to do videos for a website for those who could not attend for payment. = Another county library heard of me and asked me to teach their group, expanding the grant for payment. = One of the librarians suggested I apply for the SC Humanities Speakers Bureau for when the grant was over. = I applied and was accepted for the Speakers Bureau . . . because of my new library reputation. = A library in the next state heard of the library program and invited me for four (paid) appearances. = Another library not on the grant asked me to appear, at the recommendation of the State Library, and applied to the Speakers Bureau to pay for it. . . . and that was just up to this week. Im sure the momentum is still in play.   All too often we become one of two types of writers when it comes to our platforms and self-promotion: 1) The control freak who thinks theyll keep a grip on every turn in the road and determine all outcomes, or 2) The uncertain soul who lets their journey flap in the wind, headed in whatever direction someone else steers them. The best situation falls someplace in between. Keep your options open, but when you see an opportunity, snap it up. Every person in my SinC group had the opportunity I did. None capitalized on it. I saw an opportunity to spread my name in South Carolina in an attempt to saturate local notoriety, instead of thinking I have to become known nationally first. I didnt wait for them to tell me what to do as a speaker. Instead I suggested topics, aiding with promotion, and becoming friends with the librarians who are always seeking opportunities for their members. That friendship resulted in joining the SC Humanities Bureau. And the ball keeps rolling. Do not think you know everything about your writing career. And dont be afraid to try something new to aid your cause. Opportunity is everywhere . . . just everywhere. The art is seeing it, and courting it, and putting it in your pocket instead of wondering for days and weeks if you ought to do something you never have before. Trust yourself. Be excited about stepping out. Watch your confidence soar, and amazingly, those around you will want to soak up that confidence and invite you into their world.

Initial Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Initial Market - Essay Example The latter poses the most difficult challenge as it requires creativity and a real close look at what consumers want. One issue that can be addressed is the combination packaging of products for the 1 million male cigar and cigarette customers who use both products. We can obtain some information from this segment in terms of cigar to cigarette use ratios, to provide the most desirable product combination. Branding efforts of cigarette products should continue to focus on the retailers who will likely sell higher volumes of product. Data from each retailer and customers who purchased our cigarette brand have disclosed the amount of sales volume we can expect at each location. Survey research efforts have provided information regarding target segments. In addition to the 1 million male cigar/cigarette smokers, the 10 million smokers in Britain come from all geographic regions, with highest concentrations in urban areas. The largest age group is 18-34, almost equally male and female, w ith construction, production and service jobs being the most reported occupations. Though many in the 35-55 age group have ceased to purchase tobacco products, this segment still contains a significant portion of cigarette consumers, as the largest segment of the general population. population. For the youngest age group cost and convenience are the main reasons for selecting brand, though recognition is another important factor as well. This group selects brand products based on exposure or influence. As peers share products and discuss products they expose others to product brands. Promotional activities for this age group should include referral bonuses and similar programs. Registration cards are sent or given to consumers who have already provided survey information. Three detachable coupons are given to friends so they can go to a retail location for a free pack of cigarettes. The customer is also entitled to one free pack for their efforts. Such activities will help to increase brand awareness. Our brand should be priced just below competitors, to urge repeated purchase and imprint the brand on this age group. "Pricing and price related promotions are among the most important marketing tools employed by tobacco companies" (Chaloupka, et al). Though this may be true in the introductory phase, future efforts should focus on brand image and availability as they are long term factors that affect buyers. The 35-55 age group is a tougher market. Smokers is this segment will likely have tried several brands. While price is a factor, taste and availability are the most important considerations. Market saturation, with placement of products in the most frequented retailers should be the main focus. Preliminary market research data suggests that our brand satisfies consumers at a moderately high level, within the 1-5 ratings system used. Availability is also important. Those established with families and careers often don't Have time to search for desired brands. Our research data also indicated that many in this segment frequent retailers located along routes to and from work. Proper distribution also improves brand recognition. "The marketer doesn't just need to tell people about the product, but also to ensure that it is priced, distributed and engineered correctly In this context, "correctly" means in a way that meets the needs of the customer" (Hastings, MacFayden &Eadie). Meeting the needs of customers in a relatively saturated market is difficult. However, opportunity exists for unique offerings that are generally provided by specialty tobacco companies. In Greece, tobacco use