Emerging Trends in Csr in India

Emerging Trends in CSR in India Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR as is popularly known is a system of gauging an organization’s bearing on society and weighing their responsibilities. CSR is not just about getting involved in some charitable practices or having ecological responsibility and a recycling policy. It is about the whole representation of the company which is to be considered, from internal practices to their clients, taking in every stride that a business takes during its usual operations.It is a continuous commitment that companies should have towards the economic, social and environmental development of the community in which they operate. Several companies have now enthusiastically taken up to the cause of CSR in countries with rising economies such as India. Corporate social responsibility is sustainable, which involves companies to take up activities without having negative impact on their business.In India several companies have started realizing that i t is a sensible move to take up CSR activities and integrate it with their business process. Corporations are becoming increasingly aware of their role towards the society. They are responsible bodies that feel a sense of duty towards the common welfare and the environment. This comes with a growing realization that they, as an integral part of this society themselves, can contribute to its upliftment and empower of the entire country in turn.Thus Companies now are setting up specific departments and teams that develop policies, strategies and goals which are for their CSR programs and allocate separate budgets to support them. These programs are based on well-defined social beliefs or are carefully aligned with the companies’ business domain. In the modern era, the new generation of corporate leaders considers optimization of profits as the key, rather than the maximization of profit.Hence there is a shift of paradigm from accountability to shareholders to accountability to stakeholders. The focus has been on initiatives that are people-centric with active community participation at all levels. Moreover, the corporations themselves have moved away from the charitable initiatives like giving financial grants or sponsorships to providing products and services in a manner that would make a real difference in the target communities.Companies today are aiming a host of programs and schemes in several areas like education, healthcare, rural development, environment protection, protection of artistic and cultural heritage and disaster management that are modified to meet the specific needs of the target group and for the successful implementation of these schemes corporations devote not only financial resources but expertise, manpower, products and services. Corporate Social Responsibility is increasingly becoming an important aspect of corporate behavior and thus imperative to the business.There are several reasons attributed to this, one being that the pote ntial partners wants to work with companies that are sustainable and has a clean and good image in the society. Employees too want to work for a company that’s making a difference, prospective employees look to CSR reports and other information to get a sense of the corporate culture. Thus the corporations which are private initiatives are becoming more like public institutions whose survival depends on the consumers who buy their products and shareholders who invest in their stocks.A concern for social and environmental development should be made a part of every corporate entity through its inclusion in the annual agenda backed by strong and genuine programs. Thus corporate contribution to the society, environment and business when guided by enlightened self-interest leads to improvement of the quality of life for all. Also effective corporate responsibility requires a good level of commitment from the entire organization and especially the top management who can ensure that not only CSR is practiced in their organizations but is also practiced well.

An analysis of the Maya Angelou poem “To a man” Essay

‘To a man’ is written by Maya Angelou, whose first novel was an autobiography of her varied life, (activist, singer, waitress, dancer etc.) called ‘I know why the caged bird sings’. She has written two collections of prose, ‘Wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now’ and ‘Even the stars look lonesome’. Angelou has written several famous poems, including ‘Still I rise’ and ‘On the pulse of the morning’ for the inaugeration of President Clinton. Maya Angelou now has a lifetime appointment as Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. The poem is about the man that Maya Angelou loves, and she uses a variety of metaphors and images to describe him to the reader. Maya Angelou has a very decisive style of writing and uses lots of modal verbs such as ‘is’ to convey her message to the reader. She writes poems to entertain people, and to be read aloud. I think this one is one of those poems because she uses full stops and capital letters to show when pauses should be given and which words need particular emphasis. This poem is serious, and thought provoking, and she uses unusual imagery to compare her man to. I like the style she uses to give meaning to her words, and how she uses punctuation and enjambement together which gives an interesting effect. The mood is quite happy, as she describes her man, who makes her feel warm and laughs through his own troubles. The poem does not follow conventional structure, or use syllabic sentencing on each line. The lines do not rhyme, and it is like Angelou has just written down her thoughts, without purposefully making them into a piece of poetry. The poem is twenty two lines long, and puts important ideas about the man on their own , or on a separate line to show the reader how important this aspect of the man is. ‘To a man’ is written from Maya Angelou’s own experience, and was about her first husband. It describes his personality, and likens him to a big cat. Angelou uses metaphors such as ‘My man is Black Golden Amber’ to begin the poem. The first line ‘My man is’ sets the scene and tells the reader that the poem is about the man Angelou loves. The word ‘My’, indicates possessiveness, unlike the title which is ‘to a man’, this could be any man. It is unsure why she writes to any man, not her own, but possibly it is to tell the m how great her man is and that she doesn’t need anyone else. The word ‘Black’ could be in reference to the skin colour of the man, or his personality, which could be evil, or depressed. I think it means ‘evil’ because of the later imagery used in the poem. ‘Golden’ implies that he is special, and precious as gold, as does the next word ‘Amber’ which is also a precious stone. The word ‘Amber’ gives the idea of warm colours, reds and oranges, which link in to the rest of the poem. The next line is simply, ‘Changing’ which means her man is constantly changing from Black to Golden to Amber, his personalities change. ‘Warm mouths of Brandy Fine’ I think this means that kissing him is like drinking brandy, and makes her warm which ties in with the warm amber colours used earlier. ‘Cautious sunlight on a patterned rug’ means that maybe her man is cautious sunlight, which links to the imagery of golden. Possibly Angelou thinks of herself as the rug, and he cautiously lights her up, and makes her warm again. The next line indicates that the man smiles through his troubles, ‘coughing laughter’ and that he has a particular smell, of ‘French tobacco’. ‘Graceful turns on woollen stilts’ shows that her man can not only walk on stilts made of wool, i.e.) do the impossible but also, turn on them gracefully, and make the impossibilities of life seem easy to her. The following line is simply ‘ Secretive?’, Angelou is asking herself a question about the man, is he secretive?, and then answers in the next line, ‘A cat’s eye’. I think that this indicates that he has depths and mystery like the cat’s eyes which swirl with hidden colours. He is not secretive, just has many layers that cannot be unravelled all at once. Cat’s eyes are golden and change colour with the light, which links in to the idea of the man’s temperament, also ever changing. ‘Southern’ is in it’s own sentence at the beginning of the next line which could show that her man is from the South , possibly American, like Angelou herself. The next sentence says he is ‘plump and tender, with navy-bean sullenness’, navy is traditionally a very masculine colour which could mean he is a very macho man. The next line re emphasises how tender the man is, it says simply , ‘The gentleness’. The fact that Angelou doesn’t use a lot of words to describe the gentleness suggests to me how gentle he is, she cannot use words to describe it, it is just there, which is in direct contrast from the sullen man who likes navy blue. This again gives the impression of an ever changing personality. The next line mentions a cat again, ‘A big cat stalks through stubborn bush’. This imagery has an air of menace about it, the cat using it’s gentleness to stalk, capture and kill it’s prey, a cat is graceful, and light but also can be deadly. This adds an air of danger to the man, is he as sweet as he first appears?. Angelou now asks if she mentioned amber, which links back to the start of the poem, and gives the reader the red, gold imagery again, and an idea of the warmth Angelou feels with her man. She likens amber to a ‘heatless fire, consuming itself’, which (as in other Maya Angelou) poetry gives the image of a cycle, forever consuming itself. Possibly the heatless fire is what she sees in her man’s eyes. The next line says ‘Again.Anew. Into ever neverlessness’ which shows the cycle again, and also could portray the image of a cat’s eye and the way the colours in that change. ‘My man is Amber’, this is a repetition of the first phrase, Angelou uses a definite metaphor to compare her man to Amer. She then repeats her third line, ‘Changing’, which again shows the way his colours change like Amber. The next line is ‘Always into itself’ , whi ch could be acting as a metaphor for their love, which also changes but remains the same. This is further shown in the last lines, ‘New.Now.New’ and ‘Still itself’. The poem ends with the word ‘Still† on a line o it’s own, with a full stop, this shows that their love is still, and the way he feels for her, unlike the colours doesn’t swirl and changed and is still. I think that Maya Angelou wrote the poem to describe the way her husband made her feel, and to keep a part of that feeling with her, for posterity. She writes to any man to let them know what she has, and to convey her deep love for this particular man. Another reason for her to write the poem is to try to make sense of the way her man acts, and the way his moods change. I think that Maya Angelou wrote this to show the complex emotions she feels about her man, possession, tenderness, love, and warmth all at once. The poem’s effect on me was that it showed me the way a woman felt about her man, and it helped me understand the deeper emotions of a relationship. I liked the way she used Amber to show how her man changed, because it wasn’t in a negative way, the Amber gave an impression of how precious he was, yet she changed her perspective with him. ‘To a man’ made me think about the images and metaphors used, and I enjoyed analysing it because now, I enjoy it more, knowing how Angelou felt when she wrote it.

Women in Congress

Why do you think so few women and racial minorities have been elected to Congress? That is a question that can come with many different answers. In my opinion, I believe that there is a different reason between women and minorities for their lack of success in Congress. Both reasons involve the past, but in different ways. The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There are 435 members in the House of the Representatives. The Senate has 100 members. Both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election. The main reason why women and minorities are not popular in Congress is because of descriptive representation. Descriptive representation is a belief that constituents are represented effectively by legislators who are similar to them (Challenge of Democracy). The characters that qualify are race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. That is the main factor why there are so few women and minorities in Congress. Due to the past, the demographic characteristic is a white male. As far as African American activity in government goes, a lot of progress has been made. In the past slavery kept blacks from being involved at all. They slowly made progress when they were counted as 3/5th of a person. Then they moved on to being free persons, and from then the African Americans moved on. There were many influential blacks to America. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were two very important people. They changed America for the better and helped African Americans advance in life. African Americans began serving in Congress during the Reconstruction Era after slaves were freed and granted citizen rights. Free black men gained political representation in the South. White Democrats took back political power and tried to return white supremacy. Legislatures lowered voting for blacks by passing tougher voter laws. As a result of the African American Civil Rights Movement, Congress passed laws to end segregation and protect civil rights and voting rights. When Congress changed the Voting Rights Acts in 1982, the states made districts that put minorities together. They thought it would make it a better chance for African Americans and Hispanics to be elected into office. They fixed the â€Å"make-up† of the districts. Women were never seen as a necessity in the business world in the past. They were not useful when it came to farming in men’s eyes. They were always needed to do the household chores and making sure the kids were being taken care of. Men believed that women were not as strong as men. It was as if they were not as important as men. Women were not allowed to vote until 1920, and before then not many women were involved in the government (Women in Congress). If you could not choose who was going to make decisions for you, why would you even be concerned? There was only one state, New Jersey, who allowed women to vote for 17 years (1790-1807). The only way they could vote was if they fit the land requirements. I believe though that the reason why there are so few women and minorities in Congress is because America is not ready to change. They are stuck on the way things were before and never trying new things. People are not willing to even give a woman the time of day, even if she has great ideas. It would be someone they brush off because women aren’t smarter than men. Minorities are not even considered an option in Congress just because of their title as a â€Å"minority†. There are a minor amount of minorities and it is hard to find the ones that are determined to better themselves in life. It is almost as if they’ve given up on trying to become an image breaker. Everyone believes in the descriptive representation and that is why minorities are not involved in the government (Congress vs. Minorities). As the years have progressed though there is one man that I must give credit to for making a huge advancement for minorities in government, Barack Obama. He had many obstacles to overcome to get there. There were many people that told him he didn’t stand a chance in the race. He was determined and he now is sitting in the office as President of the United States. Demographic groups have always been a large role in Congress. The groups consist of race, gender, ethnicity, or religion. The groups vote for people that are in the considerable same group as them. For example, if a Catholic runs against a Jew, most Catholics would vote for the Catholic. In 2050, there will be remarkably many different things going on in the world. There is a chance that a black woman will be the President. A Hispanic male might be the Speaker of the House. Global Warming could be done for, and New Orleans could possibly be submerged underwater. All possibilities of what the world could be like in 40 years. I believe that the world will have a new outlook on things and demographic groups will not exist so prevalently. I think people will be able to make decisions based on their own likings and not what their â€Å"group† is doing. People are becoming more independent in their choices in 2010, so 40 years from now the world’s mindset will be free. To support my reasoning on people being independent now is through the example of Obama winning the presidential election. I believe that people stepped out of their demographic group on their voting choice. Yes, most African Americans voted for Obama, but even the African Americans affiliated with a different religion voted for him. White people stepped out of their religion and race to vote for Obama. I still believe demographic groups will exist, just not so commonly. Those that are stuck to traditions and keeping things the way they were will still be apart of the group. They will consist of less people, but there will be enough to rock a vote. Hopefully, the demographic groups will just completely wipe out and let people use their minds. I want Americans to be able to make their own decisions. The reason why there are so few women and minorities in Congress has to do with choices made my Americans. African Americans that want to run for a position in Congress probably find it pointless due to the demographic groups. They feel that they shouldn’t waste their time since they already know the outcome especially if they run against a white male. Hopefully having Obama in office will give other minorities and women incentive to pursue their dream to be involved in the government. The entire controversy will continue for years though. These have just been my personal opinion mixed in with facts. The ideas for the future I have are very well thought out, and I hope to see the progress in the future. If African Americans can go from being slaves to running the United States; I think it is more than possible for people to become more independent in their own thoughts and decisions.

Portfolio essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Portfolio - Essay Example I have learned more than just argumentative writing techniques. In my portfolio, I have included technical writing, expository writing and literary criticism, among other various forms. For instance, I have used expository writing in an article I wrote titled â€Å"what happens in Saudi Arabia every hour?† This can be exhibited by the way that I have given a back story or background information about Saudi Arabia in my introductory paragraph. I have attempted to explore in depth the contrast between the reality in Saudi Arabia and the perceived image that most people might have about Saudi Arabia. Many people round the world are misinformed and deem Saudi Arabia as a bad and an inhabitable place. In my essay, I have expounded in the good and the bad regarding the country. Additionally, I have expounded on the fact that deaths from road accidents in Saudi Arabia have been on the rise by providing statistics from previous years to support my thesis. I used research in this paper to incorporate outside information into my analysis that supports the topic I was dealing with. The assessment made from the research I carried out when writing the essay remains one of my favorite parts of the paper. I have carefully observed reports by Joffe Walts on how most of the accidents in Saudi Arabia mostly claimed the lives youth more than any other group. The statistics showed that road accidents were the number one cause of most death among Saudi Arabian adult males. The females are spared as the society forbids women from driving vehicles. Through the conclusion to the essay that I wrote, I am in a better position now to provoke the thoughts of readers through the use of rhetorical questions regarding statistics of the death toll from road accidents. The reader is compelled into thought when reading through the rhetorical questions employed. This article has made a deliberate attempt to showcases my skills in regard to summarizing, in depth analysis and alignment of

What have you learned about Asian culture (you may wish to distinguish Essay

What have you learned about Asian culture (you may wish to distinguish between various countries and cultures) in this course - Essay Example The discussion will be based on the analysis of a number of films being produced in the region. The films chosen for the analysis are: Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, Hanabi by Takeshi Kitano, Apur Sansar by Satyajit Ray, Salaam Bombay! by Mira Nair, Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou, and Chungking Express by Wong Kar-Wai. The paper will examine how the variations of Asian culture are presented in these films. Before going into any further discussion on the nuances of Asian culture, it is important to understand what culture means. A general definition of culture argues that the concept of culture can be best described as â€Å"a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behaviour. It is an abstract ‘mental blueprint’ or ‘mental code’.† Concepts and ideas of culture can be studied by means of exploring behaviour, customs, material culture (artefacts, tools, and technology), language, etc. of a particular community or region. So to say, culture is a learning process through which a community or society can be studied both at individual and collective levels. This process of learning one’s culture can be labelled as enculturation. One of the characteristic features of culture studies is that there is nothing like a ‘culture of one’, it is a collective possession shared by a ll the members of a society. Commonness in behaviour, customs and other traditional practices can be achieved by mutual construction of a culture by means of a constant process of social interaction. Besides, culture, language and thought are based on symbols and symbolic meanings. Apart from this symbolic nature, the definition of culture features arbitrariness and habitualness as culture is internalized and created by humans. Coming to the more specific discussion of the Asian culture, it is characterized by the concept of cultural variation. Some of the most important ingredients of Asian culture are: Asian art,

Analyse web site Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Analyse web site - Essay Example Luckily, because of modern technology and the advent of the internet, there are many websites right now that offer services for booking hotels in most tourist destinations in the world. One of the websites which offers this kind of service is Booking.com. Booking.com is a website which offers hotel accommodation to most tourist destinations around the world like Paris, Las Vegas, Singapore, and Rome; and to over 99 countries. It is actually a part of Priceline.com which is the leading online reservations agency worldwide. It is established in 1996 and it guarantees the best prices for any type of accommodation, ranging from small independent hotels to 5 star hotels. The website is available in 41 languages and has over 12000 hotels option in 99 countries. The name of the site is very suitable to the services that it offers. It is very easy to find the website because when you type â€Å"booking hotels† in search engines, this site appears first in the list. Booking.com is not just any kind of booking website. It is actually registered with the trade register of the Chamber of Commerce in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Understanding Management accounting and Financial Management Essay

Understanding Management accounting and Financial Management - Essay Example Understanding Management accounting and Financial Management Considering the cash budget of Mowtown store, the management should be credited for the limited amount that is being paid as payroll as a wage. On the other hand, they have been getting the efficient services from the employees of the store. Another main factor that needs to be considered by the management is that they should look for the same policy reforms that affected their profit to rise with the highest percentage, i.e. the ending balance of February and May will indicate that. The managers must also look for reducing the costs such as shipping costs and maintenance costs. Budgeting and better management decision making and management control: An effective budgeting system will facilitate the management to make an effective decision making, which lead to the results that are expected by the management in the end of a period. Without a proper budgeting and forecasting system, the management cannot predict or decide what steps must be taken to expand or at least maintain the busi ness, what measures should be taken to reduce the overall costs, and how this framework must be established. An improper budgeting system will lead to a frustrated decision making process which might not be in favor of the management or a particular business.Budgets are prepared by the company operatives at various departmental levels; whereas the ‘master budget’ actually highlights the comprehensive financial plan for a particular period. The main objectives of preparing a budget which can also be termed as the advantages can be explained as follows: The budget must be prepared in order to direct the attention of the management to the future trends of the business, based on the results of the present trends and transactions. The budget actually affects the decision making process of the management and helps the system to reform the strategies and policies of the company. It allows the company management to critically analyze the activities running on in the business. T he proper budget allows the management to predict the problems and issues as well as key opportunities that can be controlled or covered in the coming period. The budgeting enables the managers to achieve their objectives as well as important goals of the company more efficiently. A budget will remind the management about what objectives they have set and how they have to carry out those. An effective budget also helps the management in terms of performance evaluation. A budget leads to the management making authorized actions. As mentioned above, an effective budget helps the management process. In terms of this process, the first thing that needs to be considered is the planning period, which should be future-oriented. The proper planning is totally dependent upon the statistics of business, i.e. current financial situation, and most authorized proof for that is given by the budget to the management officials. An effective budgeting will also state the condition regarding the goal s that have been set by the management in the beginning of the financial period, and whether the processes to meet these goals are being undertaken properly or not. This is

Discuss four aspects of the social context of care Essay

Discuss four aspects of the social context of care - Essay Example Health is also affected by the kind of living and working conditions he enjoys and whether the people he is interacting with are having a positive influence on his life. (Wilkinson Richard and Marmont Michael, 2003) There was a previous school of thought which prescribed that the doctors along with the nurses should not get too involved in the social aspect of the patient. One tends to lose their level of reasoning and rationality of thought on such interactions. Making the correct diagnosis along with administering the drug by the nurses were the requirements of a doctor and a nurse. However the present school of thought introduces a social aspect into the medium whereby doctors and nurses are advised to have a more pleasant interaction with the patients. Even if the patient can afford the treatment the greatest barricade for ordinary people gaining access to proper healthcare includes class, gender, ethnicity and disability. Stigma Stigma relates to a psychological problem that is experienced by patients having Aids, epilepsy and other mental illness. This is characterised by a feeling of depression and low well being. (Brakel Wim, 2005) The literary concept of stigma is defined as the social rejection of an individual or a group due to a negative judgement made by the society at large due to a health problem that the individual or group is facing. Stigma is associated with the following actions 1. Discrimination- This entails preferential treatment given to some people over others due to a particular health issue a patient might posses. (Wilkinson Richard and Marmont Michael, 2003) Source: Brakel Wim, 2005, measuring social stigma 2. Participant Restriction- This involves the problems a patient might experience when intermingling with society in general. Participation is restricted from certain activities which can have a negative impact on his psychological well being. (Brakel Wim, 2005) 3. Stereotype- This occurs when the society at large perceives people suffering from a particular illness as all having the same personality traits and behaving in a certain manner. This can give rise to cliches with society not appreciating the individuality of the person. Stigma affects the mental condition of the patient adding to the illness or disability he is already experiencing. People tend to develop an inferiority complex. Stigma and discrimination is harmful in areas related to medical access to these patients. For AIDS patients the primal fear is total isolation since the general feeling among public is that it is contagious and can spread via contact. ( Brakel Wim, 2005) This fear causes them to hide their disease resulting in severe lowering of self esteem. Concealing the disease can also increase the risk of them aggravating it even further at the same time affecting the individuals around them. Indicators have been developed to assess the stigma that is associated with each disease like Aids and leprosy. The AIDS Attitude Scale develop ed in 1992 has been used for stigma assessment among health care professionals. (Brakel Wim, 2005) This has now been updated to include the attitude of the general public as well. One instrument called the Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue (EMIC) has been developed to measure stigma for different health conditions by creating a data base of the attitude of society at large. The answers to the queries are graded on a scale of 0-3. The answer ‘

Structural Mechanical Faiulre Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Structural Mechanical Faiulre - Case Study Example During construction, certain difficulties came up resulting to a delicate, but flawed change of design. The change intensified the weight on the connection between the walkway tie roads and the support beams carrying the load of the second floor walkway and the fourth floor walkway. This design was not adequate enough to support the weight of the structure, as well as the weight of the spectators (Engineer). The investigations conducted also revealed that the change or alteration of the design by the contractors without consulting the engineers contributed to the structural failure. The failure was brittle in nature since it occurred as a result of one grain boundaries being stronger than the other. Additionally, the collapse of the structure also occurred with no prior deformation on the walkway. However, it is worth noting that the collapse could have been prevented. This could have happened if the contractors could have consulted the engineers of the structure before making changes on the design of structure (Engineer). Therefore, in order to prevent future structural failures of the same, Hyatt Regency walkway structural failure is used as a case study while training engineers and contractors on significance of engineering

Interculture communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interculture communication - Essay Example Technology changes the way we reason in identity and perceive other cultures. Technology mostly leads to movement of people making us to come in contact with many other people of different cultures. It has been established that young adults move more often than the other generations in the process changing the individuals not excluding myself as I moved from China to the U.S and adopted a little bit of the American cultures (Lee, 2011). Demographic intercultural communications are derived from the recent variation in the U.S population. The changing US demographics include the population increasingly becoming non-white and multiracial besides the workforce being female dominated and older. The changing immigration patterns result in immigration and economic classes. According to Lee (2011) demographic diversity results in varied world views which lead to prejudices and stereotypes though it can be a positive force in giving linguistic richness and research. The economic imperative based on globalization as the US economy is connected to other countries it does little in ding business with other countries. Domestic diversity also encourages business to be attentive in to cultural variations. The peace imperative gives an insight on the role of historical, political, religions and economic contexts. Most of the time contacts to other groups have led to conflicts. The interpersonal imperative helps us to comprehend our cultural diversity with the similarities and differences that exist in the universe. Communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which individuals make shared meanings. Symbols define the shared meanings. Interpretive as people comprehend symbolic behavior of others. Transactional because people task together create comprehension among themselves communication is a process comprising of shared meanings. Interpersonal communication involves

Discussion Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Discussion Questions - Essay Example According to Maslow, â€Å"each level of need must be satisfied before an individual is ready to strive for satisfaction of the next higher level of need.†(Milliken, 1998) The drive for achievement has often overridden the drive for basic needs. Sometimes in a neglectful manner, as with Picasso’s need to create making him forget all other needs, or sometimes it is done with purpose in order to achieve a goal that satisfies one of the other needs. The artistic mind will focus so intently on its creation that all other needs are forgotten in the pursuit of the expression that is hoped to be expressed. The question then becomes, is the focus of the artist able to classify him or her as mentally healthy, or by virtue of the all consuming focus is mental illness present? Achievement does not always indicate good mental health. With the presumption that Maslow’s hierarchy is an example of a healthy mind, then ignoring basic physical and social needs that should come before the priority of creativity would indicate mental disability. However, not only an artist might forget to eat or sleep. Many professions might preclude the needs of the body for the need to accomplish a goal. A scientist on the verge of discovery could easily forget to eat or sleep while focusing on that goal. Any goal that has priority in the mind of the one who is hoping to achieve that goal might interfere with the basic needs. To ignore the D-needs, or deficiency needs in favor of the needs at the self-actualization level is a situation that comes from a the concept of drive. That drive that compels those of great talent or intellect to pursue the focus of that gift is not included in the conceptual idea of Maslow’s theory. The concept of higher purpose is also not taken into consideration in Maslow’s theory. Sacrifice for a greater need often will be taken by an individual who believes that the purpose of their actions out way the

Plug-in hybrid Essay Example for Free

Plug-in hybrid Essay Abstract This paper focuses on the hybrid car technology, government support programs, environmental effects and the demand for hybrid vehicles in the United States. Research was done in the areas of environmental effects of driving hybrid car, income tax incentives for qualified buyers unstable petroleum supplies, and growing concern about global pollution. Hybrid cars tax credits data were analyzed to examine the tax income deduction of purchasing this type of vehicle. The government needs to continue to offer incentives to new buyers of hybrid vehicles to offset the higher cost of these vehicles relative to their non-hybrid counterparts. Hybrid cars and other eco-friendly products are vital to the survival of the earth and the United States and the rest of the world must continue to regulate the emissions without hurting the economy. Demand for the Hybrid Vehicles Demand for the hybrid vehicles in the United States has increased since the introduction in the U. S. market in 2000. The first hybrid car was introduced in Japan in 1997 by Toyota Prius. Three years later, Honda introduced the first hybrid car Honda Insight into the U. S. market. By 2008, other car manufactures entered the hybrid market including Ford, GM, Honda and Nissan. Today, they are four main types of electric cars available on the market which include hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, extended-range electric vehicle and battery electric vehicles. Demand for Toyota’s Prius hybrid car increased over the last few years and by supply and demand, Toyota responded by raising the price and increase production. In 2003 and 2004 Toyota made100,000 Prius and in 2007 they made 200,000 hybrid cars. 3 In 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-in hybrid is the third fastest-selling car in U. S. Toyota was successful because of strong branding and unique design of Prius. The hybrid vehicles are solution to energy security and environmental protection. These vehicles reduce CO2 emission and air pollution. They combine power from both gasoline engine and an electric motor that runs off the electricity from a rechargeable battery. 1 Hybrid cars produce less pollution because the combination of battery power and internal combustion decrease the emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases. 1 Electric motors use no energy during idle and use less than gas motors at low speeds. Hybrid cars have a regenerative braking, stop- start system, low-rolling resistance tires and power conservative hardware. 1 All these features allow the hybrid cars to recycle energy. Energy produced by hybrid is recycled from brakes and used in acceleration. Hybrid car can save money on gas especially in city driving because stop and go driving helps hybrids recharge by capturing the energy generated during braking. Hybrid cars are in high demand but they are not easy to find and some car dealerships struggle to meet demand. Recent earthquake in Japan made it even more difficult for hybrid cars supplies because the best-selling hybrid cars in the United States Toyota Prius is made exclusively in Japan. Table 1 shows the number of Hybrid Models offered and the sales history from 2000 to 2007. 1 Table 1 HISTORY OF HYBRID VEHICLES YearNo. of Hybrid Models Offered HybridNew Vehicle Sales Sales in Million 200029,36717. 41 2001220,28717. 18 2002335,96116. 85 2003347,52516. 68 2004483,15316. 91 20058209,71117. 00 200610251,86416. 56 200715345,92016. 09 Environmental Effects. The need to develop green technologies comes from the fact that the global climate is changing due to everyday large amounts of pollutants that are released into atmosphere which leads to global warming. Global warming is a serious problem that can cause major issues such as the melting of polar ice caps and a rise in sea level. Every car produces emissions while being made and while driving on the road. There are many governments regulations placed on industries to reduce the amount of emissions released into atmosphere. Once the hybrid cars become more popular and affordable among consumers they can help reduce automobile emission. When people buy cars they take into consideration many things. They look into price, performance, safety and expenditure on gasoline which is determined by the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Hybrid cars are expected to reduce the cost of fuel by recharging batteries from electrical outlets. Many buyers today are also interested into saving our planet and there is a growing demand to buy hybrid vehicles. Hybrid cars offer many green advantages. In large cities were pollution is high, they produce very little emission during low speed city driving. Hybrid cars can help the country reduce dependency on foreign crude oil and save money in the long term. United States imports almost half of the oil and gas from Middle East. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) sets the price depending how much they have at its disposal. Many countries don’t have choice but to pay the price set by OPEC, regardless of supply and demand factors. If consumers purchase more hybrid cars, the dependency on foreign oil will decline and energy prices will drop. In 2012, US motor gasoline consumption was 8. 5 million barrels per day. 4 If the consumption of gasoline continues at the rate it has during the last few decades, oil reserves will not meet demand in future. Countries will need to look for new wells across the world and this can lead to damages of our ecosystem. By using hybrid cars, oil consumption is reduced and there will be no need to start a search for new oil wells. The environmental benefits of hybrid cars also include increased health for people . Use of oil products releases more pollution into the air that can cause cancers and lung diseases. Government Support The U. S. government has been providing hybrid vehicles buyers with income tax incentives to offset the higher cost of hybrid vehicles relative to their non-hybrid counterparts. 2 The hybrid vehicles is considered a promising technology by the National Energy Policy Development Group (2001), and their recommendation was to increase demand of hybrid vehicles in order to achieve economies of scale to bring the cost of hybrid vehicles down. 2 This group also recommended that government should provide a â€Å"clean fuel† tax deduction up to $2000 for the purchase of new hybrid cars during 2001-2005. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 replaced the income tax deduction with an income tax credit of up to $ 3,400 for vehicles purchased after December 31, 2005. The credits phased out after a manufacturer sold 60,000 of a hybrid model starting from January 1, 2006. As the Dec. 31, 2010, end for all credits neared, only a few hybrids still qualified for the credits. 2 In 2012 there are still some tax incentives for new plug-in hybrid cars purchases for up to $7500 in tax deduction for qualified buyers. Hybrid Federal Tax Credit 2009 12009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 4dr SUV (6.0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A). $2,200 22009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,800 32008 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2. 4L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,300 42009 Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2. 4L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$1,550 52009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/1HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 62009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/1HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 72009 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/2HY SB (6.0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 82009. Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/2HY SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 92008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 102008 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 112009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 122009 Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid 4dr SUV 4WD (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 132009 Chrysler Aspen Limited HEV 4dr SUV 4WD (5. 7L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 142009 Dodge Durango Limited HEV 4dr SUV 4WD (5. 7L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 152008 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV (2. 3L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 162008 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV AWD (2. 3L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,100 172009 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 182009 Ford Escape Hybrid 4dr SUV AWD (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$975 192009 Ford Escape Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$1,500 202009 Ford Escape Hybrid Limited 4dr SUV AWD (2. 5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT)$975 212010 Ford Fusion Hybrid 4dr Sedan (2.5L 4cyl gas/electric hybrid CVT). $1,700 222009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/3HA SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 232009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/3HA SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 242009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab w/3HB SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 252009 GMC Sierra 1500 Hybrid 4dr Crew Cab 4WD w/3HB SB (6. 0L 8cyl gas/electric hybrid 4A)$2,200 Hudson 2010 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Cars A list of advantages and disadvantages of hybrid vehicles include: Advantages †¢Reduce emission. †¢Lessen dependence on foreign oil †¢Tax incentives to purchase hybrid cars †¢Environmentally friendly †¢Performance benefits: hybrid cars provide quite, smooth operations and stronger acceleration. †¢Reduce energy dependence from foreign sources Disadvantages †¢Battery cost: The battery of hybrid cars is very expensive and it has to be replaced every 80,000miles. The average cost to replace this battery is between $ 6,000 and $10,000. People who travel a lot will not benefit from driving the hybrid car. †¢Recharge time: Fully recharging the battery pack can take four to eight hours. †¢Bulk and weight: Battery packs are heavy and take up considerable vehicle space. †¢Slow acceleration: Hybrid cars have much slower acceleration times than a traditional cars that only use gasoline. †¢Low resale value: Hybrid cars have low resale value because of the costly batteries used in the hybrid cars that have to be replaced regularly. †¢Short supply: Because these cars are expensive their supply parts are available in different parts of the country. Present and Future for Hybrid Cars The future looks bright for hybrid cars because price of oil will probably continue to rise and the impact that fossil fuels have on the earth’s environment. Incentives, such as tax credits for purchasing a hybrid cars and grants for researching new battery technologies, will continue to improve their performance and make hybrid cars more attractive and competitive. The most recent hybrid technology is â€Å"plug-in hybrid car. This hybrid model offers the same benefit as hybrid cars, with added benefit of being able to be plugged in to home electric outlets for recharging when the car is not in use. 5 The competition in hybrid car industry is very challenging. The automobile industry is an oligopoly. here are only few big key players that are concerned about new entrants, the risk of substitutes emerging through new technology (Hybrid cars), changes in consumer taste and external regulations. Toyota successfully created a barrier for other car manufacturer by introducing hybrid engine green technology. Toyota has dominated the market for years with its hybrid Prius and to remain competitive they will have to design new vehicles at low-cost using the most advanced technology. Every year, the Prius faces more competition as other car manufacturers are building   their own version of hybrid vehicles. Ford recently produced the C-Max hybrid car which outsold the Prius in January 2013. C-Max hybrid car is larger and family-friendly version of the Prius. 6 Ford executive are predicting that its 2013 hybrid sales total will be much higher that their current annual high to $35,496. 6 Nissan is also aggressively pushing hybrid sales in 2013. Hybrid cars are more expensive as compared to traditional gasoline vehicles and require frequent recharging for their operations but in future these issues will hopefully change. References 1. Beresteanu, A. and S. Li. 2010. â€Å"Gasoline Prices, Government Support, and the Demand for Hybrid Vehicles in the U. S. † International Economic Review 52: 161-182 2. Hudson, Mike. Federal Hybrid Tax Credit Programs by Vehicle. Retrieved 19 Oct. 2009 3. Toyota. com 4. Advantages of Hybrid Cars. All Hybrid Cars. 12 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. 5. Benefits of Hybrid and Plug-In Electric Vehicles. AFDC. U. S. Department of Energy, Oct. 2011. Web. 23 Mar. 2012. 6. business. time. com/2013/02/05/hybrid-car-competition-heats-up-does-the-toyota-prius-finally-have-a-worthy-challenger/.

Consumer Behaviour Mobile Marketing Communication Media Essay

Consumer Behaviour Mobile Marketing Communication Media Essay This research, titled; how has new media technologies affected the advertising industry and consumer behavior? Shall focus on new media is and how it has impacted on advertising and consumer behavior. The mass media has always been with us in some form or the other for centuries and over the years technology has evolved to such an extent that the world has virtually shrunk in size before our very eyes, now people can communication with anybody wherever they may be and communication features are embedded in virtually everything produced these days, Game consoles are now internet ready and two people across the world can play the same game together in real time. This research shall look at these technologies and see how they fit into the world of advertising and its implications for the industry and how consumers are reacting to these changes. The research tries to determine how new media technologies have affected the kind of messages created and how people perceive them. I shall make use of Hierarchy of effects theories and technological determinism as the theoretical framework for this research, these theories make some interesting bases for this research. I however want to note that this is a proposal and every concept, theory used in this proposal shall be elaborated upon during the main research and final compilation of findings. Finally, I hope that by the end of this research, I would have made a significant contribution to the field of advertising, business and communications and helped form the basis for more research in this field. INTRODUCTION According to Wikipedia, New media  is a broad term in Media Studies that emerged in the later part of the 20th century to encompass the amalgamation of traditional media such as film, images, music, spoken and written word, with the interactive power of computer and communications technology, computer-enabled consumer devices and most importantly the Internet. New media has also been referred to as technologies of telecommunication and computing, new user devices (e.g., videodisc machines), and their practical applications in office, home, business, health or educational environments. (Williams, Rice, and Rogers, 1988: xi). However for the purpose of this research new media technologies shall be limited to mean any device, instrument or medium through which messages in whatever format can be communicated to mass or limited audience. Virtually everything has an IP address these days, from refrigerators, game consoles even to handheld games like PSPs, Nintendo DS and so on. Today with the emergence of some cutting edge gadgets and accessories everyday life has changed a great deal, people no longer have to leave their houses to get newspapers, buy hard copies of the latest novel from your favorite author, most of them can be downloaded to your Ipad or you kindle or even to your mobile smart phone. This opens up a lot of opportunities for businesses, but poses a problem to advertisers and advertising agencies. Now advertisers are faced with the problem of creating messages that are fast paced and can communicate effectively through the most available and likely most preferred medium the mobile phone and handheld communication devices. Mobile marketing is fast becoming one of the best means of reaching the audience. Anderson supported this claim in his assertion that the effectiveness of traditional, retail, broadcast and other media channels is fast reducing, due to the high level of fragmentation in traditional channels. He went on to say that with the emergence of new media channels other media like, newspaper, magazines, radio and television are rapidly losing their audiences or market (in Becker, 2005) The research shall focus on determining the effect of new media on advertising, taking into consideration the effect these new media are bound to have on the creative aspect of advertising and also the dissemination of the messages. In general there are a lot of books and research on new media technology, but because of the ever changing dynamic world of innovative technology it is important that a research into this field is carried out especially as it is concerned with advertising and consumer behavior. LITERATURE REVIEW Different books and journals shall be sourced and used for this research. The books should give the researcher better insight into progress made in this field and other similar and relevant researches that have been carried out in this field. DEFINITIONS OF NEW MEDIA Lev Manovich (2001:43) defines new media as cultural objects which use digital computer technology for distribution and exhibition. Thus, Internet, Web sites, computer multimedia, computer games, CD-ROMs and DVD, Virtual Reality, and computer-generated special effects all fall under new media. This definition is supported in Webomedia.net which defines new media to mean a generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication that are made possible through the use of computer technology. This clearly shows that new media is electronic and make use of computer technology. Teemu Leinonen (2011) gave a good illustration of new media and even its characteristics all in a single simple diagram, which he titled holy-trinity-new-media The diagram best describes new media and it is based on this summary by Teemu Leinonen that I would attempt a definition of new media that would serve as its meaning throughout this research. From the various definitions from different scholars, new media are media that combines the features of various electronic media such as internet, computers and traditional media that allows for instant communication and feedback and also gives the user a significant amount of control. DEFINITIONS OF MOBILE MARKETING Different scholars have defined mobile marketing differently, some scholars call it Wireless digital advertising, permission-based mobile advertising, Mobile or wireless advertising, etc the implication is that in most cases these terms are used inter changeably, though they might not necessarily mean the exact same thing when looked in broader and more detailed terms. Barnes (in Bruner II and Kumar, 2002) describes mobile marketing to be a permission-based mobile advertising that is a flexible, tactical medium suitable for short, time-based communication. Bulander et al (2005: 285) describes it simply as advertising that uses mobile terminals as its target platform. Yuan Tsao ( in Jaana Tahtinen, 2006) defines mobile marketing communications as, as a contextualized advertising that makes use of a medium to disseminate customized campaigns targeting users according to where they are, their needs at the moment and the devices they are using. Scharl et al. (2004) define mobile marketing as the use of a wireless medium to provide customers with individualized information about products, services, and ideas at any time and locations, which benefit all stakeholders. In the same vein, according to Advertising age (2006: 20) mobile marketing is defined as the use of wireless media as an integrated content delivery and direct-response vehicle within a cro ss-media marketing communications program. Leppaniemi (2008: 9) gave a very detailed list of what qualifies as mobile advertising or mobile marketing; he suggested five categories which mobile advertising can be classified into; web category which includes mobile internet, Broadcast category, narrow cast category, physical browsing category which includes divergent methods such as touching, pointing and scanning that can be used to distribute information to mobile phones and lastly a category which he labeled other that covers advertising formats that did not fit well into any of the other four categories listed. From these definitions, it is clear that mobile marketing is basically communication of marketing/advertising messages directly to the target audience through mobile devices over Bluetooth, mobile internet or GSM coverage/WIFI. Any kind of advertising that makes use of mobile phones, PDAs, Ipads or any mobile communications device to communicate the message qualifies as Mobile marketing, examples are; proximity marketing, sms marketing/advertising, Bluetooth advertising etc. The researcher therefore wants to find out how this increasingly popular medium is affecting the way advertisers create and communicate their messages and its impact on consumer behavior. CHARACRTERISTICS OF NEW MEDIA From the forgoing; we know new media is electronic, interactive, uses computer technology amongst other things. The researcher however wants to find out the distinguishing features of new media, what makes them unique and why they are called new. Martin Lister, et al (2003:13-27), in their book titled; New Media; a critical introduction, gave the characteristics of new media as; digital, interactive, allows for registrational interactivity which they described to mean the opportunities new media texts affords their users to write back into the text; that is to say to add text by registering their own messages, new media allows for Interactive communications. This is supported by Henry Jenkins (2006), when he asserted that new media, virtually removes the problem of geographical separation, it is Ubiquitous, new media is digital, it is space binding and Distance Insensitivity; new media is personalized implying that these systems can be instructed to customize, individualize information for each user. He went on to say that new media is interactive, it is convergent denoting that formally separated technologies are blending together with a digital common denominator, an example is Intercast; a blend of web pages and TV. From the characteristics of new media suggested by different scholars it is clear that communications technology has evolved and there is now a convergence or overlapping of different media to create new media. The realities of these changes are not farfetched and we experience them every day. Our mobile phones have combined features of calling, texting, typing, photo editing, surfing the internet, video calling, voice sms, social networking, e-book readers, camera, and recording sound, amongst other features. All these features used to be exclusive of one another, but todays technological advancements have seen a convergence in all these media into one media-mobile phone. HISTORY OF NEW MEDIA Media simply means communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data or promotional messages are disseminated. It includes every broadcast or narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax and internet. If this is true then the media has always been with us for years, centuries even; ancient African kings had town criers and roman empires of old had scribes, they all tried to pass messages to a target audience. Until the 1980s  media  relied primarily upon print and  analog  broadcast  models, such as television  and  radio. And since then it has been one innovation to the next; the internet was invented, computer games were created, books were written and sold without it ever being printed in hard copies; The last twenty-five years have seen the rapid transformation into media which are predicated upon the use of digital computers. Andrea Botero and Teemu Leinonen (2011) in their attempt to create a timeline for the evolution of new media suggested that there has been a convergence of communication and technology since as early as 1844, when the Morses communication innovation used electronic impulses, a key and a special code that sequences the impulses to letters of the alphabet, they trace this evolution from then till recent times when telephones using satellite signals were invented. Manovich (2001) explained the evolution of new media from 1800 when J.M. Jacquard invented a loom which was automatically controlled by punched paper cards, which later inspired Babbage in his work on the Analytical engine used for numerical calculations. He traced the history on to 1839, when Daguerre launched the new reproduction process in Paris. He continued tracing the history to the point when motion picture was invented in the 1890s. then in 1936 the universal Turing machine was invented which was capable of only four operations. Also in the same year Konrad Zuse invented the first working digital computer. In a nutshell Manovich considered the evolution and creation of new media as the meeting or overlapping of Daguerres daguerreotype and Babbagess Analytical Engine, the Lumieres cinematography and Holleriths tabulator-merging into one. From here on, new media became a combination of all this features. Today technology has evolved so much that it is almost impossible to separate everyday activities from them. Virtually everything we do uses some sort of fantastic technology, even switching on the bulb is not as straight forward as it was; it can be made much easier; just clap!!! NEW MEDIA, ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR Consumer behavior in simple terms is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a  product. Certain factors affect all the variables listed in the definition. It is clear that the way we perceive and get information has changed or is changing; people are no longer controlled by the media; now you can record live programs and watch it when you have the time! When, where and how we buy items have changed; virtually anything can be bought online these days. This position is supported by Lauren Maynard (2011) when she asserted that, television experience has changed in the past decade since we no longer into appointment TV; we no longer have to sit down at a specific hour to watch a specific show. She went on to state that, today, two significant behavioral changes in consumers are redefining the entertainment landscape. These changes require television networks and advertisers to evolve rapidly to keep their shows, content, and ad buys relevant to a demanding consumer set. People now consume television via time-shifted DVR, online (legally), online (illegally), mobile device, Internet streaming to TV, and a wide variety of other methods. Viewers now consume multiple forms of media at the same time, such as watching TV on a television while checking Face book on a computer. This is commonly referred to as two-, three- or multi-screen viewing. Because people are changing the way they get information, advertisers need to ensure that they create adverts for different communication platforms that would effectively communicate with the target audience. Technologies are changing consumer behavior, which in turn changes the type of message and medium that would appeal to the consumer, hence forcing advertisers to accept these changes and provide adverts to suit these new needs. Christina Spurgeon (2005: 1), argues that Debate about how new media will impact on advertising in the medium- to long-term future has focused extensively on the new technological capabilities that enable consumers to avoid advertising. the implication for advertisers is that they now have to come up with ways to ensure that their adverts are viewed by the target audience ( it can no longer be taken for granted that everybody watching the 7pm news would see the advert during the news break), Christina (2005) highlighted some ways advertisers are trying to cope with the new media trend, she posited that, Branded content, conversational interaction with consumers are some of the ways advertisers are trying to circumvent the problem of people intentionally not seeing the advert messages because of emergence of technologies that makes this possible. It is clear that in the very near future consumers would control the type of advert messages they are exposed to. In fact Our present technologies already allow consumers to provide information to retailers and manufacturers, voice their preferences, and communicate with other consumers, salespeople, and producers (Pavlou and Stewart 2000). Marketers are able to use the information provided by consumers to segment the market, generate ideas for future products or services, and personalize their advertising messages. Thus ads can therefore be targeted not only to a demographic or psychographic group, but also to a specific individuals wants and needs It is against this backdrop that I have decided to engage in this research. New media has created new ways for consumers to get information and of course this in turn has changed the way adverts are created and how they are communicated to the consumers. It is therefore imperative to determine how new innovative technologies in communication has impacted on advertising in terms of creativity, communication, market/product reach amongst other things and how the media and also the message has affected or changed consumer behavior and to what extent. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK I shall draw ideas and build around the following theories; Lavidge Steiners hierarchy of effects theory Technological determinism. Diffusion of innovations theory Barry and Howard (in Lapointe, 2006) assert that the Hierarchy-of-effects model is created to show the process, or steps, that an advertiser assumes that customers pass through in the actual purchase process. The model is based on seven steps. According to the Pat Lapointe (2006), The Hierarchy of Effects (HOE), was founded upon the assumption of a three-stage process underlying consumer purchase behavior: Cognition à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º Affect à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ º Behavior Lavidge and Steiner (1961) write that the steps have to be completed in a linear way, but a potential purchaser sometimes may move up several steps simultaneously. The steps consumers go through before arriving at a buying decision are: 1. Close to purchasing, but still a long way from the cash register, are those who are merely aware of its existence. 2. Up a step are prospects who know what the product has to offer. 3. Still closer to purchasing are those who have favorable attitudes toward the product; those who like the product. 4. Those whose favorable attitudes have developed to the point of preference over all other possibilities are up still another step. 5. Even closer to purchasing are customers who couple preference with a desire to buy and the conviction that the purchase would be wise. 6. Finally, of course, is the step which translates this attitude into actual purchase. (Lavidge Steiner, 1961, p. 59) In short the stages are; unawareness, awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. Using this theory, the researcher hopes to identify what has changed in consumers buying pattern since the emergence of certain technologies. Technological  determinism  is a  reductionist  theory that presumes that a societys technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values. The term is believed to have been coined by  Thorstein Veblen, an American sociologist. Winston (in Chandler, 1994) defines it as the idea that the technology is the primary force that controls how individuals and society change. Chandler in an article written for The UK Technology Education Centre posits that Indeed, technological determinism, effectively the opposite of  social determinism, is a theory which points to technology as being  the  force which shapes society. He explained that Technological determinists hold that: Like the weather, technology is autonomous It causes social change By determining how new media has impacted on advertising and consumer behaviour, one can easily relate this theory to this research, since technological determinism focuses on how technology shapes society. Advertising has been a major routine in our life, every day we are bombarded by it; advertising in turn influences our buying patterns or decisions to a large extent. So it is the hope of the researcher to find out how new media has helped shape our society into what it is today. Diffusion research centers on the conditions which increase or decrease the likelihood that a new idea, product, or practice will be adopted by members of a given culture. Diffusion of innovation theory predicts that media as well as interpersonal contacts provide information and influence opinion and judgment. Studying how innovation occurs, E.M. Rogers (1995) argued that it consists of four stages: invention, diffusion (or communication) through the social system, time and consequences. The information flows through networks. The nature of networks and the roles opinion leaders play in them determine the likelihood that the innovation will be adopted. Innovation diffusion research has attempted to explain the variables that influence how and why users adopt a new information medium, such as the Internet. Opinion leaders exert influence on audience behavior via their personal contact, but additional intermediaries called change agents and gatekeepers are also included in the process of diffusion. Five adopter categories are: (1) innovators, (2) early adopters, (3) early majority, (4) late majority, and (5) laggards. These categories follow a standard deviation-curve, very little innovators adopt the innovation in the beginning (2,5%), early adopters making up for 13,5% a short time later, the early majority 34%, the late majority 34% and after some time finally the laggards make up for 16%. It is on the basis of these great works of very admirable scholars that the researcher as decided to focus his research. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The emergence of new technologies to enhance communication and simple everyday activities has seen an explosion of chatter and communication. Everybody is talking to somebody all of the time. So many gadgets and social networking sites are available and all trying to outshine themselves with some having as many as 500,000,000 (Five Hundred Million) members. This new community or country produced by technology has created a very rare opportunity for advertising and the advertising industry at large. It has however produced another problem for advertisers; now advertisers now have to redefine who their audiences are and how has their demographics changed, advertisers now have to create messages/adverts that communicate effectively through the various media available. Who exactly are our audiences? How best do we communicate with them? Which medium or combination of media should be used? What time should the advert be up? Where are our audiences? These are some of the questions advertisers would be trying to answer for a very long time. It is therefore the aim of this research to discover how the emergence of some unique media has affected advertising and what consumers responses are. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY The findings of this study should help advertisers, scholars and practitioners in the field appreciate some of the innovative revolutionary technologies in the field of advertising and their influence on advertising and the advertising industry and also how they influence consumer behavior. Also it should help marketers and advertisers when planning their marketing campaign and strategies, as they would now have available empirical research to back up their proposals if the campaign would involve new media (which most campaigns would anyway). This research shall draw from the experiences of companies that have used some form of new media; proximity marketing, 3D projection, etc to provide recommendations on how to run an effective campaign new media. From this research, Business owners and advertisers can accurately predict the response of their audiences to their advert message and the medium through which the messages are delivered. This would help them develop messages that would appeal to the audiences and also ensure they communicate same message through the right medium. Finally, it is the hope of the researcher that this research shall serve as appoint of reference for other scholars pursuing research or knowledge in the same or similar field. SCOPE OF STUDY This research shall restrict its definition of new media to mean the following; web based advertising, handheld communication gadgets, 3D projection and Bluetooth proximity marketing. It is the aim of the researcher to categorize new media into sub groups and determine who their target markets are and how individual new innovative medium has affected the advertising industry and consumer behavior. The researcher shall geographically limit his research to the UK and Nigeria as they represent two very different economies, ways of life and general standard of living. METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION The research is aimed at finding out the effect of new media technologies on advertising and consumer behavior. Researcher shall therefore make use of a combination of the qualitative and the quantitative research methods, which shall include in-depth interviews and survey methods. 1,000 (One Thousand) questionnaire would be distributed to people through random selection around Wales and its surroundings, also an online questionnaire would be set up to give the researcher a global perspective of the issues researched. The researcher shall interview distributors and resellers of Bluetooth marketing devices and other new media, critics and professional analyst of some of these new technologies, in UK and Nigeria, also companies that use these technologies for their promotional and marketing activities shall be interviewed to get their opinion on the effectiveness of the medium they use or have used and the effect it has had on their organization as a means of passing across information and advertising. Also a recall test shall be conducted; volunteers shall be exposed to advertising messages on different platforms and their level of recall for each medium is tested and analyzed. This would help give the researcher an insight into which medium is most effective based on how easily people remember adverts viewed or listened to via the medium. In analyzing the findings found during the interviews the researcher has chosen to record the interviews to make it easier to go back and go through them again later on. The findings of the questionnaires distributed shall be analyzed using the frequency distributing table. RESEARCH QUESTIONS The research findings would try to answer the following questions; Are new media technologies generally more effective than conventional stand alone media like TV, radio and newspapers? Can new media help increase sales volume? How has these new medium affected the buying pattern of individuals generally? Has it increased consumers awareness and knowledge of what they buy? What are the limiting factors of this medium? What are the advantages of this medium over other conventional media like, TV, Radio and Newspaper? How do we determine whether or not a medium is effective? Who are the target audience of new media and why? AIMS AND OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH The aim of this research is to determine the following: To provide empirical evidence as to the effectiveness of certain new media as advertising and publicity medium To determine the factors and attributes that makes these media effective or not To determine how new media has affected consumer behavior To contribute to knowledge in the field of integrated marketing communications. DEFINITION OF TERMS Below is a list of some terms that frequently occur throughout this dissertation and their definition from the context of this particular research; New Media: the term new media for the purpose of this research shall be restricted to mean any communication medium that uses internet, Bluetooth or new innovations in technology that can effectively communicate with a mass or targeted audience. Advertising: It is a collective term for public announcements designed to promote the sale of specific commodities or services. Advertising is a form of mass selling, employed when the use of direct, person-to-person selling is impractical, impossible, or simply inefficient. It is to be distinguished from other activities intended to persuade the public, such as propaganda, publicity, and public relations. Proximity marketing: Proximity marketing is the localized wireless distribution of advertising content associated with a particular place. Transmissions can be received by individuals in that location who wish to receive them and have the necessary equipment to do so. Consumer behavior: it  is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a  product. TIMESCALES S/N ACTIVITY COMPLETION PERIOD REMARKS 1 Introductions, chapter one 6 weeks 2 Literature review 3 months 3 Core research: 3 trips to Nigeria to collate data and distribute questionnaires 3-5 months 4 Data collation and interpretation 3 months 5 Chapter 5 3 weeks 6 Cross checking for errors and editing 2 months 7 Binding and submission 1 month 8 Total period for project 15-17 months

An Over View Of Brand And Brand Image Marketing Essay

An Over View Of Brand And Brand Image Marketing Essay CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Primary Research Primary research data is collected directly, detached observation, evaluate of phenomena in the real life, without any exoteric interference (Walliman 2001). There are some primary research methods, such as questionnaire, interview, observations, etc. For the research project choose the suitable methodology is very necessary and effective. In this project will use the one of the primary research method: questionnaire Questionnaire is very direct way to get feedback from responder When create the questionnaire need consider all the questions are related the topic, and all the answers also need to analysis, discussion and so on. In this project will find 60 female students to answer the questions, their ages are from 18-25 years old. All of them are from Hollings Campus of MMU. The researcher should make sure the questionnaire easily to answer, give the responder a comfortable and free environment to answer the questions; and do not make questions verbose and complicated. Thus the researcher can get the maximum feedback. When create the questionnaire need consider all the questions are related the topic, and all the answers also need to analysis, discussion and so on. During the research there will have some limitations, because the number and the age of the respondents are not wide enough, so the results only can reflect a group of consumers thought. 2.2 Company background 2.2.1 HM HM was established in Và ¤sterà ¥s, Sweden in 1947 by Erling Persson. Now have 1,700 stores around the world. The first HM store in the United Kingdom was opened in 1976. 2006 United Kingdom passed Sweden as HMs second largest market. Through the recorded there are 146 stores in UK. It has great steady expansion and growth this year, too (HM website). The Figure shows the top 5 largest shareholders as per 31 March 2008 Name Number of shares % of total shares % of voting rights Stefan Persson med familj 304 872 400* 36,84 69,30 Lottie Tham med familj 44 040 200 5,32 2,59 Alecta Pensionsfà ¶rsà ¤kring 27 735 000 3,35 1,63 Swedbank Robur fonder 24 406 752 2,95 1,43 JP Morgan Chase Bank 21 843 019 2,64 1,28 Figure 2.2.1 (a) Ownership structure Source: HM website The reason choose HM is: it is an international big company and come into the UK market, also has successful business in British market, during this project you will find how the HM operate their brand in the UK market, and get consumers responds known the attractive factors of HM. 2.2.2 Levis From its website (Levis website) can know LSCo. is one of the worlds largest brand-name apparel marketers with sales in more than 100 countries. It is America company, there is no other company with a comparable global presence in jeans and casual pants markets. It is a different type of company with HM, its main products are denim. Because the respondents of this project is young female students, so need compare with the valuable price retailer and get the feedback known how popular of the denim brand and find out what the develop direction if Levis want attract the young female students. 2.2.3 All Saints All Saints is a young fashion chain, has nearly 110 stores in the UK (All Saints Website). Kait Bolongaro and Stuart Trevor, who founded All Saints in 1994 and sold the chain to entrepreneur Kevin Stanford at the end of 2005, have struck a deal with Religions majority owner Darren Collins to roll out retail stores under two fascias, one called Bolongaro Trevor and the other called Religion (Tate 2007). All Saints is part owned by investment firm Baugur. Baugur has a stake of about 35% (Brown 2009). Different with above two brands, All Saints is a UK local brand, and do not has that much stores in overseas market like the HM and Levis. From research questions will get how the market status in young female students, and how to build a strong brand awareness and develop the oversea market like above two. These three brands background and target consumers are different, but can use them to compare what influence in this focus group consumer and then give the suggestions to each of them how to develop their brand image or gain more potential consumers. CHAPTER 3 PRESENTATION OF RESULTS 3.1 Logo Recognition Through the research results, the data display all the 60 respondents can recognize the HM and Levis logos; but there are 5 respondents can not recognize the All Saints logo. Figure 3.1 (a): Logo Recognition Status Source: Questionnaire 3.2 Purchase Situation Look at Figure 3.2(a) you can see the data of how many people have bought these three brands. In research the 60 people, there are 59 people have bought HM products and only 1 has not bought before. In the All Saints part, 37 people said they have not bought any All Saints products, rest of 23 respondents have bought before, the distance between Yes and No are smaller. Go to look the Levis part, the gap between Yes and No are smaller than All saints, the 26 respondents have not buy any Levis products, 34 of them have bought before. Figure 3.2(a): Rate of Purchase Situation Source: Questionnaire 3. 3 Most Important Factor The following table and pie charts are showing the occupancy of each factor. You can see it more vivid. The results of most important factor for each brand Brand Factor HM All Saints Levis Price 23 26 8 Quality 11 8 23 Style 25 16 15 Brand 1 10 14 Figure 3.3(a): The number of results of shopping frequency Source: Questionnaire Figure 3.3 (b) HM The percentage of each factor occupancy Source: Questionnaire Figure 3.3 (c) All Saints The percentage of each factor occupancy Source: Questionnaire Figure 3.3 (d) Levis The percentage of each factor occupancy Source: Questionnaire 3.4 Shopping Frequency The following pie charts show the frequency of respondents shop in these stores. Each of them has different situation and these charts give reader clear data. The results of shopping frequency HM All Saints Levis Once a week 4 0 0 Once a month 42 20 23 Several times a month 13 4 7 Not often 0 7 5 Never 0 29 25 Figure 3.4 (a) The results of shopping frequency Source: Questionnaire The percentage of the shopping frequency of each brand Figure 3.4 (b) HM Source: Questionnaire Figure 3.4 (c) All Saints Source: Questionnaire Figure 3.4 (d) Levis Source: Questionnaire 3.5 Average Expenditure Results of how much of the respondents spent on average price brand HM percentage All Saints percentage Levis percentage  ¿Ã‚ ¡0 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡30 43 71.7% 8 13.3% 8 13.3%  ¿Ã‚ ¡30 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡60 17 28.3% 0 0 15 25%  ¿Ã‚ ¡60 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡90 0 0 17 28.3% 17 28.3% above  ¿Ã‚ ¡90 0 0 9 15% 0 0 Never buy 1 0 26 43.3% 20 33.3% Total respondents 60 60 60 Figure 3.5(a) Results of average expenditure Source: Questionnaire CHAPTER 4 DISCUSSION From last chapter all the research results are presented, in this part will discussion the results and develop the project. 4.1 Logo Recognition From 3.1 you can know the rate of brand recognition of these three retailers. The first question in questionnaire reflects the consumers impression to a brand. This kind of impression can be considered as brand awareness. Brand awareness reflects the how many customers remember a brand (Glossary 2007). Nowadays, consumers have their own way to judge a brand such as consumers can distinguish the brand with a particular product category because the brand awareness reflects the saliency of a brand and how convenient it brings to consumers (Chernatong McDonald 1998). Brand awareness reflects the brands presence in consumers memory (Hague and Jackson, 1994; Aaker, 2002), and it is the amount of the consumers or potential consumers who have cognition of a brand. Thus, companies will find how many consumers can recognise their brand instinctively and how it differentiation with other competing brands (Crainer 1995). From the results you can know the HM and Levis have very successful brand awareness in peoples mind. This indicated their marketing communications are effectively (Glossary 2007). They always give the people strong impression.In order to consolidate their market status, they have new action continual. For example, HM launch a new flagship on Londons Regent Street in March. This action increases their brand awareness and makes the gain more customers (Brown 2008). The awareness of All Saints are slightly weak than another two brands. So the All Saints need create the strong marketing campaign, or communication to support its brand awareness. Drapers online (2009) reported All Saints has opening several new stores last year, and ramped up international expansion with openings in Paris in October and Antwerp in November. 4.2 Purchase Situation The purchase situation influences the whole income of the company. Income of a company can be divided visible and invisible. The visible income could say sales income, and invisible could say brand equity. Because brand equity is the commercial and financial value of the brand to the organisation which owns and utilises it  ¼Ã‹â€ Crainer 1995; Aaker, 2002 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. Riezebos (2003) and Aaker(2002) defined brand equity is the strategic and management advantage, it is can be the fundamental of competitive advantage, also it is a kind of asset and long- term benefit. Brand equity can understanding from multi perspectives and they concluded that brand equity build on by differential features and give added profit to the companys balance sheet. In 3.2 has presented that the consumer purchases these three brands are dissimilar. Certainly also can said the popularity of these three brands are different. HM is the most popular store of these three, nearly 98% respondents expressed they have shopping experiences in here; this is a popular consumption brand. HM is aimed at everyone with an interest in fashion; it supplies extensive range of products, from clothes to accessories, at same time keeps new items come into the stores every day (HM website). The research results show, All Saints and Levis are not as widespread purchased as HM. Most of these respondents know these two brands, but not mean they certainly have bought their products. More than half ( 62% have not) of the respondents have not buy any All Saints products before, only 38% respondents have bought their products. Of course you may say that they have more development space. To make sure the brand equity growth, the brand gives to convince them that it is relevant to consumers needs can gain more attraction and hold consumers. (Chernatong McDonald 1998). Like recently, All Saints has some advantaged actions to attract more consumers. It has relaunched its online store with new imagery and better navigation, it gives customer a fresh appearance and simpler operating system. Stephen Ritchie, chief executive of Drivebusiness, the etail development firm that handled the relaunch, said: All Saints [the website] has grown phenomenally since we launched it in 2005 and its turnover continues to grow and exceed all expectations. All Saints online store is one of its top performing stores and we continue work with the team on improvements such as the recent enhancements to its distribution centre which has increased output by 250 %( Brown 2009). Levis received better results than All Saints, 57% of them have Levis products. It is more widely purchased by this group of people. Their products have more attraction than All Saints. Like the All Saints, Levis also has positive action. From the Drapersonline: Denim brand Levis has changed the licensee for its underwear and lingerie collection as part of a repositioning strategy. The move is intended to reinvigorate the collection ( Drapersonline 2009). This action gives more opportunity to potential and existing consumers to buy their products. This report said this is a part of repositioning strategy; it means they will have more and effective activities in the future and the consumers purchasing volume will increase. 4. 3 Most Important Factor Different retailer gives different impression to the customers. The research results give us direct information about the consumers ideas. At the same time reflects the consumers buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour is the study of the process when individuals or groups choose, buy, use of products, services, ideas or related experiences to satisfy their needs and wishes (Hawkins, Best and Coney 2004). Usually, when consumers purchasing clothing, they have their own way to judge the store, product, price and so on. In 3.3, the display these three different type retailer give the different impression to consumers. From HM part, there are 45% respondents thought the style are most important factor of this retailer. HM supply a broad and wide range product; the collections are created with broad design ideas and satisfy many different tastes of requirements. Their designing group always take the world as inspiration; styles are following the fashion trends. They try their best to create a good balance between fashion, quality and the best price (HM website). Thus, other 38.3% respondents said the price of HM is acceptable. About the quality there are 15% respondents express they are interested in this and only 1.7% respondents think about the brand of HM. It reflects the fashion consumers have their judgements. Many apparel decisions are rationally consider ones evaluative measure and choosing a feasible alternative. Like Solomon (2004) said if the object reaches consumers interest, they evaluate it and then might purchase. From other point view, this also reflects what the brand image in consumers mind. Brand image includes the target markets interpretation of the products attributes, benefits, usage situations, users, and manufacturer features. In a market brand image reflects schematic memory of a brand (Hawkins, Best and Coney 2004) and consumers perception of a brands characteristics (Hague and Jackson, 1994; Chernatony and McDonald 1998). So from 3.3(b) it demonstrated style and price are main points to attract HM consumers. Look at the All Saints part, 43.3% of respondents considered the most important factor of this retailer is price. Compare with other two retailers the price of All Saints are higher; it is why the consumer think this is important factor of it. Following the price the style are another important section, there are 26.7% respondents are interested in this. 16.7% respondents considered brand, 13.3% considered quality. In the Levis part there are 38.3% respondents thought the quality is the first important section, the second important section is the style, in this section 25% respondents. About the brand and price respectively are 23.3% and 13.3%. To this group consumer, when asked about the HM, the style is most considered factor; they thought style is All Saints brand image is: its price is high and, and they thought Levis has good quality products. Brand image like a receiver  ¼Ã‹â€ Jean-Noà «l 1997 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °, the image will be influenced by the performance of the promotions, literature and the message, thus a positive image will accelerate the development for an organisation (Hague and Jackson, 1994). Sproles and Kendall explained (1986, p.268; cited by Wang. C.L; Siu. N. Y. M; Hui. A. S. Y 2004), a consumers decision-making style is a mental orientation characterizing a consumers approach to making choices. There are some main decision styles (Sproles and Kendall 1986, cited by Wang. C.L; Siu. N. Y. M; Hui. A. S. Y 2004): Quality conscious Brand conscious Fashion conscious Price conscious These eight styles explain the most basic mental features of a consumers decision making, and have directly relationship with consumer choice behaviour. When consumers buying clothing, often take time to evaluate alternatives of brand, style, design, colour, price and country-of-origin. These choice behaviours are particularly display consumers interest, such as brand conscious, fashion conscious, price conscious and hedonistic orientation (Wang. C.L; Siu. N. Y. M; Hui. A. S. Y, 2004). From the analysis the feedback of these three retailers, they have their own advantages to attractive the consumer. of course there are some disadvantages influence their development, e.g the higher price of All Saints impede most of consumer buy it. Fashion consumer decision making sometimes is a slightly different with the normal consumer decision. Look this figure; it compares what is the different. Firstly, the fashion consumer would like pay attention about the fashion object; not like the traditional consumers, they are sometimes only focus on the function of the cloth. Secondly, the fashion consumers have their view of the product, the traditional consumers always get the information other source, they do not have particular requirement of the fashion, and just sourcing the cloth in the narrow area or shop in customary shop. Fourth, it shows the fashion decision consumers judge the product in different way, fashion decision always try to evaluate product and not the brand performance. In the fifth step, the traditional decision is last step, but fashion decision has one more step than traditional. You can see the figure, consumers not enjoy the purchase immediately, they think about the products satisfy their demand or not , and then reflects they enjoy it. Figure 4.3 (a): Stages in Fashion and Traditional Decision Making( Solomon and Rabolt, 2004;p. 353) Fashion buying is a strategic decision for the organization and influence the products assortment available to consumers (Hines and Bruce, 2007). 4.4 Shopping Frequency The research results display most (70%) of the respondents shop in HM once a month and another 21.7% go to HM stores several times a month. Normally, the fashion buying cycle is not very long, sometimes the period of buying new goods are every six weeks( Kline and Wagner, 1994; cited by Hines and Bruce 2007). When companies have intent on fast fashion, this can happen more quickly, even on every week (Buckley,2006; cited by Hines and Bruce 2007). Everyday HM has new item arrive in stores( HM website). The role of fashion buyer can divide by 18 and 25 different actions, including reviewing market knowledge and analysing old sales records to know different levels of demand for different products (Fiorito, 1990; cited by Hines and Bruce 2007). Otherwise, the fashion buyer will analyse and consider other conditions, such as economic situation; trade, business and industry journals. In this way the buyer can buy the best products at the lowest price (Hines and Bruce 2007). The respondents go to All saints and Levis stores time are not as many as go to HM. From the feedback you can know most (48.3%) of the respondents never shop in All Saints stores and there are 41.7% respondents have never shop in Levis. It demonstrate these 60 respondents are not their main target consumers or their products characters are not attractive these respondents enough. Compared with these consumers never shop in these two stores, other major part respondents are shop in these stores once a month, such as 33.3% respondents shop in All Saints stores once a month, and 38.3% respondents shop in Levis stores once a month. This demonstrate these group of consumers still have interested in these two retailers, but some factors reduce their purchase such as higher price level or fixed style, etc. These two brands can do some marketing research, and following the results can slightly change some previous operational technique, and attractive more potential consumers such as make the never part join the not often part, and reduce rate of the not often part, encourage them purchase more than before. 4.5 Average expenditure From the 3.5(a), in the HM section 71.7% of the respondents indicated the  ¿Ã‚ ¡0 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡30 is a very popular price area, they always spent this amount in HM stores. This express the consumers can use this amount money bought their satisfy products in HM. Opposite this, the 43.3% respondents never spent money in All Saints stores. Like mentioned in 3.5(b) the All Saints price level all most from  ¿Ã‚ ¡60, it is a little high for the students. So except never buy part, the ¿Ã‚ ¡60~90 is second popular part (28.3%), only smaller part (15%) of the respondents spent above  ¿Ã‚ ¡90, and rest of 13.3% spent  ¿Ã‚ ¡0 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡30, no body spent  ¿Ã‚ ¡30 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡60. Although like this, their sales were  £46.9 million for the year to February 3 2008 All Saints chief executive Stephen Craig said: sales had been consistently well above budget throughout 2008 Christmas trade was also strong, above budget and ahead of market rivals, according to the company. They do not like other high street rivals; All Saints did not give discount in its shops Craig said that unlike some of its high street rivals, All Saints did not discount in its shops pre-Christmas, in this way, maintain margin and consolidate brand positioning (Brown 2009). The Levis situation is similar with All Saints, from the research results known, the figure is better than All Saints, there are 33.3% respondents never spent money in Levis stores, but all the respondents known this brand. In  ¿Ã‚ ¡60 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡90 area Levis has the same result ( 28.3%) with All Saints, this is the acceptable price area. Following this figure the close area is  ¿Ã‚ ¡30 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡60, 25% of them spent this amount. 13.3% spent  ¿Ã‚ ¡0 ~ ¿Ã‚ ¡30, non of them spent above  ¿Ã‚ ¡90. In the Appendix part there are some products prices with photographs of these three brands, In 4.3 has talked about the brand image gives to this focus group. Each of these brands gives the different images to consumers. Feldwick (2003) said improving brand image can help to increase sales; gain the extra income, other author like Hague and Jackson (1994) mentioned: a) a positive image will get more margins and reduce the competitive pressure and easier to sell with lower prices, b) More competitive, a strong brand will be like a barrier to competitors products. Therefore to increase their average expenditure, have a strong brand image is essential. With the strong brand image, their whole sales volume can be increased. CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION In this section will conclude the wider perspective on the findings of the investigation and also provides suggestions for the further research on the subject. Nowadays, brands can not be avoided today, it already infiltrate into peoples daily life. The primary research, which was presented and discussion in Chapter 3 and 4, those information showed that the performance of the retailers in the market, reflects their status. The status of brand logo recognition can reflects the brand awareness of a company, If a company has a wide brand awareness, it means have big amount of consumers can recognize its public logo. At the meanwhile the products of this company can satisfy general consumers demands; it is also can have higher brand awareness. So when the question is ask about the brand logo recognize, it can be described the brand awareness level, the answers demonstrated the awareness level of company. Other theory which related with brand awareness and brand logo is brand equity; it has talked about in 4.2. From 3.4 you know there are some respondents have not buy any products in the All Saints and Levis stores, so increase the brand equity may encourage more purchase actions. The brand equity can increase (or reduce) the value of the organizations products or services. The value of the organization achieved not only from sales income but also from the brand equity, increase the brand equity is a positive method to attract more consumers interests and attentions to the products and then have the opportunity increase the sale. Following these two contents, in 4.3 the brand image and consumers buying behaviours are talked in this section. Consumers have different impression to these three brands; they rely on the characters of and estimate their brand image. in this section has also discussed about the fashion buying behaviour because these four answers of 4.3 reflects the what the main requires of the consumers, so when the a fashion retailer want gain the biggest value they need known their consumers demands and build a strong brand image. The duration of the fashion trend is very short, so the fashion buying cycle is also not very long, in 4.4 has discussed the shopping frequency of the consumers and through the results most of HM consumers can follow the fashion trend, and purchase its products more frequent. Finally, the average spent when consumers shopping these stores, can display how popular of this brand, if the consumers like the products they would like to spend more money, of course in this section has some suggestions of how to make the consumers spend more in future. 5.1 Further research recommendations The research comprehended only a limited sample of consumers, and focused upon three brands, so the results only can reflect a group of consumers thought. I suggest someone else looks into in more wide details about the brand and do some wider research, not only focus on female, also can be another occupation. CHAPTER 6 REFERENCE Aaker, D. A. (2002) Building strong brands New York; London : Free. Aaker, D. A (2002) Brand leadership New York; London : Free. Crainer, S.(1995) The real power of brands: making brands work for competitive advantage London : Pitman. Chernatony, D.L. and McDonald, M. (1998) Creating powerful brands in consumer, service and industrial markets 2nd ed.. Oxford : Butterworth-Heinemann. Easey, M (2002) Fashion marketing 2nd ed. Oxford : Blackwell Science. Feldwick. P (2003) Brand communications in Brand and Branding Hawkins, D. I., Best, R. J., and Coney, K. A. (2004) Consumer behaviour: building marketing strategy 9th ed. Boston, Mass. : McGraw-Hill. Hague, P. and Jackson, P. (1994) The power of industrial brands : an effective route to competitive advantage . London : McGraw-Hill. Jean-Noà «l, K. (1997) Strategic brand management : creating and sustaining brand equity long term 2nd ed. London : Kogan Page. Riezebos, R. (2003) Brand management : a theoretical and practical approach Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall. Solomon, M. R.and Rabolt, N. J. (2004) Consumer behavior : in fashion Upper Saddle River, N.J.; London : Prentice Hall. Walliman, N. (2001) Your research project : a step-by-step guide for the first-time researcher London : SAGE. Wang. C.L; Siu. N. Y. M; Hui. A. S. Y (2004) Consumer decision-making styles on domestic and imported brand clothing. Eurropean Journal of Marketing, [online], Vol.38, Iss. 1/2, pp.239-252 6.1 INTERNET SOURCE http://www.allsaints.co.uk/brand/ http://www.hm.com/gb/abouthm__abouthm.nhtml http://www.levistrauss.com/Company/ Pam Tate 2007 http://www.drapersonline.com/news/all-saints-founders-sign-religion-deal/765531.article Jessica Price Brown 2009: http://www.drapersonline.com/news/multiples/all-saints-sales-buck-downturn/5000200.article Glossary (2007) All About Branding, [online], Available at: http://www.allaboutbranding.com/index.lasso?page=11,54,0. [Accessed: 10th December 2008] Jessica Price Brown 2008 http://www.drapersonline.com/news/hm-unveils-its-design-for-dominance/903574.article 10 March, Jessica Price Brown 2009 http://www.drapersonline.com/news/all-saints-brightens-sector-gloom/1967495.article Drapersonline 2009 http://www.drapersonline.com/news/other-sectors/lingerie/new-underwear-licensee-at-levis/5000720.article Appendices