Psycology Analysis of Stephen Hawking

I chose Stephen Hawking to write about for my case study because I have always found him extremely interesting. As a fellow atheist he has come pretty outstanding scientific theories on how our universe came about, none of which are attributed to some fictitious being. I am also inspired with the amount that Hawking has done so far in his lifetime. All this has been done in spite of, or because of, having ALS. As a medical professional I am in awe of the things that he has accomplished.Stephen William Hawking, born in 1942 is the eldest of Frank and Isobel Hawking’s three children. Mary was born in 1943, Philippa was born in 1947, and Edward was adopted in 1956. As a newborn Stephen first lived in Northern London. Hawking’s parents where themselves quite accomplished, Stephen’s father was a respected medical researcher in the specialty of tropical diseases, while his mother was one of Oxford’s first female students. When he was just two weeks old Stephen w as almost killed when a V2 rocket damaged the Hawking’s home while they were away.This is when the Hawking’s moved to Oxford in order to avoid the attacks by the Luftwaffe (the aerial warfare branch of the German Armed Forces) and to provide a safer environment to raise their growing family. In 1950, when Stephen was eight years old he and his family moved to St Albans in Hertfordshire. As a child Stephen was awkward and small for his age. His teachers thought he was bright but he did not stand out as being very far above his classmates in elementary school. At one point in school he was third from the bottom of his class.He did enjoy creating games with his friends. They would come together at the family home on weekends and holidays to play. Stephen would create many of the rules and the games would often be so complex that one turn could take an entire afternoon. At the local public high school, the gauche, lisping Hawking was persecuted as a swot, which is a person that devotes themselves solely to their studies and avoids social diversions. He avoided team sports and pop music for a world of jazz, classical music, and debating. I think that these tendencies point toward him being an introvert.Stephen had always shown an interest in science. After graduating from high school he enrolled himself at Oxford. There was no mathematics offered at the time, so Hawking chose Physics as his major. During his time at Oxford Stephen also showed great interest in Thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics. He received his B. A. degree from Oxford University, in 1962, after which he enrolled for studying astronomy. Stephen met his wife Jane Wilde, a languages undergraduate at a New Year's party in 1963, while studying at Cambridge, they were married in 1965.He was named a fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 32, and later earned the prestigious Albert Einstein Award. In 1975 he traveled to Rome, where he was honored with the Pius XI Gold Medal for Science from Pope Paul VI. In the 1980s Hawking answered one of Einstein's unanswered theories, the famous unified field theory. Hawking published his first book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time in 1975, rocked the physics community by examining and expanding on Einstein’s General theory of relativity, and the general structure of space and time. In 1988 Hawking, published A Brief History of Time.A short, informative book, that became an account of cosmology for the masses. Spending more than four years atop the London Sunday Times' best-seller list, it has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 40 languages since its publication. In September 2010, Hawking spoke against the idea that God could have created the universe, stating, â€Å"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can, and will create itself from nothing, Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe e xists, why we exist. Along with his brilliance, Stephan Hawking is also well known for the length of time that he has been afflicted with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was diagnosed at age 21 while studying cosmology at Cambridge. Hawking's disease helped him become the scientist he is today. Prior to receiving the ALS diagnosis Stephen Hawking hadn't always focused on his studies. â€Å"I was bored with life before my illness,† he said. â€Å"There had not seemed to be anything worth doing. Realizing that he may not live long, Doctors giving him only two years to live, Hawking threw himself into his studies, and his research. He has astounded doctors by far exceeding this expectation. Hawking's ability to communicate had been dwindling for years, until in 1985, due to an emergency tracheotomy, he lost his voice completely. Hawking caught the attention of a California computer programmer who had developed a speaking pr ogram that could be directed by head or eye movement. This allowed him to select words on a computer screen using a handheld clicker.They are then passed through a speech synthesizer. Today the program is controlled by a sensor attached to his check, due to the amount of control that has been lost in his body. Stephen Hawking’s adult life has been an example in motivation. His disease has pushed him to achieve things that others would not have found possible. ‘The realization that I had an incurable disease that was likely to kill me in a few years was a shock,' he recalls. ‘How could something like this happen to me? ‘ stated Hawking.He has often been quoted as stating that his disease has been the driving force behind his work, because not knowing how much time he would have before he died has made him want to achieve as much as possible in whatever short amount was left. I think that using Erik Erikson’s work on psychosocial development you can see that the autonomy Hawking was given as a child to be as creative as he wanted paved the way for Stephen’s ability to create his phenomenal theories as an adult. I don’t think that Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development can be applied here because there is no documentation of any moral dilemmas in Hawking’s past.Maslow’s hierarchy can be applied though, even in the stages of life that Hawking is confined to a wheelchair. As a very young child, Hawking’s parents strive to achieve a safe environment that will protect him from the dangers of world war two. They do this by moving the family multiple times. I feel that through the creativity and publications that Hawking has done he has achieved the final portion in Maslow’s Hierarchy, self -actualization Using the humanistic approach, it seems to me that Stephen Hawking used the enthusiasm with which he increased his education as a means to help him cope with the diagnosis that h e received of ALS.This in turn made him a successful physicist. By vastly increasing the education he received, he was able to advance his career. This increase in his research also allowed him to feel as if he was contributing to society. By offering so much to the public he has shown himself that, although his body is frail he is very much able to be productive. By doing this it reinforces his feelings of self-worth. We, as humans have the need to be needed, and in turn the want to be appreciated for the things that we achieve. Stephen Hawking has many astounding, mind blowing theories in publication.All this has been done though the advancement of his disease, and due to his original diagnoses. It seems that the motivator for Mr. Hawking is the need to do as much as his failing body will let him in whatever time he has left. To me, the statement â€Å"You can’t understand others unless you understand yourself†, means that in order to help others, you need to know wh o you are as a person. Even though I don’t really understand psychology, I feel that if you are going to try to psycho-analyze another person, you need to have done so to yourself. There are definitely applications for psychology in my work life.Since I am a pediatric nurse working towards my BSN I use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on a daily basis. There is always the need to ensure that an infant’s need for physical well-being and comfort is met before you can work on making sure that the age appropriate milestones are being reached. With children, if you address their need for independence, they will be your best friend, and allow you to perform the many tests that are required during their visits. I have learned many things during this class. The biggest thing that I have learned is about my personality type.Although I was not exactly correct about what I thought about myself, I was pretty close. This helps me to know that I know who I am. This in turn lets me know that I am fully equipped to help my patients. References Stephen Hawking (2006) Retrieved June 3, 2012 fromhttp://www. csupomona. edu/~nova/scientists/articles/hawk. html Stephen Hawking Biography (n. d. ) Retrieved June 3, 2012 http://lifestyle. iloveindia. com/lounge/stephen-hawking-2668. html Master of the Universe (Robin McKie, 2001) Retrieved June 3, 2012 http://www. guardian. co. uk/education/2001/oct/21/highereducation. cademicexperts Psychosocial Theory: Erikson (Davis & Clifton, 1995) Retrieved June 3, 2012 http://www. haverford. edu/psych/ddavis/p109g/erikson. stages. html Theories of Development (Crain, 1985). Editorial board Words of Wisdom (2011) Introduction to Psychology Stephen Hawking. (2012). Biography. com. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from http://www. biography. com/people/stephen-hawking-9331710 Stephen Hawking Biography (2010) Retrieved May 26, 2012 from http://www. notablebiographies. com/Gi-He/Hawking-Stephen. html#ixzz1vzRLUH5F About Stephen Hawking (n. d. ) Retrieved May 26, 2012 from http://www. hawking. org. uk/about-stephen. html

How Craft Changed Oreo Marketing Strategy in China

How Kraft Changed the Oreo and Its Global Marketing Strategy for Success in China Gale Business Insights: Global Case Study Collection Learning Objectives After analyzing this case study, students should be able to do the following: Explain at least three benefits of market research in product development for international and emerging markets Identify traditional and nontraditional strategies for increasing revenue through entering new global markets Appreciate the effect of cultural norms and tastes for firms expanding to new markets Discuss how firms can focus products to local tastes while increasing brand value globally IntroductionOne of the more popular strategies for firms to increase profits in the 21st century has been to expand to new, growing markets. China, India, and other Asian and Pacific countries have received a great deal of attention by North American and European firms attempting to tap growing levels of expendable income from the emerging middle classes in these countries. The strategy seems sound, but its execution is critical to its success or failure. Many examples exist of companies in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s failing to gain traction in these new markets.Firms often try to attract new customers by offering essentially the same products that have worked in other markets. They support this strategy by adding sales and marketing staff and other resources to convince potential buyers in the new market of the value of their products. Offering a standard product across markets can minimize costs and increase profit margins. However, cultural norms, tastes, and preferences vary greatly between a firm’s home market and the new market it may be attempting to enter.It is often difficult for firms to gauge the right mix of standardization and localization while still making growth profitable rather than being a drag on profits. For example, Campbell Soup Co. saw an opportunity to make big profits in Russia and China wit h its preprepared soup products. According to The Wall Street Journal, Campbell estimated that Russians and Chinese eat soup five times per week on average. As life in China and Russia gets busier and more women enter the workplace, the company forecasted that people would have less time to prepare meals and that the demand for preprepared food would increase.However, Campbell found after years of marketing its products in these countries that its canned soup strategy did not capture the revenue it needed to be profitable. Campbell introduced and then pulled its condensed soups out of China in the 1990s, and the company announced in June 2011 that it would close its Russian operations four years after entering the market. Kraft Foods Inc. is another company that sees opportunities for new and growing profits in Asia. The company’s first attempts to enter Asian markets were as unsuccessful as Campbell’s initial attempts.However, Kraft decided to shift to a new marketing strategy, grounded in a different understanding of how to best expand into new markets. Kraft Foods and the Oreo in 2005: In Need of a Change The first Oreo cookies were produced in New York City in 1912 and registered as a Nabisco trademark one year later. Nearly a century of popular marketing campaigns made Oreos one of the best selling cookies and best-known food brands in the United States. Throughout this period of popularity, very little changed about the physical cookie: Oreos remained a sandwich cookie with chocolate ends and a cream-filled center.The design of the cookie helped initiate an eating ritual that advertisers soon appropriated to make the cookie even more popular: the â€Å"twist, lick, and dunk† method for eating the cookie has been a centerpiece of Oreo advertising for many years. By 2005, the Oreo cookie had been a mainstay in U. S. consumer culture for nearly a century. However, sales in the United States had seemed to peak, and international growth i n emerging markets in Asia and elsewhere was slow if barely noticeable at all. The Oreo was introduced in China in 1996, in he same form that a customer would find it in a grocery store in the United States. Sales had been flat for the first five years of the 2000s and were in decline. â€Å"In 2007, Kraft Foods China was an unprofitable, $100 million business that was not growing,† noted Sanjay Khosla, Kraft Foods’ president of developing markets, in an interview published by the Boston Consulting Group. Kraft was even thinking of pulling the product out of the Chinese market completely, due to poor sales. The company as a whole was performing poorly. This led to a shake-up of executive management in 2006, with Irene B.Rosenfeld installed as chief executive officer (CEO). Rosenfeld had previously worked at Kraft for 22 years before leaving in 2003 to head Frito-Lay North America. In early 2007, Rosenfeld outlined a strategy to turn the company around that included pro duct quality, research and development (R&D), and acquisitions as critical to the future growth of the company. Rosenfeld hired cutting-edge business leaders such as Khosla to help create the strategy that would change the way Kraft Foods Inc. does business. Fewer, but Larger Bets: Growth Through Focus and the 5-10-10 Strategy at Kraft FoodsWhen Sanjay Khosla left Fonterra Group in 2007 to spearhead Kraft Foods’ business in developing countries, he was tasked with discovering a way to realize the potential for growth in developing markets that had eluded Kraft and so many other large, successful multinational firms. That different approach eschewed the traditional idea that a company must produce more in order to sell more. In a 2011 feature on Khosla in Chicago Magazine, Khosla noted that â€Å"[c]ompanies were just planting their flags, with a one-size-fits-all attitude that didn’t work.You can’t just force stuff from one country to another. † Instead, Kraft Foods would redesign the way it, and other firms, entered emerging markets. Khosla coauthored an article with Mohanbir Sawhney for Strategy+Business magazine, called â€Å"Growth Through Focus,† in which the authors details the many changes that took place at Kraft Foods to succeed in developing markets. â€Å"A typical ‘growth through more’ strategy,† they write, â€Å"diffuses the organization’s efforts. It increases the complexity of the organization and its operations. Companies should not produce more to drive growth but should instead focus its operations and strategy to achieve growth. â€Å"The engines of growth,† write Khosla and Sawhney, â€Å"are focus (fewer brands, fewer categories, and fewer markets) and simplicity (simple vision, simplified execution, and simpler organizational designs). † Kraft Foods would choose which brands have the best chances of winning in which markets and then supply its management and emp loyees with an abundance of resources to succeed. â€Å"We have found that seemingly mature businesses can be energized by making fewer but larger bets. The executive team at Kraft had a strategy for winning but had to ensure that its employees at all levels understood and executed the strategy, so it came up with a vision statement or â€Å"hook† that would be communicated throughout the ranks, called the â€Å"5-10-10† strategy: five categories, ten brands, and ten markets. â€Å"5-10-10† would help communicate to all employees exactly what the major priorities for the company would be, providing a sense in its culture that executive management was open and committed with its strategies and goals.After conducting several workshops with its managers and employees all over the world, where open and candid feedback was encouraged, Kraft Foods decided that its best chance at winning would be to focus on two categories: biscuits and chocolate. Although it has been successful mostly in the United States, Oreo had recently, in 2006, become the bestselling biscuit in China, due to new marketing and product development tactics implemented by a team led by Shawn Warren, vice president of Marketing at Kraft Foods International.By focusing on China with the Oreo and taking focus away from other successful brands and emerging markets, Kraft Foods Inc. was making a big bet indeed. Breaking the Cookie Mold: Recreating the Oreo for the Chinese Consumer What followed was a focused, open-minded market research project to find out why the traditional Oreo was not working in China and, more importantly, to figure out the kind of biscuit (called cookie in the United States) would appeal to Chinese consumers. The findings uncovered precisely why the Oreo was not catching on with the Chinese.It may seem obvious that different cultures have different tastes and norms, but sometimes it takes a lot of investment in market research to discover exactly what those differences are and to move from anecdotal opinions to actionable empirical evidence. First, the Oreo that had appealed to millions of Americans over the course of a century was simply too sweet for the Chinese palate. Put simply, the Chinese did not particularly like the taste of the traditional Oreo. Research also found that the cookie itself was too big and that the price of 72 cents for 14 Oreos was too high.Product Development and Recasting the Oreo Cookie In response to this new understanding of Chinese consumer opinions, Kraft Foods’ Asia Pacific division went to work to create the kind of product that might be able to catch on in the region. The Wall Street Journal reported that 20 prototypes were developed with reduced sugar content. Kraft tested the prototypes to find a formula that Chinese consumers would find most appetizing. They did the same for packaging and pricing, settling on a package that cost 29 cents and contained fewer Oreos.Other product development in novations, based on market research insights, went further in transforming the Oreo in China. Learning that demand for wafer-type biscuits was on the rise in China, Kraft introduced a wafer version of the Oreo that looked nothing like the one so well known in North America but tasted nearly the same as the cookie form, under its new Chinese balance of sweetness and chocolate. This new Oreo contained four crispy wafer layers filled with vanilla and chocolate cream, all covered in chocolate coating.Innovative product development followed to react to market research and attempt to tailor the marketing of the Oreo brand to the Chinese consumer. New filling flavors aimed specifically at the Chinese consumer were introduced, including green tea, orange, mango, and blueberry. In an interview with Retail in Asia, a web publication that covers Asia retail news, Kraft Foods Asia Pacific Sales vice president Andy Tosney described how Kraft Foods had even invested in new R&D to custom fit its O reo brand products to suit the particular needs of the Asia Pacific consumer: W]e discovered that biscuits and sweets snacking tends to be a ‘cold weather phenomenon,’ meaning that sometimes consumption tends to slow down if the temperature gets very hot. With this insight, we developed Oreo IceCream. The fillings in the biscuits have different ice-cream flavours. The advanced technology we use allows the ice-cream fillings to give out an amazing cooling sensation in the mouth as though you’re eating an ice cream. The product is fantastically successful in China and Indonesia.Tosney added that Kraft had taken a further step of transforming its supply-chain logistics in order to ship the ice-cream-filled cookies from the colder northern China climates to the much hotter south of China. Kraft doubled its China sales force to sell these new products, truly bringing to bear the â€Å"Focus through Growth† model that Khosla and CEO Irene Rosenfeld were now cham pioning for the entire company. It did not take long for these changes to take effect on the marketplace. In 2006, the Oreo became the number one–selling biscuit in China.From 2008 to 2010, according to Khosla in his Boston Consulting Group interview, revenues from the Oreo brand grew by more than 30 percent per year on average, with better-than-average margins. Before Kraft Foods’ big push in China, the biscuit and cookie market was not particularly profitable compared to other countries. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Chinese market for biscuits in 2007 was US$1. 3 billion compared to the US$3. 5 billion U. S. market. Now that Kraft Foods felt it had the products the Chinese wanted, it had to let Chinese consumers know about it.Going â€Å"Glocal† with the Oreo Brand and the Marketing Mix Kraft Foods’ innovative strategies to grow in China did not stop at new product development. To advertise the new, tailored Oreo brand, Kraft Foods had to a pply the same locally focused thinking to advertising its products. Kraft did this through what Khosla has termed a â€Å"glocal† strategy. Glocal is the idea of utilizing a firm’s global financial and organizational muscle while localizing marketing leadership and tactics.The first step was to push larger marketing decision-making out of Kraft Foods’ headquarters just outside of Chicago, Illinois, United States, to the regional managers. The idea is simple but often unutilized by large multinational firms: Managers who live in different markets surely know the markets better than the executives at headquarters. These local managers should be challenged to be entrepreneurial with their segment of the business and thus given control of a great deal of strategy and financial resources, resources that are typically centralized at home office.As Khosla and Sawhney write in â€Å"Growth through Focus,† â€Å"decision making needs to be moved closer to custome rs and consumers so that the people responsible for results have the operating freedom they need. † Supported with corporate resources but free to choose how to utilize those resources, local managers are able to innovate and execute quickly, instead of waiting for corporate approval to undertake initiatives. Given this freedom, local managers in the Chinamarket innovated effective new ways to get the word out about the new Oreo to Chinese consumers.Important to the glocal ethos the company had now initiated, these managers developed marketing campaigns that utilized local means to target Chinese populations, while simultaneously supporting the Oreo brand, increasing its global equity. For example, advertising focused on teaching the Chinese consumer about the â€Å"twist, lick, and dunk† technique that is so popular in the United States. The new Oreo products introduced in China were designed intentionally to share in that same experience, although in slightly differen t ways.Kraft launched a TV campaign where children were shown demonstrating the technique to their parents. Another TV ad featured a twist on this situation, with China-born NBA basketball star Yao Ming showing his son how to twist, lick, and, in particular, dunk an Oreo. In addition to the TV ad strategy, Kraft Foods realized that mobilizing support on the ground was just as important as spreading the word on China’s airwaves. To encourage the pairing of milk with Oreo cookies, Kraft organized a grassroots campaign to get Chinese university students to do its marketing for them.Thirty Chinese universities were chosen to participate in an Oreo Aambassador program, drawing 6,000 applications from students. Three hundred of these students were chosen to become Oreo brand ambassadors, and they undertook a range of activities, including riding their bicycles around Beijing with Oreo-branded wheel covers and organizing basketball games with a marketing angle of comparing dunking a basketball with dunking an Oreo in milk. Oreo samples were handed out to more than 300,000 customers. In a Wall Street Journal article on the Oreo’s success in China, Kraft Foods Inc.CEO Irene Rosenfeld called the Oreo bicycle campaign â€Å"a stroke of genius that only could have come from local managers. The more opportunity our local managers have to deal with local conditions will be a source of competitive advantage for us. † The Oreo Ambassador program was so successful that it has been extended to other markets, such as India and Indonesia, and each Oreo Ambassador iteration is promoted on Facebook and other social media sites, in order to reach active college crowds in these markets. ConclusionIn 2007, the year after Kraft introduced the new Oreo into the Chinese market, sales doubled, and the Oreo became China’s number one cookie. Sales in China helped the Oreo brand to pass the US$1 billion mark in global sales. In 2009, Forbes reported that in the ye ar ending September 2009 Kraft Foods had earned a 22. 4 percent market share in the US$1. 6 billion cookie market. According to Kraft’s website, China is now the second-largest market for the Oreo, after the United States. Kraft Foods’ glocal marketing strategy shows a new way for firms to branch out into new markets and reach the new customers that the market research promises.Kraft’s strategy works because it is founded on the assumption that growing in a new, developing market is not necessarily an easy proposition and requires a deep level of understanding of the consumers in that market and a willingness to dedicate substantial resources to create products and marketing campaigns that truly serve actual consumers. This may sound like Marketing 101, but the many examples of firms that have failed to grab hold of Asia-Pacific consumers shows that Kraft Foods’ execution of this strategy played a large role in the company’s success in this market. In an interview with Marketing-interactive. com, Kraft Foods Asia Pacific vice president of marketing Shawn Warren nicely states the difference between those firms that succeed and those who do not: â€Å"The importance of shifting from the ‘I think’ culture to the ‘I know’ culture, that’s a vital lesson we learnt in China. † Questions What did Kraft Foods Inc. learn about the Chinese consumer through market research that it did not know before? Do you believe that the company reacted properly to the market research? How might they have reacted differently?What did Kraft do differently from other firms that try to grow through entering new markets? Do you think Kraft’s methods would work for all multinational firms trying to grow in new markets or regions? Do you think that the Oreo brand has been strengthened, or weakened, due to Kraft Foods’ actions of changing the Oreo cookie itself in other markets? Can you think of other bra nds that it would benefit to undergo a similar transformation? Which brands could lose value if a drastic product change were made? Think of another developing market a firm may want to enter.How do you think this market’s consumers might be different from Chinese consumers? How might they be similar? Could Sanjay Khosla and Mohanbir Sawhney’s â€Å"Growth Through Focus† strategy can be applied to all companies? Which companies may not benefit from this growth framework? Further Readings References/Bibliography Chowdhry, Seema. â€Å"Sanjay Khosla: Khosla and the Chocolate Factory. † Livemint. com, November 19, 2011. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://www. livemint. com/2011/11/18201634/Sanjay-Khosla Khosla-and-the. html. â€Å"Finding the Right Blend Is Crucial: Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld. The Economic Times, November 23, 2011. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://articles. economictimes. indiatimes. com/2011-11-23/news/30433514_1_kraft-ceo-irene-rosenfeld-oreo-kr aft-executives. Jacobson, Robert R. , and David E. Salamie. â€Å"Kraft Foods Inc. † International Directory of Company Histories. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. Vol. 91. Detroit: St. James Press, 2008. 291-306. Jargon, Julie. â€Å"Campbell Soup To Exit Russia† Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), June 19, 2001: B9. ———. â€Å"Kraft Reformulates Oreo, Scores in China. † Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2008: B1. Khosla, Sanjay, and Mohanbir Sawhney. Growth through Focus: A Blueprint for Driving Profitable Expansion. † Strategy+Business 60. August 24, 2010. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://www. strategy-business. com/article/00034? gko=63292. Lautman, Victoria. â€Å"Kraft Foods’s Brand New World. † Chicagomag. com, June 2011. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://www. chicagomag. com/Chicago-Magazine/June-2011/Kraft-Foodss-Brand-New-World. Ng, Erica. â€Å"Profile: Shawn Warren, VP Marketing Kraft APAC. † Marketing-interactive. com, Oc tober 27, 2010. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://www. marketing-interactive. com/news/22808. Silverstein, Michael J. Sanjay Khosla on the Power of Focus: An Interview with the President of Kraft’s Developing Markets Business. † Bgc. perspectives by The Boston Consulting Group, December 5, 2011. Accessed March 7, 2012. https://www. bcgperspectives. com/content/interviews/consumer_products_globalization_khosla_sanjay_president_krafts_developing_markets_business. â€Å"Talking Shop: Kraft Foods—Conquering the Asian Market with Global Thinking. † Retail in Asia, February 8, 2011. Accessed March 7, 2012. http://www. retailinasia. com/article/sectors/food-beverage/2011/02/talking-shop-kraft-foods-%E2%80%93-conquering-asian-market-global-thin.

When Celebrity Endorsement Succeeds

WHEN CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT SUCCEEDS! Celebrity endorsement is defined as a form of brand or advertising campaign that involves a well known person using their fame to help promote a product or service. The basic principle is quiet simple, people like celebrities, so if a celebrity likes a product people will like it. According to industry sources, 20% of all television commercials features a famous person.I believe that celebrity endorsement is a good way for a company to promote its product through its consumers, celebrities appear in roughly one-fifth of ads, according to market researchers, and a single company like Nike might spend around half a billion dollars a year on endorsements . Celebrities greatly influence our consumer decisions in making purchases on certain products or brands. Advertisers have always found unique ways of getting the consumers attention, and elevating the status of a particular product.The Nike empire has many famous athletes sponsoring their product, s uch as Lebron James, Troy Polamalu, and Tiger woods. These athletes are just some of hundreds that Nike has sponsored over the years. From their endorsements, consumers are constantly seeing the best sports players in the world using Nike equipment, shoes, or other Nike brand products. This in turn gives one the sense of Nike being the best, since the best professionals are using it. Thus making the consumer want to buy Nike's products.Another great example is, Gillette's Mach Fusion advertisement featuring Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Thierry Henry, combined all three of the best golf, tennis, and soccer players in its razor commercial. â€Å"A sign of a celebrity is that his name is often worth more than his services. † – Daniel J Boorstin Also, in my own point of view, I don’t think a bad celebrity endorsement that backfires can affect the consumer buying behaviour. According to Katyal. S (2011), Sainsbury’s encountered a problem with Catherine Zeta Jones, whom the company used for its recipe advertisements, when she was caught shopping in Tesco.A similar case happened with Britney Spears who endorsed one cola brand and was repeatedly caught drinking another brand of cola on tape. I totally disagree with this claim, why will people not want to buy a recipe from Sainsbury because Catherina Zeta Jones was caught using a different product, are they trying to say she should only use the product she advertises on TV? And concerning Britney spears, is she only suppose to devote her life to coca cola brands only? Assuming she was thirsty for sprite of fanta, she should not drink it in public because she advertised for coca cola brand only.People don’t really understand what consumer endorsement means, if a certain celebrity is used for a product, it means that product is good enough for everybody that's if you like the person being used. Example, the Nike snicker being advertised by Lebron James, he is used because of his popu larity and his athletic background which is a successful one. They mean, if a person like Lebron can use their product, u can use it too. And it's telling its customers that Lebron has approved the product top be a good one which is why he signed the endorsement contract.

Exploring puzzle plots, their representation of events and complex Dissertation

Exploring puzzle plots, their representation of events and complex characters and the roles of each player the invisible story t - Dissertation Example These elements and entities could commonly be said to include storyline, characters, plot, audience, setting, and acting – and these could be said to compose of the soft side of filmmaking. At the hard side, elements and factors such as shooting, sound, lighting, editing, cinematography, effects and publicity also go on to get the film done. A combination of both the soft and hard sides of the film making process contribute to the determination of the success or otherwise of a film. As far as the present study is concerned, much attention shall go into the soft side of film making, which comprises of elements such as storyline, plot, setting, audience, narrative, and characters. These aspects are selected because of the singular influence that they have in determining what an end user looks out for in a good or bad movie (Krzysztof, 2001). Interestingly, how well a film producer is able to put together all these forms and motifs of films together goes a long way to determine w hat would later come to be known as the success or failure of the movie. In most cases, when film reviewers are movies, they do so based on most of these factors and so they will remain the focus of the dissertation. Having said this, it is important to point out that the end user of films is of prime importance in this study. This is because most of the efforts of the film maker are directed at giving the end user, who is the viewer, some level of satisfaction. Not long time ago, most filmmakers are said to have viewed the end user as someone who would want to perceive movies as a passive act and so did not expect the viewer to be so much involved in decoding the movie. Imperatively, film makers presented viewers with straight forward movies that were so easy to understand and comprehend from their beginning to their end. From the 1990s, there seemed to be a paradigm shift where most filmmakers started seeing the act of viewing movies as an active practice and so the need to make t he viewer play some kind of role in understanding what the whole movie was about. This is what in the opinion of many brought about the birth of quite unusual line of movies including what has come to be known as puzzle films. Generally, a puzzle film is one that gives the viewer a line of responsibility in puzzling out the plot of the movie, the solutions involved, as well as the general turn of events in the movie (Bordwell, 2002). Research Problem Several movie experts, students and teachers what has become a new trend in the presentation of the plots of movies whereby the viewer is given so many roles to play in the form of solving a puzzle of what the plot is about and how the general development of the movie unfolds. From this perspective, there are two major schools of thought that can be identified. First, there are those who hold the opinion that the fact that movie is an art should end with the movie maker and not the end user. Ultimately, these people believe that movies should be presented to the viewer as a finished product so that comprehension of the movie, its development and its value can come forth easily and without any mental stress (Borges,2002). These group of debaters therefore align themselves to the traditional way of constructing movie plots whereby the viewer visualizes the movie as a continuous linear process, just a it happens in out everyday type of narration of stories. But as much as the

The Viability of Primary and Secondary Qualities Essay

The Viability of Primary and Secondary Qualities - Essay Example The essence of the philosophical debate, therefore, centered on Berkeley’s refusal to believe that reality consisted of abstractions that could be separated from a material object. In order to explore this debate in more depth, this essay will examine Berkeley’s critique of Locke regarding the viability of primary and secondary qualities. As a preliminary matter, for Berkeley, the proffered distinction between primary and secondary qualities, an integral theoretical concept underpinning John Locke’s notion of Abstract Ideas, was an issue of fundamental importance. Our knowledge of the world around us, in Berkeley’s view, was dependent on the viability of this distinction. Berkeley’s ultimate rejection of this distinction, and the theory of Abstract Ideas was bold; Locke, after all, was not the first philosopher to believe in the validity of the distinction. Indeed, Berkeley challenged some of the greatest thinkers as the distinction had also been em braced by such luminaries as Descartes, Newton, and Galileo. A brief presentation of Locke’s approach to primary and secondary qualities is necessary because it highlights the bases of Berkeley’s attacks and because Locke’s work served as the authoritative statement of the viability of the distinction between primary and secondary qualities.... He also pointed out the epistemological problems which, he asserted, rendered Locke's distinction nothing more than speculation. Locke, in Berkeley's view, was hardly an empiricist. Berkeley could simply not accept Locke's assertion that an underlying quality could be separated from the mind. Locke stated, by contrast, that a quality was a power that was capable of producing an idea in our mind. This definition was significant because it separated the quality from our mind; more particularly, Locke established a causal relationship in which a quality inherent in an object caused us to have an idea about that object. Berkeley, because he rejected the separation, also rejected the notion of causation. Berkeley's strongest criticisms, however, derived from Locke's attempt to divide a quality into two specific types. This criticism dealt with Locke's attempts to draw a distinction between what he termed primary qualities and secondary qualities. Locke characterised primary qualities as being inseparable from the object being observed. Everything had fundamental properties. These fundamental properties were constant. Locke viewed solids, extensions, figures, motion or rest, and number as primary qualities; Berkeley, for the reasons mentioned below, argued and demonstrated that these primary qualities did not exist. The denial of these primary qualities served as the basis for his rejection of the notion of abstraction of ideas. Berkeley stated that these qualities were illusory and therefore could not produce in us ideas about the object being observed. Ideas were ideas and nothing more. Nor did Berkeley accept the premise that a

Emergency Service Managment Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Emergency Service Managment - Research Paper Example The term ‘incident’ denotes certain occurrences such as chemical leakage or fire outbreak which require immediate reaction. The incidents can be dealt with by using limited resources or with the assistance of emergency services. However, when those incidents become serious, it necessitates management direction in order to address the broader effect. This, in turn, creates an emergency situation which typically includes interference with emergency services. Effective emergency management is highly reliant on good emergency readiness. It requires guidelines and planning for every common reasonable event. The guidelines can result in secure practices in the organizations which can ensure health, fitness, and wellness of fire-fighters. In the fire department, there are four principles for managing the emergency. The ‘National Fire Protection Association’ (NFPA) standard had recognized numerous issues with respect to maintaining health, fitness, and wellness of f ire-fighters. One of the most significant issues of health and safety is an infection. The fire-fighters are vulnerable to several kinds of infections due to hazardous materials and body fluids. The NFPA 1582 standard requires fire-fighters to reduce the probability of disease and injury from infections. The standard operating guideline of fire department recommends active attempts for restricting the spread of infection and transmissible diseases by making available different immunizations, vaccinations and other treatments.... The following diagram will depict the four principles that are followed in emergency service management: Source: (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, â€Å"DEECD Emergency Management Guidelines†) Issues in Emergency Service Management of Fire Department The ‘National Fire Protection Association’ (NFPA) standard had recognized numerous issues with respect to maintaining health, fitness and wellness of fire-fighters. One of the most significant issues of health and safety is infection. The fire-fighters are vulnerable to several kinds of infections due to hazardous materials and body fluids. The NFPA 1582 standard requires fire-fighters to reduce the probability of disease and injury from infections. The standard operating guideline of fire department recommends active attempts for restricting the spread of infection and transmissible diseases by making available different immunizations, vaccinations and other treatments (United States Fire Admi nistration, â€Å"Guide To Managing An Emergency Service Infection Control Program†). The other issue for health, fitness and wellness of fire-fighters is record keeping. It is essential for fire department to maintain a record for all employees regarding health so that appropriate measures can be taken in order to ensure fitness. The NFPA 1581 standard requires fire department to drive infection control events and to maintain private health records regarding all work-related injuries, sicknesses and exposures of fire-fighters along with toxic materials and spreadable illnesses (United States Fire Administration, â€Å"Guide To Managing An Emergency Service Infection Control Program†). Every fire-fighter should study how to protect from probable infections and prevent fleeting

ECE 330 Discussion 2-4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

ECE 330 Discussion 2-4 - Essay Example s manner, as the children’s thinking is developed, it is crucial to include items or materials in the classroom environment and curriculum that links to or facilitates the recalling of past lessons. Educators may observe and document what they see by placing children in their natural environments which include classrooms, the outdoors or home, mainly because the children will express more in actions that they would in words. Their actions, such as frustration by ripping pages, may be documented in anecdotal records that briefly describe specific incidents. Through pretend play, children are able to develop linguistic competence because they can first of all make sense out of their world and after developing cultural and social understandings, can express their feelings and thoughts. When a child pretends to be another person in play, he is able to construct statements and metacommunication appropriate to that role in order to maintain the episode of play. Through this, they will be able to internalize rule systems related to the language of the pretend play as well as ways of generating multiple forms of expressing thoughts (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Through an observation made from teaching experiences in which non-French children were learning basic French, a student expressed linguistic competence by noting another, who pretended to be a French baker, was not stressing the sound ‘R’. By playing with language, this student was already feeling in control of it and was showing competence in understanding the concept of sounds and syllables. That shows the significance of pretend play in supporting linguistic competence through focused verbal interactions. Not all the Field Experience sites give children opportunities to present their learning. However, it was observed that children can present their learning through pictures, numbers, athletics, music and words. Therefore, as educators it is important to first allow the students discover their own