Calvin College Essay

I have a vision of what my college experience will look like. It is a montage of college scenes pulled from books, movies, and my university tours. I see guitar-accompanied picnics and Converse sneakers crunching through leaves on a sidewalk. I see countless chai lattes turning into empty cups during late night essay writing, during which I’m simply adorned in a hoodie and headphones. I see the magic bond that forms between two nervous freshmen roommates as they spontaneously belt out a song in tune with the radio.When I walked through the picturesque Calvin campus, I could truly envision myself in Converse sneakers on my way to conquer an essay with a chai latte and headphones at the ready. I don’t know whether college will look like that or not, but I hope to balance the challenges and rigors of learning, with enthusiasm and a sense of community. I hope that I will have the opportunity to love life, and show love toward others, at Calvin. I am drawn to the intimate ca mpus and dedicated staff at Calvin College because it reminds me of the school in which I grew up.Rudolf Steiner is a small, unique school that has encouraged me to explore, pursue my passions everyday, show responsibility toward my community, and have a familial relationship with my peers. I was encouraged to appreciate music, art, travel, language, and to revel in the triumphs that are possible when a community comes together to share their gifts and talents. It is this creative spirit and sense of loyalty that I hope to bring to Calvin. I want to grow in character as well as in my academics.I want to feel inspired, and to inspire others. Film is my passion and it is my goal to capture enchanting moments, from the purity of a dance silhouetted by a melting sunset, to the quiet elegance of an artist who is surrounded by the bustle of life and yet completely alone with a sketchbook. For me, there are few things more satisfying than being able to portray to my friends the love and be auty that I see in them. I also hope to utilize skills and ideas learned in my Youth Leadership Team experience, and apply them to my Calvin experience.On my church Mission Trip, I was moved by the verse Timothy 4:12 regarding youth and behavior, which is good advice for college students. I am committed to embracing the weightlessness of my youth, while setting a strong and noble example in character. This is what I hope to continue at Calvin. I know that college will be full of challenges and that it may not match my cinematic depiction. I am confident, however, that if I keep my friends close, pursue my passions, and stay in touch with my faith, I will carve out a future that inspires me and touches others in a positive way.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. By Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs (Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah). (The Modern Library: New York. c. 2004. 434 pp. $6. 95). Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, an American Slave is a firsthand account of the struggle of Fredrick Douglas who was born into slavery. The book hits on several main points of slavery from the brutal beatings that were inflicted upon slaves to the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners who used religious teachings as a justification for the treatment of their slaves. Douglas immediately immerses the reader in the atrocities of being a slave. The feel is very â€Å"matter of fact† but leaves the reader feeling compelled to be irate. Douglas is almost able to actually bring the reader into the life of a slave. The imagery that is used is so vivid that you can actually see the book play out in your mind. The ascription of meaning to the slave songs that Douglas heard in the pine woods is eye opening and the quote â€Å"The mere reoccurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; And while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery (pg 28) â€Å". The power of that quote alone is enough to open the heart and mind to the pain of the African American slave. The scope of this narrative is across the life of Fredrick Douglas, from his childhood as a slave to his role as an speaker on behalf of abolition in which he drew the courage to speak out even in front of his white counterparts. The purpose of the narrative is to inform the reader of the circumstances that the slaves had to deal with on a day to day basis and also as a public argument against slavery. I feel that he book is an exceptional piece of literature that by all standards envelops the reader into the world of a slave in the 1800s. The literature not only examines the life of Frederick Douglas but the ideas of the time in which he lived. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. By Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs (Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah). (The Modern Library: New York. c. 2004. 434 pp. $6. 95). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs is exactly as the title says, an account of incidents that â€Å"Linda Brent† had went through in her life. It is important to note that â€Å"Linda Brent† is used as a pseudonym for Jacobs. Brent did not fully understand that she was a slave until around age six when her mother dies and she is now One thing that I liked about the this narrative was the emphasis on family. In â€Å"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave† family is not examined as much, due to the treatment of the slaves by their masters, their family lineage is mostly a secret. Jacob's goes into detail about the bond between her and her mother as well as her grandmother. The purpose of this book is to indulge the reader into several incidents that made Harriet Jacobs who she was. The motif of broken family cohesion is ever existing in the book as it is shown that black women are, most of the time, not allowed to raise their children, marriage is not allowed between slaves and if it is they do not live with one another, and mulatto children are sold and the white fathers feel no obligation to their children. The major conflict in the text between the need for freedom and the need to protect her children brings a very realness to the narrative. I do feel that Jacobs wants the reader to believe that all of the accounts or incidents in the book are in fact nonfiction, as stated, † Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts (pg 1)† The horrific events that happened in the narrative are hard to understand or believe, that is why Jacobs inserts the previous adage. The juxtaposition I have chosen for the two slave narratives is family. In â€Å"narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave† family is not a prevalent theme. In fact the lack of family would be a more accurate depiction. Yet in â€Å"Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl† family is one of the most important things to â€Å"Brent†, aside from freedom, and the argument could be made that family came before freedom. As a child family was very important to Brent and as a mother it remained just as strongly to her.

Public Bank Berhad

Public Bank Berhad The Public Bank Malaysia was founded in the year 1966. The logo, in modern geometric design, is conceived from two interlocking octagons denoting the domestic and international connections of the Group. The interlocking of the two octagons also suggests security, strength and stability. As per the latest reports Public Bank Malaysia is the largest domestic bank in Malaysia after Malayan Banking Berhad. The Public Bank Malaysia, in terms of its market capitalization, is the largest corporation in Malaysia that is not linked with the Government.The expansion and progress of the Group are symbolised by the edges of the octagons pointing outwards at various directions. Additionally, the graphic formation of the two interlocking octagons also creates an â€Å"eye† of foresight of the organisation. Industry Of Public Bank Berhad Public Bank Berhad is an industry leader in hire purchase financing, home mortgage financing and commercial lending to SMEs in Malaysia. The bank has a strong distribution network comprising 248 full service branches in Malaysia and 109 overseas in Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. Public BankProduct Range Of Public Bank Berhad Public Bank Berhad in one of the leading providers of integrated financial services in Malaysia. It primarily focuses on providing banking and financial services. The bank is engaged in offering various financial products and services, which includes investment banking, commercial banking, wealth management products, and Islamic banking services. Target Market Of Public Bank Berhad The whole Malaysian, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. Aimed at providing customized banking services and products to individual customers in addition to small business concerns.Consumer Groups The core business areas of the Public Bank Group are consumer and retail commercial loans. Individuals and families can find a range of lending solutions to buy residential unit, vehicle or a consumer good. The bank offers home loan, car loan, passenger vehicle hire purchase financing and personal loan at easy terms and conditions. The small and medium sized enterprises, too, can find simplified procedure here to apply for a commercial loan. Position of The Company In Relation To Other Competitors Public Bank Berhad operates in the Commercial banks sector.This analysis compares Public Bank Berhad with three other companies: Malayan Banking Berhad (2011 sales of 18. 28 billion Malaysian Ringgits [US$5. 85 billion] of which 25% was Consumer Banking), Cimb Group Holdings Berhad (2010 sales: 16. 06 billion Malaysian Ringgits [US$5. 14 billion] of which 19% was Foreign Banking Ope), and AMMB Holdings Berhad (2011 sales of 5. 83 billion Malaysian Ringgits [US$1. 87 billion] of which 46% was Retail Banking). Company| Sales(blns)| P/E| P/B| Mkt Cap(RMm)| Revenue(RM’000,000)| Public Bank Berhad| 10. 345| 13. 1| 3. 10| 45,067. 8| 10,523| Malayan Banking Berhad| 18. 278| 13. 0| 1. 90| 62,592. 67| 18,397| Cimb Group Holdings Berhad| 16. 059| 13. 5| 2. 07| 55,597. 16| 16,635| AMMB Holdings Berhad| 5. 831| 12. 2| 1. 69| 17,904. 26| 6,343| Market Capital Revenue Ratio For Public Bank | 2008| 2009| 2010| Current ratio| 120,700,000,000/34,789,000,000=3. 47| 137,600,000,000/41,835,000,000=3. 29| 156,500,000,000/45,911,000,000=3. 41| Quick ratio| 60,656,000,000/34,789,000,000=1. 97| 67,986,000,000/41,835,000,000=1. 63| 59,269,000,000/45,911,000,000=1. 29| Average age of inventory | Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading.No inventories| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No inventories| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No inventories| Average Collection Period| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No sales hence no receivables| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No sales hence no receivables| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No sales hence no receivables| Average payme nt period| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No purchases| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading. No purchases| Impossible since PBB is not involved in trading.No purchases| Total asset turnover| 10,500,307,000/196,163,106,000=0. 054| 9,715,568,000/271,136,154,000=0. 045| 11,035,597,000/226,328,976,000=0. 049| Debt ratio| (185,934,374,000/196,163,106,000)x100=94. 79%| (205,420,830,000/217,136,154,000)x100=94. 60%| (212,643,888,000/226,328,976,000)x100=93. 96%| Time interest earned| 18,790,015,000/4,562,396,000=4. 12x| 17,068,609,000/3,316,609,000=5. 15x| 19,149,128,000/3,516,111,000=5. 45x| Gross profit margin| (3,948,155,000/10,500,307,000)x100=37. 60%| (4,015,055,000/9,715,568,000)x100=41. 33%| (4,738,265,000/11,035,597,000)x100=42. 4%| Net profit margin| (2,622,660,000/10,500,307,000)x100=24. 98%| (2,551,540,000/9,715,568,000)x100=26. 26%| (3,099,077,000/11,035,597,000)x100=28. 08%| ROA| (2,622,660,000/196,163,106,000)x100=1. 34%| (2,551,540,000/217,136,1 54,000)x100=1. 18%| (3,099,077,000/226,328,976,000)x100=1. 37%| ROE| (2,622,660,000/10,228,732,000)x100=25. 64%| (2,551,540,000/11,715,324,000)x100=21. 78%| (3,099,077,000/13,685,088,000)x100=22. 65%| Analysis Of Public Bank Performance Liquidity Ratio Current Ratio = Current assets/current liabilities 2008| 2009| 2010| 120,700,000,000/ 34,789,000,000 =3. 7| 137,600,000,000/ 41,835,000,000 =3. 29| 156,500,000,000/ 45,911,000,000 =3. 41| The ratio is mainly used to measure the company's ability to pay back  its short-term liabilities with its short-term assets. As we seen the company current ratio for these 3 years, there are decreases from year 2008 to year 2009 but they increase back when come to year 2010. These 3 years current ratio is significant higher than the acceptable ratio. The acceptable ratio is 2:1 but for the public bank, the current ratio are (2008 1 : 3. 47, 2009 1 : 3. 29, 2010 1 : 3. 41).These shows that the Public Bank is not using its resources as efficiently a s it could be. Public Bank should reduce its current assets so there are no excessive current assets. Quick Ratio = (current assets-inventories)/current liabilities 2008| 2009| 2010| 60,656,000,000/ 34,789,000,000 =1. 97| 67,986,000,000/ 41,835,000,000 =1. 63| 59,269,000,000/ 45,911,000,000 =1. 29| Quick ratio  measures  a company's ability to meet  its short-term obligations with  its most liquid assets. The higher the quick ratio,  the  better the position of the  company. From the company 3 years quick ratio, the quick ratio are (2008 1 : 1. 7, 2009 1 : 1. 63, 2010 1 : 1. 29) These shows that the company quick ratio is slightly higher than the acceptable ratio that are 1:1. But the quick ratio for the company are getting better year to year. The company should reduce its current account to reach the desirable ratio that are 1:1. Activity Ratio Average age of inventory =(Average inventories/Cost of sales)x365 2008| 2009| 2010| N/A| N/A| N/A| Impossible to compute sin ce Public Bank Berhad is not involved in trading. No physical inventories are involved. Average collection period = (receivables/sales) x365 2008| 2009| 2010|N/A| N/A| N/A| Impossible to compute since Public Bank Berhad is not involved in trading. No physical inventories are involved. Average payment period =(Payable/Cost of sales)x365 2008| 2009| 2010| N/A| N/A| N/A| Impossible to compute since Public Bank Berhad is not involved in trading. No physical purchases are involved. Total assets turn over= Operating revenue/total assets 2008| 2009| 2010| 10,500,307,000/196,163,106,000 =0. 054| 9,715,568,000/271,136,154,000 =0. 045| 11,035,597,000/226,328,976,000 =0. 049| Asset turnover  measures  a firm's efficiency at using its assets in generating sales.The total assets turnover over for the 3 years, there are decrease in year 2009 but increases in year 2010. For each RM1 of assets for the year 2008, Public Bank only manage to generate RM0. 054 of sales. For the year 2009 and 2010, for each RM1 of the assets, Public Bank only generates RM0. 045 and RM0. 049 of sales. The amount are worsen but there are increases for year 2010. This is because the company have higher profit margin, so they would have lower assets turnover. Financial Ratio Debt ratio=(Total liabilities/Total asset)x100% 2008| 2009| 2010| (185,934,374,000/196,163,106,000)x100=94. 9%| (205,420,830,000/217,136,154,000)x100=94. 60%| (212,643,888,000/226,328,976,000)x100=93. 96%| A ratio that indicates what proportion of debt a company has relative to its assets. The measure gives an idea to the leverage of the company along with the potential risks the company faces in terms of its debt-load. Time Interest Earned Ratio=EBIT/Interest 2008| 2009| 2010| 18,790,015,000/4,562,396,000=4. 12x| 17,068,609,000/3,316,609,000=5. 15x| 19,149,128,000/3,516,111,000=5. 45x| Ensuring interest payments to debt holders and preventing bankruptcy depends mainly on a company's ability to sustain earnings.However, a high ratio can indicate that a company has an undesirable lack of debt or is paying down too much debt with earnings that could be used for other projects. The rationale is that a company would yield greater returns by investing its earnings into other projects and borrowing at a lower cost of capital than what it is currently paying to meet its debt obligations. Analysis : The company have a high time interest earned ratio in this few year and the ratio keep increase. This suggests that this company is less burdened by debt expense and the company has no problem in settling its interest expenses in the future.Profitability Ratio Gross Profit Margin=Gross profit margin/Net sales 2008| 2009| 2010| (3,948,155,000/10,500,307,000)x100=37. 60%| (4,015,055,000/9,715,568,000)x100=41. 33%| (4,738,265,000/11,035,597,000)x100=42. 94%| The gross margin is not an exact estimate of the company's pricing strategy but it does give a good indication of financial health. Without an adequate gross margin , a company will be unable to pay its operating and other expenses and build for the future. Net Profit Margin=(Earning to common stockholders/sales)x100% 2008| 2009| 2010| (2,622,660,000/10,500,307,000)x100=24. 98%| (2,551,540,000/9,715,568,000)x100=26. 6%| (3,099,077,000/11,035,597,000)x100=28. 08%| Net profit margin is the ratio of net profit to revenues a company’s pricing strategy and operating efficiency. Return On Assets=(Earning to common stockholders/total assets)x100% 2008| 2009| 2010| (2,622,660,000/196,163,106,000)x100=1. 34%| (2,551,540,000/217,136,154,000)x100=1. 18%| (3,099,077,000/226,328,976,000)x100=1. 37%| Return on assets is an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total asset, the ratio measures how efficient management is at using its assets to generate earning. Return On Equity=(Earning to common stockholders/total equity)x100% 2008| 2009| 2010| 2,622,660,000/10,228,732,000)x100=25. 64%| (2,551,540,000/11,715,324,000)x100=21. 78%| (3, 099,077,000/13,685,088,000)x100=22. 65%| Return on equity  measures a corporation's profitability  by revealing how much  profit a company generates  with the  money  shareholders have invested. Analysis : Public Bank Berhad have a very high net profit margin and the profit increase from 24. 98% in year 2008 to 26. 26% in year 2009. When in year 2010, it rise to 28. 08% again. It’s mean this company generate 24. 98% in year 2008, 26. 26% in year 2009 and 28. 08% in year 2010 for every RM100 sales. Furthermore, the return on assets are in the high rate.In the year 2008, the ROA is 1. 34% and it decreased to 1. 18% in the year 2009. However, in year 2010 the ROA increases to 1. 37%. It’s because of Public Bank has expanded its self –service channels such as Automated Teller Machines, Cheque Deposit Machines and Cash Deposit Terminals to 1,400 machines to serve its large customer base. The ROE for this company in year 2008 is 25. 64%. However it drops t o 21. 78% in the year 2009. The ROE increases again in the year 2010 to 22. 65%. It’s mean this company is more capable of generating cash internally. For the example, Public Bank Berhad is able to pay its shareholders the return he interest of 25. 64% in the year 2008. Conclusion The Overall of our research about Public Bank Berhad have a very good performance. The Public Bank group should seek to tap all growth opportunities arising from the improving economic and business environment, with the aim of delivering superior shareholder value over the long-term. Retail consumer and commercial banking should remain the core focus of the Group. In consumer financing, the group should continue to promote home mortgages, passenger vehicle hire purchase financing and personal financing. RecommendationOverall all our research about Public Bank Berhad and its competitors, Public Bank Berhad was performance very well in this 3 years. Especially when come to the year 2010, the profit be fore tax increases by 23. 0%. The Group’s gross loans, advances and financing recorded strong growth of 13. 8% in 2010, with the Group’s domestic lending business growing 15. 6% during the year. However, Gross impaired loans ratio drop by 0. 03%. The financial pandemic in late 2008 and 2009 that threatened to push the global economy into a deep recession was largely contained through the concerted efforts of the world’s major government and central banks.

Asymmetric Information Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Asymmetric Information - Essay Example The various forms of asymmetric information include adverse selection, cost monitoring and moral hazard. (Bebczuk, 2003).The financial market is mostly affected by any of these forms which in turn lead to problematic financial transactions. Asymmetric information leads to various problems out of which the opportunistic behavior is the most risky situation. Opportunistic behavior is a situation in which executives and managers of a company tend to differentiate the information. The original information is conveyed in two different ways to the people working in the organization and to the outsiders. (Karuratna, 2000).This is done to improve their contacts and financial transactions through which they can maximize their utilization of funds. This in turn affects the investors as they are not provided with proper information. Since the information is misinterpreted by the managers it leads to the predicament called as the opportunistic behavior. (Sharpe, 1990).The managers make use of this opportunity and their reported earnings get gradually increased. The opportunistic behavior shows desire of the managers and their urge to move on with the financial transactions. Managerial discretion may add up to the already sustainin g problems there by resulting in loss to the people involved in the contract. In addition to that, it eventually increases discretion among the managers which also leads to loss in the amount of shares. (Sun, 2008).The shareholders tend to invest more money in a particular company and managers take advantage of this situation. In a competitive financial market, opportunistic behavior poses greater risk to exporters as well as the party involved in transaction. The terms of contract are also not specified properly in the financial document. There are also two types of opportunistic behavior prevalent in financial markets. Opportunism

Blackfish Movie Review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Blackfish Movie Review - Essay Example If ignorance is bliss, then not seeing this film is perhaps best for those who wish to preserve their memories of SeaWorld’s orcas as majestic creatures; but if one would prefer to see the reality behind the shadows, there is much to be gained by seeing Blackfish, which is a critical look at SeaWorld’s animal acquisition and caretaking practices. In several ways, the film directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite exemplifies the purpose of investigative journalism: connecting the dots, asking the tough questions, telling a story, and making an impact on society – and, in that sense, deserves to be seen. As a reader of film reviews, I am always looking for advice on which films to see and which films not to see. After all, time and attention is a valuable asset, and no one wants to waste it on a movie that is not worth the time it takes to queue it up. What I look for in a documentary film is not determined by the type of documentary it is – but rather that the film itself has a story. That story may be narrated or it may be told just through the events and happenings of the film but at the end of the day – there must be a story present. The same is true for any piece of investigative journalist because, at the end of the day, an investigation will have a beginning, a middle, and an end: all of which combine to present a narrative to the reader or viewer. Blackfish is a documentary film directed by Gabriela Cowperwaithe, who built the project with Manny O. Productions. The story is about the captivity of Tilikum, which is an orca implicated in the deaths of three individuals – but it attempts to make a broader point about keeping killer whales in captivity. The narrative the film follows is from Tilikum’s capture off the coast of Iceland, to its violent behavior at other sea parks, to its training and performances at SeaWorld. The film was released on January 19, 2013 at the Sundance Film Festival before it was picked up

Weekly ass. #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Weekly ass. #2 - Essay Example There are instances when a member resorts to social loafing or free riding when he/she perceives that his/her individual performance will not be assessed (Forsyth 294). Lastly, the group becomes unproductive when some members constantly complain. The group allots a bulk amount of its time in addressing member’s complaints instead of generating ideas and executing plans (Wong). I witnessed how such behaviors negatively affected a group I once a member of. A teacher of a particular subject asked us to group ourselves through counting off from 1 to 5, and then asked all number 1 to be a group, and 2, 3 and so on. I noticed that a member of our group keeps on complaining about the conflict of his schedule with our group meeting. He always disagrees with ideas or plans of action presented in the group. However, he failed to present any idea that the group can pursue. These negative behaviors have reduced morale and productivity of the

American Revolution and Early British Colonies Essay

American Revolution and Early British Colonies - Essay Example Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson as well as Alex Hamilton who were great advocates of the republicanism and advocated the formation of a united country based on different British Colonies. Patriots were the people who actually declared independence of thirteen British Colonies to form what is now called United States of America.The writings of Samuel Adams specially his circular letter resulted into the famous Boston Massacre. His writings are considered as one of the key efforts towards the development of an environment which led to the revolution.Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is also considered as one of the most important contribution towards the events leading to the revolution. In this book, Paine extensively advocated the separation of America from United Kingdom. His series of writings with the name of The American Crisis is also considered as important contribution towards the actual revolution which however, materialized after some period of time.The Massachusetts Bay Col ony was owned by the Massachusetts Bay Company and covered most of the areas which are now part of the New England. In Virginia, the first colony established was the Jamestown near Chesapeake Bay and it was financed by the London Virginia Company. Plymouth Colony was established by the people who escaped the religious wrath of the English Authorities whereas Cape Ann was also established as a fishing village in the region. (Taylor) The similarities between these colonies suggest that they were established for the purpose of achieving economic good.

Theology Reflections Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theology Reflections Paper - Essay Example According to the bible, Jesus said that He could come back at the end of this generation and resurrect all people, both the righteous and the evil doers (John 5:29; Acts 24:15). This is the Day of Judgment. There is more stress in the bible regarding everybody; both the dead and alive will be alive when Jesus returns will all be judged. Judgment will not only include individuals but also the nations (Matt 25:32). Paul also talks about those who will be judged. He says no one will be spared in the final day when Christ returns (Rom2:6-9). Many Christians hold a view that judgment is for the nonbelievers. This is a wrong view according to the teaching of Paul. Paul explains that God will put his people to judgment. He further says that, during this day, all people will line up to receive their dues for their good and bad deeds (2 Cor 5:10; cf. Rom14:10). Those who believe in Christ and make a union with him will be relieved off the judgment. Jesus said that those who hear his word and follow his ways will not come to judgment in the last day. They will instead have eternal life (John 5:24). Jesus further says that those who know his word and do as the will of God says will be punished. This was said in reference to the slaves who did not do as their master wanted; they are to receive severer beating (Luke 12:47-48). Form the text about judgment; it is revealed that all people will be judged regardless of their social, spiritual or religious roles. As a Christian, I should always aim to do good at all time since the judgment day will spare none. From this, I learn that I should take be accountable for every action I take. Further lessons from judgment teach us not judge others on their actions since it only God who can punish us for our actions. Judgment helps Christians to check their ways and be thoughtful about whatever they do. Through minding their

Southwest Airlines selections system Case Study

Southwest Airlines selections system - Case Study Example Southwest is also the largest carrier based on scheduled domestic departures.. Yearend results for 2006 marked Southwest's 34th consecutive year of profitability. Southwest became a major airline in 1989 when it exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark. Southwest is the United States' most successful low-fare, high frequency, point-to-point carrier(southwest.com 2007)" However, the success of the airline did not only revolve on how they deal with the customers in which majority of the businesses deems that they are the most important element of the company, South West airlines also deals with their employees which the management also deems that it is very important to give them the right compensation as the said company believes in meritocracy wherein they tend to give rewards for the employees in order for them to do more. With this, the company gives incentives and perks for the employees. With this, there are a lot of individuals who wishes to be employed in the said company. To date, the said company provides work for 33,000 total employees. Considering the fact that the company has the prestige and volume of applicants, the interesting part that one must look into and garners interest is the selection process. Of course, it is an established fact that due to the aforementioned premises, the selection process is much different from other employment method. The question, how the selection process is done in line with the standards of the company and the demand of the job without sacrificing the prestige and the name established by the company This is indeed a subject that is worth dealing with specially, the selection system of the company. The company focuses on the strength and weakness of an individual in which, this is the basis on how an employee is selected. Of course, there is an advantage for those people who can project their strength much more than their weakness in a certain job description but this kind of bearing is not the sole basis of the company in order for one to be employed in the job. There are instances that hired applicants are assessed how they can adjust their weakness into strength and how a job description could be suited in an individual's personality- even if it means that a person's weakness is the main reason of why he/she is employed. Petree (2003) further added that "Southwest philosophy is to hire for attitude and train for skill," and having a process for assessing and developing needed skills for the job is a part of the learning management strategy. "That done, we also want to focus on increasing people's strengths-not always focusing on where you may have development opportunities, but where you have strengths that we want to enhance to make you even more effective in your job" Upon analyzing the costs that the company shoulders whether direct or indirect has something to do with the operation of the company. In this case, some companies would suggests that the lesser the cost, the better and the more it would benefit the company. There are a lot of considerations that are needed in order for its impact in the company to be analyzed. In this case, one should look into a more concise and deeper perspective. This means that we should look into the price that the company should pay in order for the said system to be utilized by the company. If we are to analyze, the company

High School Students on the Job Essay Example for Free

High School Students on the Job Essay High school is an important time in life; students in high school have a lot of responsibilities. Students are beginning to drive and getting into trouble. High school students that have entered the work force have less of a chance to get in trouble. Working students also have an advantage over their peers that haven’t worked. They learn money management, social skills, and responsibility. Money management is a very important part of life. Usually once high school students start working they begin to learn the importance of money and how to spend it. Saving money is one very important life lesson that high school students can learn once they start working. Saving money can help the students save up for their future, helping with bills and possibly buying their own car. Owning a car comes with expenses oil changes, unfortunate accident, tires, gas, etc. To pay for these expenses there has to be money. There also comes a time when parents may need a little help. While working, students can help their parents with a bit of money every month. Having all of these expenses students will have to learn how to manage their money so they have some left over for themselves. Next, if high school students have a job, they learn about social skills. The most important thing is treating people politely. Thus, they need to get a better communication such as talking to each other and listening very carefully. When high school students are on the job, they have to speak correctly and courteously so their customers could get the correct information. Also they have to listen very carefully. They should know what the customers are asking. In addition, they could learn about physical demeanor. At the work place, they have to keep a friendly smile and then keep a good posture by keeping themselves upright. Further, working students can learn to take responsibilities. Time management and appearance are two important responsibilities. First, working students have to get to work on time. Also, they should manage and make balance between school, work, sleep, home, family and friends. Second, many work places have special uniforms that represents them in what position they  work. They need their workers to put these specific dresses on. Working students take this responsibility too. Students have to take care of their hygiene to go into work, which includes keeping their hair clean, shaving, cutting nails, and keeping a clean scent. Money management, social skills, and responsibility are skills that are need in life to succeed. High school students that begin working learn these skills earlier than those students that don’t. Before students become adults, they need to develop money management, social skills, and sense of responsibility, so they have been preparing to adjust themsel ves to society. Therefore, I recommend teenagers work while attending high school.

Brand impact on Consumer Buying Behaviour

Brand impact on Consumer Buying Behaviour Consumer driven approaches is widely adopted by the companies in order to enhance countless emerging needs of modern customers. Branding becomes a crucial activities of consumer driven approach and its aim to build a loyal customer base and creation of an effective brand image. In this document, the author presents a research report complied after analyzing the effects of branding on the consumer purchase decision. The research had been carried at the shopping centre called Shoppers Stop in India. The research had attempted to find whether there is positive relation between the positive effect of the brand and the consumer purchase decision. There are so many parity products out there that the only way to differentiate yourself from the others is to create an aura, an image, around your brand. Consumers need a road map; they need to find a way to get from their need to a product purchase thats simple, easy, not full of a lot of noise, and most brands get lost somewhere between the shelf and the consumer mindset. -Karen Benezra, editor of Brandweek The paper also discusses the literature the importance of branding and the consumer purchase decision. It details the research rationale along with the research philosophy, the approach used, the context, sample and procedure. As well as It discussed the significance of the proposed research along with its limitation. A provisional work schedule is also provided. Aims The aim is to determine the extent of the correlation between the activities of branding and consumer purchasing as well as put into perspective the main functions and values branding can offer companies in term guiding valued customers through the often complex process of purchase decision-making. Thus the basic research question would be, how does branding affect the consumer purchase decision? Objectives This research will have the following objectives: To assess whether positive feelings towards a brand will translate into a consumer purchase decision. To establish the changes in the relationship between branding and consumers purchasing decision when other factors such as price are introduced. To examine the consumers tendency to recommend brands and its effect on purchasing decisions of their friends and family. Chapter 2: Literature Review Origin of Branding in Market. After the First World War, the whole world economy was under Great Depression during 1930s and also gives rise to socio-economy problems because of impact of war wages on the people and hence left a dent in peoples pockets and curbed the desire of society to spend and consume. Strangely, the Second World War and the period after the war had seen a different pattern in manufacturing industries that a increased capacity to produce goods whereas the society was left with an ingrained desire to be frugal. Bass Company, the British brewery, claims their red triangle brand was the worlds first trademark. Lyles Golden Syrup makes a similar claim, having been named as Britains oldest brand, with its green and gold packaging having remained almost unchanged since 1885. Source: http://www.quaffale.org.uk/php/brewery/578 What is Branding? The word Brand the Germanic root meaning is burn. In commercial market branding is all about the product attributes that make a lasting impression in a customers mind. As per Karl Marx, people make their own decisions about who to be, how to live, and what to buy, but under circumstances shaped by brands advertising, marketing and publicity. Thus a brand exploits the underlying attribute that is storytelling and emotions which are the buying behaviour. James Walter Thompson published a house ad explaining trademark advertising, in 1900. Thus Branding was coined for the first time with commercial explanation. Mr. Thompson appeared as the philosopher of Branding by drawing a straight line between the manufacturer and the consumer. Source: http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/hartman/guides/jwt-history.html Human civilization is dependent upon signs and systems of signs, and the human mind is inseparable from the functioning of signs-if indeed mentality is not to be identified with such functioning. Apple Logo Design Apple was selected as main form of branding depending upon the company name. Initially, the logo depicted a small apple shape sitting under a tree with Apple Computer Co set into the frame of the picture. It is this apple that has continued to be used. The first logo design was perceived to be a bit too complex and hard to view, so Regis McKenna worked on the logo some years later and added a bite mark to symbolize the concept of seduction of the customers and the marketplace in general. Next, the monochrome version was replaced with the rainbow-colored logo as a reference to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in which the apple represents the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It brings to mind that people must pursue their dreams. While this was not initially a deliberate goal, it did encourage business and consumers to consider the Apple brand for the first time and was successful in generating increased profits.Source: Charles Morris, Foundations of the Theory of Signs. Source: http://www.logoorange.com/logodesign-A.php A brand is an end result. Branding is the process by which a brand comes to be. A brand is many, many things, but it is never an accident. Present Day Branding. A branding provides a platform for consumer choice process. Todays market offer different products among thousand for similar offerings, this complexity makes the users to follow their choice that have satisfied already in past. The pattern of this consumer behaviour was also supported by Assael in 1993 with a concept that in a situation of low-involvement of consumer, the consumers completely rely on past consuming experience; hence it provides a clue that consumers with minimum purchasing areas could be targeted by advertisement campaigns. Thus consumer plays a key important role product branding process in current market. Even nowadays a good number of consumer emotionally attach with the brand that helps to understand the impact of image among consumers. With this a natural differentiation concept was introduced by Adcock in 1998, with differentiation process , the company start developing a set of unique differences that help to provide a distinctive identity among other products in market. Hence, differentiation provides a cutting edge for the branding of product in present competitive market. As per Prof. Kevin Lane Keller, author of Strategic Brand Management: The trend in marketing of brand depends upon the changes in the environments around the consumers. A social, cultural, political, economic and technological environment changes the life of human and with this the branding need to adopt the trend for example Online Marketing Social Networking Online-Media such as Face book, MySpace, Google. A corporate social responsibility and sustainability impacting the product image. Philip Kotler in 1999, a brand captures consumers attention through a Six Dimensions of Brand: Attributes A brand will communicate specific attributes, such as prestige. Benefits A brand strengthens a products attributes by communicating a set of benefits that makes it more attractive. Values A brand represents a companys core value and belief system. Culture A brand is representative or targets a target audiences socio-cultural characteristic. Personality A Brand Project behavioural personality patterns of targeted consumers. User A brand can emulate the end user. Identification of Branding Differences step by step Difference 1: A Visual difference, Symbols and logotype. In the seventies, when the phrase generation was being coined and used in any number of contexts such as in movies, music, technology etc, Pepsi annex the beverage style of young adult segment of the inhabitants and dubbed them the Pepsi Generation, in an endeavour to make Coca-Cola seem old and staid. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola executed what was perhaps the most celebrated marketing mistake in history, discontinuing production on its core product, the most recognizable brand name in the world; in favour of a more Pepsi-like formula it dubbed New Coke. This Grand Canyon-size blunder eventually worked in the companys favour when consumers revolted with startling vehemence and Coca-Cola quickly announced it would bring back its revered product, now under the name Coca-Cola Classic. Sales rebounded, and more media attention was lavished on the Cola Wars. The campaign also managed to underline the loyalty and affection so many consumers had for original Coca-Cola-which might very well have been the goal of the company to begin with. Coca Cola eventually dropped the word Classic from its name, and remains the most widely recognized brand in the world to the present. Difference 2: Culture (Hofstedes onion) Difference 3: Personality (Aaker) Difference 4: Identity and positioning (Kapferer) Brand Equity and Brand Loyalty. Brand American marketing association defines the brand as A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one sellers good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. The legal term for brand is trademark. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. If used for the firm as a whole, the preferred term is trade name Advantages and disadvantages of branding Advantages: 1. Helps in identifying the goods and services. 2. It stimulates the purchase decision of the consumer. 3. It helps in creating customer loyalty. 4. It helps the company to maintain the leadership position in the market (if they are already market leader) Disadvantages: 1. Requires huge investment. 2. An unsuccessful brand will bring negative image to the company. 3. Customer may not be willing to pay extra just because it is branded Brand equity Brand equity is set of assets linked to a brands name and symbol that adds to the value provided by the product or a service to a firm and/or that firms customer. Components of brand equity: 1. Brand loyalty 2. Brand awareness 3. Perceived quality 4. Brand associations Brand loyalty is consumers commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviours such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, at least on occasion, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. This will help organization to reduce the promotion cost. Brand awareness: The number of customers exposed to the brand name. Higher the brand awareness, higher will be the brand equity. Organizations put all the effort in the introduction stage of the product to create awareness among the customers. 3. Perceived quality: the customer perception about the actual quality level of the product. 4. Brand associations: The attribute of the brand that customer associates with his/ her belief. A person may associate the brand for power, strength or protectiveness. Brand Development Company can develop the brand on the basis of product category and brand name. Now we will discuss the different strategies adopted by companies to develop the brands. Existing New Existing Line Extension Brand Extension New Multi Brands New Brands Line extension: Company uses its well known brand name to introduce additional items in a given product category such as new forms, flavours, ingredients or package sizes. For example, Karnataka Milk federation, Uses its top brand name Nandini to introduce new Items like toned milk, full cream milk, curd and milk powder. It is less risky and requires fewer investments to introduce the product. In the above example Nandini used the extension to meet the excess capacity that it has. The milk procurement was more than the demand from the customer. Hence it started producing the milk powder. But all the products introduced need not to be successful in the market. In case of KMF Nandini Ice creams didnt click in the market. Another risk of line extension is brand cannibalization i.e. Companys brand/items compete each other. Brand extension: A strategy in which company uses one of its familiar brand names to new product categorys items. For example, United breweries (UB) limited group used its flagship brand kingfisher to different categories. Kingfisher was originally a beer brand extended to airlines. Brand extension gives instant recognition to the brand. In the above example people required very less time to know kingfisher airline brand because parent brand was very well Known. Brand extension if it fails then it may hurt the parent brand reputation in the market. Multi brands: The techniques of introducing the product or items in existing product category with a new brand name. For example, Hindustan Unilever uses different brand names for their home and personal care category. The above example shows us that HUL have breeze, Dove, Liril Lux, Lifebuoy and Pears in the bath soap segment itself. It helps company to come out with new features in the product or product category. Organizations adopt this strategy to avoid brand cannibalization in the given category. The major disadvantage of this strategy is none of the brands will enjoy major market share and result in lesser profitability. In case of Hindustan Unilever company had more than 100 brands and was forced to reduce it to 30 power brands. Other brands were not adding enough profit for the company. New brands: The strategy of coming out with new brand for new category products. In this strategy, company believes that existing brands can not be extended to the new category. The new brand strategy requires huge resources to build it. The new category if it already had some brands of other companies, investment requirement will go up. For example, Hindustan Unilever launched Pure it in the water purifier category. The category and brand is new to the company. Consumer Buying Behaviour : Branding a influencing factor What influences consumers to purchase products or services? The consumer buying process is a complex matter as many internal and external factors have an impact on the buying decisions of the consumer. When purchasing a product there several processes, which consumers go through? These will be discussed below. 3- COMPONENTS OF BRANDING Branding is a process of creating a product or company identity a personality creation and development by a number of differential professionals with same objective or goal. 1. Advertising. Its a wonderful thing to create a unique, user-friendly brand that the public is sure to embrace. However, if the public doesnt find out about the brand-and much of the public will find out through advertising-all that effort, time, and money will go to waste. The look and attitude of the advertising also help define the brand in the publics mind. Nike is well known for spending millions on celebrity endorsements for advertising. Its ads are legendary, and its swoosh logo is known the world over without a word being said. 2. Marketing. In devising the personality of the brand and determining how it will be presented to the public, marketing, which is usually done in-house and through consultants, helps to create the entity that the brand will become. Its a fine thing to own the recipe for Oreo cookies, but if you decided to sell the recipe and not the cookies, you would be making a very large marketing mistake. Marketing is not just selling; it knows what to sell and how to sell it as part of a larger plan. What marketing does is to determine the proper audience for a product, and then deliver to that audience what it wants. The target demographic can be as narrow as 15-year-old boys living in the suburbs, or it can be literally anybody. That will depend on the product. But once the demographic is identified, marketing professionals analyze it, make sure the characteristics of that demographic are compatible with the product, and then emphasize the strengths of the product. The strengths of the product here are very specific: They are the strengths that will best convey the personality the demographic wants to see in it. For example, if Philips had tried to market its flat-screen TV to an audience over 65, which traditionally is not warm to change, it might not have been successful, no matter how innovative the product may have been. Instead, the company aimed its ads at people in their twenties and thirties, emphasized the newness and difference of the product, and had a great success. 3. Public relations. If advertising is the juggernaut of public attention, public relations is the stealth bomber. PR generates publicity for the brand, helps solidify the publics opinion of the brand, and defines the brand-all without being perceived by the public A lot of clients dont understand the difference between Branding, PR, advertising and marketing, says Rob Frankel, author of Revenge of Brand X. Personally, I prefer PR to advertising. I like PR because a lot of my Branding program is based on third-party endorsement. Its way more credible and fast-acting than when you pay for ads. Problem/Need Recognition for Future Branding How do you decide you want to buy a particular product or service? It could be that your DVD player stops working and you now have to look for a new one, all those DVD films you purchased you can no longer play! So you have a problem or a new need. For high value items like a DVD player or a car or other low frequency purchased products this is the process we would take. However, for impulse low frequency purchases e.g. confectionery the process is different. Q. What are the new branding challenges and opportunities especially nowadays with the global economic crisis? The current economic crisis presents many challenges but also much opportunity for brand marketers at the same time. Research has show that in past recessions those firms that have been willing to invest in their marketing have emerged in a stronger position than those firms that have cut back spending and reduced their marketing investments. Obviously those marketing investments must be wise ones. Perhaps the most important branding consideration in tough economic times is to establish perceptions of good value. Being seen as low priced or less expensive is not necessarily the answer, the more important consideration is that consumers feel that they are getting appropriate value from a product or service. Value is basically all the benefits the consumer realizes versus all the costs that he or she incurs. It is important to view and these benefits and costs broadly. Benefits include the perceived monetary value of all the bundle of economic, functional, and psychological benefits th at customers expect from a product. Similarly, costs are not restricted to the actual monetary price but may reflect opportunity costs of time, energy, and any psychological involvement in the decision that consumers might have. Top marketers in a recession will be sure to develop marketing programs and activities that optimally balance that equation so that consumers feel the collective benefits outweigh the collective costs as much as possible. That my involve framing the brands costs and benefits so that they are seen in the most positive light possible. Q. What would you single out as the most important message out of your extensive experience in studying brands? The most important message for marketers these days is to make sure they have a deep, rich understanding of consumers and how they think and feel about brands and their products and services. It is so fundamental and may seem obvious, but unfortunately many marketers still fall way short on that score. Consumer Buying Behaviour Q. What is the future of branding? Brands will always be important given their fundamental purpose to identify and differentiate products and services. A good brand makes peoples lives a little easier and better. People are loyal to brands that satisfy their expectations and deliver on its brand promise. In an increasingly complex and busy world, the ability of a brand to simplify consumer decision-making is powerful. The predictably good performance of a strong brand is something that consumers will always value. What will change, however, is the means by which firms will build those brands. Marketers must always be adopting state-of-the-art branding practices to ensure that their marketing programs and activities reflect the always changing economic, cultural, technological, social, and legal environments. There are 4-Types of consumer buying behaviour: Assael 1987 Purchasing Experiences High Involvement Low Involvement Significant differences between brands Complex buying behavior Variety-seeking buying behavior Few differences between brands Dissonance-reducing buying behavior Habitual buying behavior Source: Assael 1987, Consumer Behaviour and Marketing Action, 6th edition, p. 67 There are four types of consumer depending upon the degrees of involvement and degree of differentiation amongst the brands as per Assael. A displaying Complex Buying Behaviour Pattern is a group of consumer who prefer to expand their beliefs regarding a particular product as a primary step and hence this process will lead them to develop positive attitudes regarding the product. Dissonance-Reducing Behaviour of consumer is classified as the trend in which consumers are highly involved in the purchasing experience but unable to compare among the brand of products offering similar services or features. Thus differentiation becomes the key point as consumers asks for the features or functionalities or price comparison among the brand but in a market which display low differentiation of brands, the consumer purchasing behaviour is influenced by convenience. Displaying Habitual Buying Behaviour is a behavioural pattern as a result of consumers condition where the consumer buying decision depends on the product information acquired passively or the information embedded in their mind via review electronic media or promotional efforts, also the user shows low-level of involvement products. Variety Seeker Buying Behaviour, the consumer buying reaction occurs because of low-involvement in a market that displays high levels of product differentiation , thus they prefer to follow Brand Switching , in order to satisfy their need for diversification. Chapter 4: Survey, Analysis and Findings Introduction The survey was performed in India at Shoppers Stop Mall (New Delhi Ansal Plaza Branch), which has many branches across the country at major cities and in United Kingdom, at St. Anns Shopping Centre (Harrow, London). The survey template was design to understand the relation between a product brand and consumer, in a sense that how much they trust or rely on the brand that they go for the product, in short the impact of branding on consumer purchasing decision. The research was to understand the influence of Brand in a developing and developed country. As the one could easily conclude that the consumer in developed country focus on more on brand image as the brand image define the quality of product whereas consumer in developing focus more on the need rather than quality for example a consumer in India purchasing a television will first look for the price and then maximum features within the price also the product should belong to reliable brand this is one of the key reason that even though India has certain level of free trade open market relation with china , still the Chinese cheap product unable to penetrate the Indian market. Questionnaires There are 150 and 180 interviews have performed in India and UK respectively, the pie chart display the same. The Number of interviews conducted with respect to different age group, the column chart below represent about the survey conduct in India at shoppers stop mall. The below graph display the number of interviews conducted, focusing the age group in UK at St. Anns Shopping Centre. In our survey we have put more focus on the young generation and middle-age group to understand their psychology while purchasing a product and how its being influences by the brand of the product. We also get to know the preference made by female and male group in India and UK. The female group in India and UK both spend their most of their shopping time in costumes and they prefer detail analysis or observation between different brands and they could easily compromise on the brand. Which brand do you use? Brand P Brand Q Brand R Brand S In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Age group? 16- 24 24 35 35- 50 50-70 What to you perceive to be the key attributes of a brand and what do you associate it with? Quality Price Status Personality Aesthetics To what extent brands are important to you? Very Important Important Neither Important nor Unimportant Not Very important Not at all Important 5. How does the Made in trademark influence your buying? Very Much Not much Doesnt Matters Matters Strongly Matters What is the key difference between International and Domestic brands? Quality Price Variety Services Does Culture difference play an important role in regards to your buying decision? Agree Strongly Agree Depends Disagree Strongly Disagree Do you agree shopping is different in abroad then in India? Yes No Do you feel changing market of fashion and technology plays an important role in your buying decision? Yes No What product of that particular brand do you use? Product 1 Product 2 Product 3 Product 4 In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. How long have you been using this product? 1 year 2 year 3 year 4 year 5 year In case of others please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ How did you first chance upon the product? Advertising Word of mouth Display In case of others, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Please suggest, if you want to make any changes to the product and why? Are you satisfied with this brand? Extremely satisfied Satisfied Fairly Satisfied Not at all Satisfied Which Cosmetic product brand you prefer? Olay Dove Grainier A combination of mixed product brand. How long have you been using the product XYZ? First Time Regular user Never. What made you use the Product XYZ the very first time? Advertising Word of Mouth Display at shop If anything else, please specifyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Have you ever used competitors product? Yes No. If you have used competitors product, then please confirm which product is better in the following terms: Quality Quantity Brand Name Are you: Male Female How did you receive this product? Gift Purchase If other, please specify? How did hear about the sale of this product? Advertising-Newspaper, radio, TV Friend / family Article / magazine Store Others, specify__________________________________ From which store did you made the purchase of this product? Specify. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How many different brands did you look out for this product? Specify. ___________________________________________________________ Findings In developing nations such as European countries, a different trend has been seen because of globalisation and free trade, the market is flooded with many products offering similar features and because of competition, the price of the product has fallen down, European industries has to reduce their cost of goods sales by compromising with the quality of materials or setting up manufacturing industries in developing or poor nation where the quality of production much more oriented towards manufacturing the product instead of manufacture quality product , for example Automobile industries , the number of automobile industries has gone down significantly in past 50 years. As per the research performed by KPMG for Automobile industries, the future of automobile industries will not only be characterized by origin of OEMs. Recommendations Convergence: A Business Concept The concept convergence has already entered into the market with innovation ideas of doing business, in automobile industries; e-Mobility and Car-sharing business are the best example the convergence of brand and business ideas, e-mobility provides convergence between Fiat OEMs and Power Suppliers and Car-Sharing e.g Deutsche Bahan is the convergence between OEMs and mobility providers. From this we could able to figure out that convergence and innovative business ideas not only helps the Brand Convergence A New Business Player Convergence example: E-Mobility and Car-Sharing Assembled Product: Combination of Branded Products In coming future, one could imagine of a product developed like an IT product, for example an IT product such as cloud computing systems , IT for green , Client computing , Advance Analytics (Business Intelligence software) is a combination of many software product provided by different brand leaders. This could be a future business concept across all products , one could think of his own car made up of worlds different brand leaders.

Development of Alcohol Sensor for Pharmaceutical Products

Development of Alcohol Sensor for Pharmaceutical Products 1.0Â  Title Development of alcohol sensor for detection of alcohol content in pharmaceutical products 2.0Â  Introduction Over the years, alcohol is being used widely in various number of industries. Alcohol poisoning and inflammation may happen whenever the alcohol concentration exceeds the toxic level for the living creatures. Nowadays, alcohol abuse is one of the worldwide social problems and has become a public sanitation issue. Hence, the preventative pathways must be taken so that the toxicological and psychological effects can be avoided. It is essential to come with a safer, low cost, fast, sensitive and selective analytical method in order to determine the amount of alcohol content in any samples tested. As pharmaceutical products are the essential part in our daily life nowadays, hence, designing the analytical methods for detection of alcohol content in this products is very important, especially for the prevention of consuming the chemically unsafe products. Various of analytical methods have been used to determine the alcohol concentration during the years. Some techniques may come with their own advantages and even drawbacks. The discovered disadvantages can be overcome by producing a utilization of enzymatic methods. The enzymes will catalyses almost all the transformation of the chemical that exist during the cell metabolism. Moreover, the chemical analysis can be done more efficiently as the nature and specificity of the enzyme catalytic activities. The external addition of the cofactor also helps a lot with the alcohol sensor designed. 3.0Â  Literature Review 3.1Â  Alcohol dehydrogenase Alcohol dehydrogenase is being applied as the bioselective compounds in alcohol biosensors. This enzyme is essential in catalyzing the reversible oxidation process occurred for the primary aliphatic and the aromatic alcohols, but not for methanol. The process that took place is based on the Equation (1). RCH2OH + NAD+ ↔ ADHRCHO + NADH + H+ (1) When compared with the alcohol oxidase-based alcohol biosensor, alcohol dehydrogenase-based are more stable and explicit. However, the exterior addition of the co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is needed by this type of biosensors. Furthermore, the added cofactor requires to be close to the enzyme and it must not irreversibly combined or entrapped (Azevedo et al., 2005). The combination of electrogenerated chemiluminescence ethanol biosensor and the alcohol oxidase enzymatic reaction is practised for detecting the ethanol in the several subject materials tested (Jia et al., 2009). Hence, it is essential for a biosensor to exhibiting significant reproducibility and stability. It is a requirement for the alcohol biosensor having a great potential for the usage in other biological assays and able to determine variety of substrates. 3.2 Alcohol Oxidase Known as an oligomeric enzyme, alcohol oxidases have eight identical monomers arranged in a quasi-cubic arrangement. Each sub-units of this arrangement are holding a strongly bounded cofactor which is flavin-adenine dinucleotide (FAD) molecule (Vonck van Bruggen, 1990). This enzyme is associated in the methanol oxidation pathway of methylotrophic yeasts. Besides involving in the methanol oxidation, alcohol oxidase also oxidises the short-chain alcohols like ethanol, propanol and butanol (Azevedo et al., 2005). Going through the oxidase-catalysed reaction, the ways to follow the reaction is by measuring the decline in O2 tension or the elevation in H2O2 concentration. Alcohol oxidation catalysed by this enzyme is an irreversible mechanism as O2 has a strong oxidising characteristic. The reaction requires alcohol oxidase and utilizing molecular oxygen (O2) as an electron acceptor, referring to Equation (2) (Azevedo et al., 2005). Alcohol Oxidase RCH2OH + O2 RCHO + H2O2(2) The characteristics of this form alcohol biosensor acts as a finer alternative to other determination methods in detecting the ethanol for various types of sample material tested, such as in pharmaceutical products nowadays (Kuswandi et al., 2014). It will be a great improvement if the enzymatic reaction occurred is able to be monitored optically so that the alcohol presence can be detected by the naked eye. Hence, a better quality of alcohol biosensor can be made. 3.3O2 Detection According to the Equation (1), the consumption of oxygen can be monitored by the alcohol oxidase sensors. The monitoring is done subject to the electrochemical detection principles and by the optical detection (Azevedo et al., 2005). The enzyme-catalysed reaction will be able to generate the optical or visual determination of alcohol based on the oxidation or reduction of H2O2. Hence, the use of optical membrane or a film is required so that it will be more efficient to monitor the reaction. Next, the O2 tension can be detected readily. 3.3.1Electrochemical detection Monitoring of O2 is generally done based on a Clark-type O2 electrode, which consists of a platinum cathode and a reference electrode, sunk in an electrolyte solution and a semi-permeable membrane covering it, so that O2 will be able to diffuse through (Azevedo et al., 2005). Equation (4) shows an example of the reduction process of oxygen while proportionally producing a current. Ag anode, 4Ag + 4Cl → 4AgCl + 4e(3) Pt cathode, O2 + 4H+ + 4e → 2H2O(4) Commonly, oxygen probes-based ethanol sensors have a membrane covering the Clark-type electrode, where alcohol oxidase is immobilised. The difference between the base oxygen level and the level after oxygen concentration decreases due to the enzymatic reaction will be shown as the electrode signal output. It is clearly showed that there will be no electrochemical interference comes from other sample elements. Nevertheless, the accuracy and reproducibility of the sensor may be lessened due to its oxygen dependency basis of the measurement. Hence, a low response is obtained, causes by the high value of the minimum detectable concentration of the oxygen due to the high background signal (Bott, 1998). However, the new alternative can be utilized to overcome the flaws is by using H2O2 detection. 3.3.2Â  Optical detection The developing of alcohol sensors has built up the fluorescence-based sensors. It works based on the enhancement of the fluorescence or other certain compounds quenching, including malachite green, fluorescent dyes and even ligands towards the alcohol disclosure. Besides that, the immobilisation of alcohol oxidase onto the oxygen sensor coated with an oxygen sensitive ruthenium organic complex is done to construct an optical bio-sniffer for ethanol vapours. Moreover, co-immobilisation of alcohol oxidase and oxygen sensitive dyes is designed to assemble the other optical sensors (Azevedo et al., 2005). 3.4Â  Detection of H2O2 3.4.1Â  Electrochemical methods 3.4.1.1Â  Amperometric detection H2O2 which is formed by alcohol oxidase enzymatic reaction can be identified electrochemically with amperometric electrodes. The detection is done either by measuring the anodic or cathodic response, which showing the oxidation and reduction of H2O2 at the working electrode surface correspondingly. As shown by Equation (5), the enzymatic reaction will result the oxidation of H2O2. H2O2 → O2 + 2H+ + 2e(5) Nonetheless, H2O2 is electroactive too at the negative potentials, according to Equation (6). H2O2 + 2e + 2H+ → 2H2O (6) These reactions are not discovered on oxygen probes based on the Clark electrode, due to the electrode surface is covered by an oxygen membrane, which is not permeable to H2O2 and mostly other compounds. Lately, by using other immobilisation procedures, carbon paste electrodes (CPE) and screen-printed electrodes are being developed (Azevedo et al., 2005). The most significant advantage of H2O2 electrode based sensor is easy to construct the sensor in small size besides having a high upper linearity and a wider linear range. In contrast, the presence of reducing compounds in any real sample matrices will be oxidised too, hence will causes the electrochemical interference to occur. Besides that, slower responses are observed too. Finally, the electrode with an electrocatalyst species is needed to be modified for both the reduction and oxidation of H2O2 so that the required applied potential can be decreased. 3.4.1.2Â  Potentiometric detection The potentiometric biosensor is constructed by co-immobilising alcohol oxidase and horseradish peroxidase in the surface of a fluoride-sensitive electrolyte isolator semiconductor capacitor chip. The capacitance will change if there is any presence of ethanol and p-fluoraniline (Menzel et al., 1995). Si/SiO2/Si3N4/LaF3 layers utilized in the fluoride-sensitive biosensor, are able to determine the ethanol concentration in the time of the on-line monitoring of different bioprocesses, according to reactions (7) and (8) (Azevedo et al., 2005). Alcohol Oxidase Ethanol + O2 Acetaldehyde + H2O2 (7) Horseradish Peroxidase H2O2 + p-fluoraniline F + H2O + aniline-derivative polymers(8) 3.4.2Â  Spectroscopic methods To detect the H2O2 production by alcohol oxidase during the ethanol oxidation, few methods can be benefited. Colorimetric methods which are based on the chromogen substrate conversion into a coloured product will absorb in the visible spectral region. Next, fluorescent methods are due to the production of fluorophore product and being stimulated with a shorter wavelength radiation before emitting a visible light. Then, chemiluminescence works by the emission of visible light upon chemical reaction (Azevedo et al., 2005). The methods being chosen must be fast, cheap, sensitive, reliable, stable and undergo continuous analysis methods with a high sample. The numbers of variety types of analytical techniques are flow analysis, segmented flow analysis, flow-injection analysis and liquid chromatographic analysis. 3.5Â  Immobilisation techniques Many ways are being implemented to immobilise enzymes while designing the biosensors. The enzymes are able to be immobilised by physical adsorption or covalently attached to the insoluble matrices, by cross-linking which employing the bifunctional reagent or by entrapment into the membranes or polymeric films. 3.5.1Â  Enzyme modified electrodes There are numbers of approaches in order to implement the physical combination of immobilised enzymes and the electrodes. 3.5.1.1 Membrane electrodes Immobilising the enzymes on a membrane is the most popular techniques being used for the biosensors. This cannot be beaten by other methods since it is easy to construct and its simplicity. Enzyme immobilisation is done by sandwiching the particular enzyme between the electrode and the membrane. The improved procedures used may lead to a higher enzyme activity and a greater stability (Nanjo Guilbault, 1975). As a protective retention layer, a membrane prevents electrochemically interfering compounds from touching the electrode surface. This is due to the presence of the charged groups on the membrane surface and the exclusion of size. Besides that, the covered electrode are protected because the membrane used is impermeable to most substances (Boujtita et al., 2000). Furthermore, covering the enzyme electrode with a membrane has variety of purposes such as producing the diffusion barrier between enzyme and the substrate. This also enables the prevention of a swamping effect whenever the substrate concentration is high. At the same time, a linear response to the concentration is also allowed. 3.5.1.2Â  Carbon paste electrodes By mixing an electrically conducting graphite or carbon powder with a pasting liquid, the carbon paste electrodes is able to be prepared. The examples of pasting liquid being used are mineral oil, silicon oil paraffin oil. Enzymes involved are incorporated within the paste or previously immobilised on the graphite powder by adsorption or covalently bonded. In addition, some additives are added to the paste so that the sensitivity and the storage and operational stability of the sensor can be improved (Azevedo et al., 2005). 3.5.1.3Â  Self-assembled monolayers This form of technique is implemented by sequentially self-depositing the transducing and biocatalytic modules by adsorption through electrostatic interactions. Two different catalytic layers which consist of alcohol oxidase, a modified horseradish peroxidase and electrochemical interface are sequentially and rationally deposited. Next, supramolecular structures are produced and connect catalytic reactions, substrate and product diffusion and heterogeneous electron transfer steps readily (Azevedo et al., 2005). 3.5.1.4Â  Screen-printed electrodes Screen-printed electrodes consist of a polyester substrate and a three electrodes system. The electrodes also containing fabrication of alcohol oxidase immobilized in a poly(carbamoyl)sulfonate hydrogel using poly(ethylene glycol)diglycidyl ether (Patel et al.,2001). This type of electrode system is a low cost screen-printed electrode. 3.5.2Â  Immobilised enzyme reactors The most significant benefit of the usage of enzyme immobilized reactor is producing the great quantity of enzyme that are able to be immobilise and even in micro reactors. This will allow the equilibrium of the reaction that occurred to be attained besides capable of completing the substrate conversion. Moreover, the operational stability of the sensor is enhanced. It is stated that any small alterations in flow rate, temperature, pH, ionic strength and the activators and inhibitors presence will deflate the effect on final signal (Gorton et al., 1991). Bioreactors that are used with immobilised alcohol oxidase exist in different types, generally packed bed, rotating bioreactor and open-tube reactors. Usually the packed bed reactor is implemented with immobilised alcohol oxidase. This form of bioreactor integrates a flow analysis system with electrochemical or spectrometric detection (KÃ ¼nnecke Schmid, 1990). Commonly, rotating bioreactor also used immobilised alcohol oxidase with the electrochemical detection of H2O2. The rotation will enable the presence of circumvent diffusional constrains in the low-dimensional spaces like around the active sites of the enzymes (Matsumoto Waki, 1999). For covalently immobilised enzyme, controlled pore glass is usually utilized for solid support purpose. It is a macro-porous high-silica glass acquired from the alkali-borosilicate glass. Alkali-borosilicate glass is came with the fine mechanical properties and is able to designed with broader porosities and pore size range. Furthermore, it can be adjusted with several reagents so that other functionalities can be proposed (Azevedo et al., 2005). Currently, the optimisation of enzyme immobilisation is done to produce better stability to the controlled pore glass preparations of alcohol oxidase. 4.0Â  Problem Statements The purpose of this study is to determine the right method for detection of alcohol concentration in the pharmaceutical product samples. Alcohol is the substance that present in more than 500 medication products and is found in concentrations up to 68 percent. This may causes negative effects towards the patients that are consuming the products, such as for the patient under treatment with central nervous system depressants or other substances that interact with alcohol. Drug addictionand habituationmay happen and it is formerly known that all drugs haveside effects. It is an essential step to developing a right and efficient method in determining the alcohol content in these pharmaceutical products before approving the production of them into the industry range. 5.0Â  Objectives These are few objectives that have been identified in order to deal up with the problem statement and carried out the research on alcohol content detection content in the pharmaceutical products. Study of methods in determining the alcohol concentration in the samples tested. Study of enzymatic reactions involve during the alcohol detection analysis. Study of advantages and disadvantages for different techniques in the alcohol content determination.

ExploringThe Bhagavad Gita :: research papers, literary analysis

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Bhagavad-Gita begins with the preparation of battle between the two opposing sides: on the left stands the collected armies of the one hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and on the right lies the soldiers of the Pandava brothers. Warring relatives feuding over the right to govern the land of Kurukshetra, both forces stand poised and ready to slaughter one another. The warrior Arjuna, leader of the Pandava armies, readies himself as his charioteer, the god Krishna, steers toward the opposition when the armies are ready to attack. Arjuna stops Krishna short before the two sides clash together. Hesitation and pity creeps into Arjuna’s heart as he surveys his family and relatives on the other side; he loses his will to win at the cost of the lives he still loves. As Arjuna sets down his bow and prepares for his own death, the god Krishna begins his council with Arjuna, where Krishna uses various ideas on action, self-knowledge, and discipline to reveal to Arjuna the freedom to be attained from the suffering of man once Arjuna finds his devotion to Krishna.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Before Krishna begins his teachings, Arjuna analyzes his emotions and describes to Krishna the way his heart feels. â€Å"Krishna, I seek no victory, or kingship or pleasures† (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 25). Arjuna admits that he stands to gain nothing of real worth from the war. He knows he cannot consciously triumph over family for his own wealth and glory. â€Å"We [Pandava brothers] sought kingships, delights, and pleasures for the sake of those assembled to abandon their lives and fortunes in battle† (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 25). Arjuna continues on to state that once the family is destroyed and family duty is lost, only chaos is left to overcome what remains. He goes so far as to describe how chaos swells to corrupt even the women in the families, creating disorder in society. Arjuna tells Krishna that the punishment for men who undermine the duties of the family are destined for a place in hell. Finally, Arjuna asks Krishna which is right: the tie to sacred duty or reason?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Krishna begins his explanation by stating that all life on earth is indestructible. â€Å"Never have I not existed, nor you, nor these kings; and never in the future shall we cease to exist† (The Bhagavad-Gita, p. 31). Because life has always been, reasons Krishna, then how can man kill or be killed when there is no end to the self?

House on Mango Street Essay -- Book Review Poverty Education Essays

House on Mango Street The story; themes; and implications for teaching from the House on Mango Street come from showing how today’s society has low expectations for those in the inner city. This book can be used to show what inner life is like and how these people are looked at and treated by others in society. Using this book in the classroom can be beneficial because many people have negative preconceptions of what life is really like as a minority. I know that I think of inner city schools and the students that attend them as underprivileged and don’t hold them to the same standards as I do others from smaller more suburban towns. Going to Milwaukee this semester has been a culture shock and I think that reading this book compliments are experiences doing our observation and participation. This story is about a young Spanish girl, Esperanza, who is growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. She is embarrassed of where she lives because of the poor conditions of her house, the mice that run freely around her, and the neighborhood she comes from. Her neighborhood is inner city living where the cops are looked at as the bad people in the neighborhood, homeless people sleep in the streets, and she has seen many other bad things including rape and abuse. Esperanza struggles to fit into her new home because she has moved so often. She can’t find and keep friends. Esperanza doesn’t want to fit though because all she can think about is getting out of there and having the white picket fence in the suburbs someday. She does not consider her house on Mango Street her home. It is more of a temporary dwelling until she can get out of there. She works hard at a young age to help her family with the money problems. The story is also about finding some good friends in her new home and her adventures with them. The most interesting themes, issues and characters are Esperanza and her dreams of getting out of the house on Mango Street. This book keeps you captured by telling stories of how she wants to get out of the city and off Mango Street. They are all very interesting and this is what makes the book so fun to read. Making friends and keeping them is also an important issue in this young girls life because she moves so often. I think these things are interesting because I can relate to wanting to get out of where I was when I ... ...go Street. It is eye opening and after taking this class and others like it, I look at these books in a different light. This book seemed like an accurate portrayal of what life must have been like for this girl and I could tell I was emotionally into it. I could feel her pain even though I have not gone through these things first hand as she has. It was a sad story but I think it got the point across without saying â€Å"feel sorry for me because I live in the inner city.† This book can be used with students to show that people from diverse populations are just like you and me. They just want to live a healthy and fulfilling life with friends and family. Most of them are trying to make a better life for themselves any way possible. This will help my students see others as equals and not as people of lesser value. I think it can also be used with inner city children to show that nobody is going to feel sorry for them and if they want a better life than they have to earn it themselves. Nobody is going to give them free hand outs all their lives and if they want something bad enough then they have to work for it. This book can be a powerful tool in teaching that to students.

Confucius’ Social and Political Philosophy Essay

These days we are focusing on the topics of Confucius’ social and political philosophy. After finishing readings of this section, I would like to give reflections that mainly about Confucius’ view on governing and analyze the traditional culture and administration of our country. This essay will present my opinions about the merits and demerits of nowadays Chinese society’s government. First, let us deal with something that Confucius would say that Chinese society is currently doing well. According to Confucius, when the population is already numerous, make them wealthy will further improve them, and once they are wealthy, to instruct them will improve them further more.[1] I think this passage is suitable for making appraisals to nowadays Chinese society, because China has a large population and Chinese government is taking the road of common prosperity, these are very similar to passage’s description. The road of common prosperity means, for the purpose of enabling more and more people to become prosperous, some people are encouraged to become prosperous first, and at last all people will become prosperous. In my own understanding, I think this passage did not show that Confucius think wealth is more important than education. I think what Confucius want to said is, to make people wealth does not means just make people hold a lot of money, actually it means to let people live a peaceful and wealthy life, which is important to build a harmonious society. In addition, Chinese government also focuses on education, like the government increases the input of fund for rural compulsory education. In another passage, Confucius said â€Å"If common people’s need are satisfied, how could their lord be lacking? If the common people ‘s needs are not satisfied, how can their lord be content?† [2] These above passages show Confucius think it is important to satisfy common people’s needs, to let them live a wealthy life is necessary for reaching this goal, so he would be pleased to see Chinese government is paying efforts to improve people’s life and education. However , it is obvious that there is also something Chinese government is currently not doing well. In recent years, human flesh search engine became very popular. According to Wikipedia, human flesh search is a primarily Chinese internet phenomenon of massive researching  using Internet media such as blogs and forums. What made human flesh search became famous is misconduct in public office were exposed frequently through this way, this means the government is not honest enough. When this kind of things happened, it usually begin with some public servants wearing or using luxuries in public activities, then people think it is suspicious that public servants can afford those kind of luxuries, so they begin human flesh search to find out what happened. Confucius would be displeased, because the dishonest behaviors of some public servants are damaging government’s reputation. According to Confucius, he said he would sacrifice armament and food, but he though a state cannot stand once it has lost the confidence of the people.[3] That means Confucius regard the confidence of the people as the most important thing for a government. There is also an old saying that the lord is a boat and common people is water, means when a lord gain the supports from his people, it is like the water make the boat float over water-surface. And it works both ways. The correct attitude towards common people will gain people’s support, the bad reputation cause by dishonest governing will lose people’s support, it is no doubt that Chinese society is not doing well at this point. Confucius also said â€Å"Raise up the straight and apply them to the crooked, and the people will submit you. If you raise up the crooked and apply them to the straight, the people will never submit.† [4] When we understanding this passage and relating it to nowadays society, I think the â€Å"straight† can be understand as the public servant who work honesty and really care of common people’s interests. Likewise, â€Å"crooked† can be understand as the public servant who abuse power and damage common people’s interest. Chinese government did not build up a complete supervise system to punish the corrupt officials and it is what government should do in the future. The key to adopting Confucius’ philosophy centers on discarding the dross and selecting the essence. Chinese society is doing a good job in striking a balance between social improvement and inheritance on traditional culture, like the idea about building up a harmonious society. I think Chinese society should be as Confucian as it is today, because although we can carry forward things from tradition, we cannot carry forward everything from tradition, we need to keep pace with the times. Some of Confucius’ view on governing cannot accommodate itself to the Chinese society’s development. For example, Confucius said, let the lord be a true  lord, the ministers true ministers, the fathers tr ue fathers, and the sons true sons.[5] In this passage, Confucius was only requiring the lord to fulfill his obligation, but he did not require any democratic rights which are extremely important to nowadays society. In ancient China, People did not have their right to choose a lord they want, but nowadays people are supposed to have their democratic rights and choose the government they want. The Chinese society must comply with the world development trend. We should accept the good things showed in the passage, like the idea â€Å"to do what you are deemed to do†, but for governing, we are not supposed to take its idea like â€Å"people serve their lord and cannot against the lord† Chinese society does not take the wrong way and its governing is becoming more and more democratic, so it is Confucian enough and it just need to keep this style. In conclusion, there is still lot of things that we can use the experience of Confucius for reference, the view on governing is just a part of it, and Confuciusâ€℠¢ philosophy is always the important asset for us.

KFC and McDonald’s marketing strategy in China Essay

Abstract McDonald’s is the greatest fast food chain in the world, its company sales and operate income was largely exceeded KFC on a global scale, but it confronted a strong challenge from KFC when it emerged into China. This essay analyzes the comparison between KFC and McDonald’s marketing strategy, emphases on finding the similarities and differentiations from â€Å"Seven P Formula† and finally makes a conclusion that localization is more suitable than globalization as the marketing strategy when fast food chain emerged in China’s market. Introduction Localization or Globalization has long been discussed when choosing strategic orientation in international marketplace. These two international marketing philosophies influenced enterprises’ current situation and future development. There are two fast food international companies named McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) who initially adopted different marketing strategies in China that led to differentiation for their future development. McDonald’s first franchise was founded in the United States in 1955, serve people for hamburger, french fries and other type of fast food, while KFC also from the same country, is now one brand of Yum, which first restaurant was founded in 1952 and mainly sells unique taste cooked chicken. From global scope, McDonald’s is exceeding KFC from company sales, operating profit to worldwide system units. McDonald’s company- operated sales were ï ¼â€ž18875 million, operating income was ï ¼â€ž8764 million and it had 35429 systemwide restaurants in 2013(McDonald’s, 2013), while KFC’s company sales were ï ¼â€ž11184 million, operating profit was ï ¼â€ž1798 million and there were 18875 KFC restaurants in 2013(YUM, 2013). However, as these two global fast-food brands emerged in China, the situation has been reversed. McDonald’s annual report uses APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa) as representative of Asian but not show the profit from China while KFC can saw significant progress in China, and it highlighted the progress in new restaurants, recruits and volume growth in annual report. The difference between these  two fast food companies was mainly due to their marketing strategies. That is, localization is more suitable than globalization as the marketing strategy when fast food chain emerged in China’s market. Definition The concept of marketing has long been defined by different people. The easiest one to understand may be a process of planning and executing, from price, products, ideas and services to satisfy customers and organizations objectives (Ferrell et al, 1987). This definition emphases marketing as a process preformed in organization, which has an overview of its practical function. It has mutually beneficial between providers and customers’ exchange, where provider’s goal is to offer products and service to achieve profit and customer’s goal is to purchase products which benefit their daily life. Marketing strategy could be the plan that identifying what is the customers’ requirement and what marketing goals and objectives could be achieved if selling particular goods and services in an available time (Jonathan, 2009). Briefly is the competitive plan that the organization will have. Marketing strategy enables an organization to have an understanding on the envi ronment and achieve its goals and objectives by using its resources that can meet the needs of customs (Douglas et al, 2010). A good marketing strategy would effectively improve company to supervise their value and create consumers’ brand loyalty. Localization is a strategy that advocates enterprises to adapt to local culture. The process often set up their products, services and promotion customized relate to local market. Enterprise should try to integrate into and treat them as an inherent member but not a foreigner to the local culture in the target market, which emphasizes the enterprise must adapt to the environment to gain more space in order to further development (Warren, 2008). KFC is an example that has developed food, drink and service highly sensitized to localization. KFC was the first western fast food chain emerged in China in 1987. In order to succeed, KFC abandoned its U.S. business model and planned to sell core products and services locally. Since it started to now, the company’s strength and competences accumulation has exceeded a major part of fast food companies and successfully posed formidable barriers to competitors in China. Globalization was defined by Edmund as the process of creating links  between individuals and organizations that transcend national boundaries and a re not subject to political interference (Edmund, 2008). Globalization is also a marketing strategy that the organization extended their activities worldwide, it is a main tendency for international companies or company who want to operate in other countries. This tendency was influenced by technical factors such as information and communication technology revolution, and principle of finance and trade, also affected by the movement of people. Globalization will continue be a major tendency in the future because of opportunities, which created huge increases in prosperity, notably in emerging markets, such as China (Martin, 2013). McDonald’s was the example that opened it first restaurant in China in 1990 and adopted globalization strategy initially, but eventually achieved few successes than KFC in China’s market. The similarity and differentiation between KFC and McDonald’s in China’s market KFC opened its first outlet in Beijing in 1987, it was the first western fast food company at that time and now it has 4563 outlets, which can be regarded as the largest restaurant chain in China (YUM, 2013). McDonald’s first restaurant opened in China in 1990, and now it has 2003 outlets all around the China. From the apparent distinction of the outlets, it is necessary to analyses the similarity and differentiation between them. The largest difference was the time these two companies settled in China and implemented their strategies. Franchising is a business format that the franchisor grants a license to franchisee and franchisee then can use it logo, products and goodwill. For example, McDonald’s allow other business man open their chain by using the same name if they have paid initial fee and ongoing management service fee (Colin, C et al, 2012). KFC use collaborative mode l of direct and franchise chain which laid the solid foundation of completive advantages. KFC is earlier than McDonald’s to implement franchising, who established the first franchising restaurant in 1993 and continue implement â€Å"do not start from scratch† mode, which means franchisee do not need to found a location, recruiting and training new employees but apply to join in and take over a mature restaurant. In that situation, franchisees can omit the preparatory work and incorporate themselves to the standard management system as soon as possible. However,  McDonald’s insist on implementing direct chain operate until 2003, while KFC has developed about 40 franchise locations during this period. Thus, McDonald’s was fall behind to KFC at the initial stage, which have deep influence on their future development. Marketing strategy helps make recognition of international opportunity on seven parts: product, price, promotion, place, positioning, packaging, and people. The â€Å"Seven P Formula† was used to evaluate and reevaluate the b usiness activities. As the marketing environment changed so rapidly that it is vital to track and achieve the maximum results by adjust seven P (Brain, 2004). The similarities and differentiation of seven P between two companies also illustrate localization is suitable than globalization. Product â€Å"A product is anything that be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need.† (Philip, 2011). A product contains good, service and ideas. Food is a heart concept of the society and services from the fast-food chain would attract consumers and change customers’ attitude. KFC obtained the success of fast food market mainly by selling chicken products. KFC’s products utilized standard production, which selling inexpensive western-style items with local favor. KFC’s menu changed rapidly to follow the changeable market as they followed product life cycle from introduction, growth to maturity and finally decline. Some products offered temporarily while other permanently. For example, since 24th of March in 2014, KFC started to use the new menus, which eliminated seven items, renewed one item and added fourteen items. The totally variety has reached to 66 products. The success of KFC also from its spec ial ingredients, Sanders’ Original Recipe of â€Å"11 herbs and spices† is one of the most famous trade secret in fast food industry (Chartrand, 2001). The mystery ingredients mixed with local ingredients created a large amount of customers. The manager of KFC realizes that the customers in Sichuan, Hunan and Chongqin are preferred chilly while Shanghai customers would complain the dishes are too spicy. So the company adopted the localization strategy in products and finally changed its recipes to suit the region. McDonald’s mainly selling hamburger with beef, which is a typical western food style. Chinese prefer chicken to beef for some reasons. Firstly, may be  the price, according to the latest price of beef and chicken, there is large gap between them, the average price of beef is 66.60RMB (approximately 6.5 pounds) per kilogram while the average price of chicken only in 19.58RMB (approximately 1.8 pounds) per kilogram (data from the government of china price). Secondly, the traditional cultivation industry in China raise more chicken than cattle, as cattle is so heavy that will eat more and its long growth stage means costly when buying. Due to the price of raw materials, company would change their recipes to adapt the regions, which means products localization. By far, McDonald’s menus have seventeen types of burger and four type of rice, others are beverages and dessert. And McDonald’s insist on standardization on products and just had little change on some food, such as start to sell soy milk for breakfast from 2011. From the difference of the menu, it is obviously that KFC has more products and local appetite products than McDonald’s. Compared the products, KFC’s localization strategy is more suitable than McDonald’s globalization strategy in China. Price Price is the customer pays for a product or a service. It is the most important factor of marketing (McCarthy, 1975). Prices would affect company’s marketing decision and organization’s goal and the achievement in sales volume would influences price reversal. So, it is difficult for manager decide which price is the best, especially in a downturn. Because recessions make customers are able to shift another products or service with lower price as alternatives or substitute (Douglas.2010). The price of a product may go up or go down along with time and location. The right choice of pricing strategy will benefit the company’s competitive position. KFC and McDonald’s use multiple pricing strategies in different situation. They mainly choose the price skimming strategy, the process of selling product or a service for a high price initially, then gradually reducing the price in order to access new market segments(Price , 2009) as their pricing strategy in China. The staple food in KFC contains ten units(six of burger, two types of roll and two types of rice ) in the latest menu, hamburgers’ price fluctuated around 14 RMB (approximately 1.3 pounds), while McDonald’s have nine burger as its staple food and the price range from 6 to 16.5 RMB due to  different meat. McDonald’s mainly sell beef burger all around the world, but the high price is not suitable in developing country, therefore, it started sell burger with pork, chicken, duck and fish. KFC and McDonald’s fierce competition sometimes force each other to adjust their price according to the cost and demand. Promotion Promotion is an activity that designed to boost the sales of products and service (Jonathan, 2009). Sales promotion also defined as an activity or martial that acts as an inducement to stimulate consumers to buy the products (Sally et al, 2012). Companies are aimed at stimulating sales through advertising campaign, temporary price reductions and variety types of promotion methods. The brand would be intangible assets and goodwill of a company. The more successful it promote, the more it will creating brand loyalty from customers. KFC restaurant in China has a large logo of ‘KFC’ and the portrait of Colonel which leave deep impression on Chinese. It has changed old logo to a new one, which stress on â€Å"Taste† and present youthful energy, friendlier and more welcoming. The promotions of KFC are varied from advertising in television to Internet, or distributing coupons in public place. Every year, KFC would have new menus to attract customers and provide meal set, such as buy burger with cola together will save money. Sometimes KFC will send gifts as premiums to attract customers, especially children. It also distributes coupons in the street or can download app of KFC, then you can get small discount from the product. McDonald’s logo is a golden arch of M, with a slogan of ‘I’m lovin’ it’. The promotion method of McDonald’s is similar to KFC. Coupons, package and digital marketing all create growth in marketing. Place and Positioning Place is where the products or service actually sold, it includes geographical location which offered products or services and different types of distribution channel (McCarthy, 1975). The product or service positioning has been described as the place occupied in a particular marketing where product is targeted by customer (Wind, 1980). Generally, Fast food chain has two target consumers. One is the people who live in a busy life. Such as employees who spend whole day in front of computers. These people busy at their working and had no time preparing food. Fast food gives them the chance to eat in a very short time. The other is the consumer who does not like cooking such as young people. KFC and McDonald’s give them the chance to try new. Target on these consumers, these two companies has their special outlets placement strategy. In order to satisfy consumers who have a busy lifestyle, they open their outlets in cities, in which has a higher population density and well-developed transport system. And to those who want to try new and unwilling to cook by themselves, the restaurant always placed close to schools, universities, city centre and commercial areas that young people study at and prefer to go. It has published in McDonald’s official website for the restaurant development. â€Å"McDonald’s looks for the best locations within the marketplace to provide our customers with convenience. We build quality restaurants in neighborhoods as well as airports, malls, tollways, and colleges at a value to our customers.†(from McDonald’s official website), while KFC provides customers with the most convenient, desirable and accessible restaurant locations across the country, such as the outlets in the city centre of Beijing and Shanghai, where has shopping mall or commercial street. People go shopping in those place prefer to find a comfortable place to have a rest, drink a cup of tea or coffee and eat some food. KFC and McDonald’s success in choosi ng location set a good example for other fast food restaurants. Packaging Packaging is a part of marketing process and link to brand identity. The impact on the image of product ultimately derived from customer’s perception of satisfaction. Package is a vital part of a product that making it more versatile, safer and easier to use (Sally et al, 2012). The customer would evaluate the product or service from the first moment of seeing. And package characteristics help sharp buyers’ impression during use. Then their attitude would influence their purchase decisions. KFC’s package adopted world class packaging with new logo which has character of KFC and the portrait of Colonel in the middle of front page. And the design is flexible to local market. McDonald’s package use more colorful package with creative idea. And also has the logo ‘M’ in every package. These two companies both  adopt family packaging, an approach in which all of company’s package are similar or include one major element of the design (Sally et al, 2012), as their approach to promote. Both of their package had live a deep impression on Chinese. People All the people directly or indirectly involved in the service or production will concern in market when making marketing strategy. Customers, employees and other people are inseparable when production and consumption happened. It is essential to pay attention to those people (Booms et al. 1981). KFC in China targets on the concepts of family and group. The customers range from children to the elders. Before 2004, McDonald’s insists on families centered on children, at the same time, attracted young person and young parents. After the year of 2004, the target market has been young people whose age between 4 and 30. McDonald’s advocates the passion and enthusiasm in younger while KFC emphasis on the harmony between family members, in China, this particular marketing where the concepts of family was strengthen, KFC therefore occupied advantages. Through the comparisons of KFC and McDonald’s from seven aspects in marketing strategy, it can have a clear judgment between them. The reason why China has become the place that KFC exceed McDonald’s initially because the policy makers think highly of this particular market and understand the cross cultural management, the appropriate survey helps avoid mistake. Conclusion In conclusion, KFC and McDonald’s adopted different strategies for their development in China. The gross or net profit from their annual report shows that they both have success on operating and developing, but the content emphases on China’s market have apparent difference as their initially adopted localization and standardization (globalization) in advent of China. It means the localization strategy of KFC adopted in China market is more suitable than globalization strategy. The great achievement of KFC in China is not an accident while McDonalds’ backward does not mean their strategy is not good. KFC’s success is largely because it realizes the distinctiveness of the Chinese market and emphasis on the local environment and local customers. References: Booms, B. & Bitner, M. J. (1981). Marketing Strategies and Organizational Structures for Service Firms. Marketing of Services, James H. Donnelly and William R. George, eds. Chicago: American Marketing Association, 47-51. Brain, T. (2004). The 7 Ps of Marketing. Million Dollar Habits: Proven Power Practices to Double and Triple Your Income. p133-140 Charles, D.(2011). A Dictionary of Marketing (3rd ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wansink, B. (1996). Can package size accelerate usage volume?. Journal of Marketing 60(3):1-14 Chartrand, S. (2001). Patents; Many companies will forgo patents in an effort to safeguard their trade secrets. New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2014. Colin, C & Jonathan, S. (2012). Listening course book. Reading: Garnet.p77-79 Douglas, W., &John, F., &Essam, I. (2010).Strategic Marketing Creating Competitive Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 7 Edmund, H. and Mike, N. (2008) A Dictionary of Human Resource Management (2nd. ed.).Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ferrell, O.C. and Lucas, G.H. (1987), An evaluation of progress in the development of a definition of marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 15(3), 12-23. Graham, H., &Nigel, F., &Brigitte, N.(2012). MARKETING STRATEGY & COMPETITIVE POSITIONG. Edinburgh:Financial Times. 6-7 Jonathan. L (2009). A Dictionary of Business and Management (5 ed.). Published by Oxford University Press. Edited by Jonathan Law. Kotler, P.C., Armstrong, G., Saunders, J.A. and Wong, V. (1996), principles of Marketing: The European Edition, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall. McCarthy, E. (1975). Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach (5th edition). Richard D. Irwin, Inc. McDonald’s.(2013).2013 Annual Report. Retried August 16, 2014, from http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/content/dam/AboutMcDonalds/Investors/McDs2013AnnualReport.pdf Martin, M. (2013). Globalisation. FT.com. The Financial Times Limited Philip,K.,& Kevin,L.(2011). Marketing Management. 14th Ed. Prentice Hall Price Skimming.(2009). In Key concepts in marketing. Retrieved from http://search.credoreference.com.idpproxy.reading.ac.uk/content/entry/sageukmark/price_skimming/0 Sally,D.,&Lyndon,S.,&William,M.,&O.C.Ferrel(2012).Marketing:Concepts& Strategies(6th ed). China: RR Donnelly. Warren, L(2008). KFC in China: Secret Recipe for Success. Wiley. Wind, Y. (1980). Going to market: new twist for some old tricks.Wharton Magazine, 4 YUM. (2013). YUM! FINANCIAL DATA RESTAURANT COUNTS. Retrieved August 16, 2014, from http://www.yum.com/investors/restcounts.asp