Week 1 Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Week 1 Journal - Essay Example The death of the four poor men, namely Daniel Brillhart, Enrique Rubio and Daniel Moore, has ignited the minds of the Americans and compelled them to ponder over this intricate problem that had existed since long in the country and especially in California. The various news agencies have covered the issue in their columns and drawn our attention towards the personal life and history of the four persons. All four of them reportedly were men of good social and moral character. Though deprived of social status or recognition in society, they were god-fearing men who worked sincerely to make a living. Each one of them had a family and some relatives. They had lived a very happy and productive life before they abandoned their homes and joined the homeless population of the nation. They supposedly left their homes and families owing to adverse financial circumstances or social abandonment or drug-issues. They finally landed up in the encampments across San Francisco and took up a job to meet the basic needs of life- food, clothes and a temporary shelter. This story applies not only to those four deceased men, but to the entire homeless population of the US. Driven by financial deprivation and societal seclusion, these people escape from home s and families, to ultimately join the already overcrowded encampments of the homeless in the Silicon Valley. They live their lives as nameless, faceless and identity-less individuals who put up with the drudgeries of daily life to barely make sustenance. Despite the presence of a network of numerous shelter homes in the country, hundreds of homeless people die every year due to extreme cold. They live and die in a world of anonymity and isolation. To help them get rid of their homeless condition, the government should allocate sufficient resources for building up permanent housing facilities for these people. This would include the allocation of both financial resources and

Coca cola marketing research Essay Example for Free

Coca cola marketing research Essay The Coca-Cola company was established back in 1886 and it is most famous of creating the soft drink Coca Cola. Based on a global brand study, Coca Cola was the world’s most valuable brand in 2011. Though, just like all those â€Å"old† and well developed brands, Coca Cola is facing aging problem, a disconnection with the younger generation and it seems like people are not picking up coca cola as a trendy drink and a sign of coolness anymore as there are so many other drinks available in the market nowaday. In order to make the brand’s image younger, Coca Cola started a campaign back in 2011 called â€Å"Share a Coke†, internally known as â€Å"Project Connect†. It is a worldwide campaign that started with their Australia team and in 2014 the campaign has finally reached Hong Kong. There are two objectives for this campaign, to get the attention of the younger generation and to make them feel like Coca Cola is still a trendy and cool thing to be talking about and another communication objective for the campaign is really just to have everyone to talk about Coca Cola again, both in the real and virtual world. As mentioned, Coca cola is trying to get collection with young people again and to make Coca Cola the cool thing to be talking about among people, so the target audience of the campaign is young adults focusing on demographic of 18 – 25 years old, who is health consumers, affluent and really is the current and future major stakeholders for the brand. In order to bring people together to â€Å"Share a Coke†, Coca Cola swapped out Coke’s classic label on bottles and cans with 200 of Hong Kong’s most popular nick names, like â€Å"Ã¥ ¥ ³Ã§Å¡â€¡ (queen), â€Å"Gag 王 (joke maker)†, †Buddy†, â€Å"ç ²â€°Ã§ µ ²(fans)†, â€Å"é â€Ã¤ º º(expert)†, â€Å"Ã¥ ¥ ³Ã§ ¥Å¾ (goddess)†, â€Å"ç” ·Ã§ ¥Å¾ (god)† or common names like â€Å"Yan†, â€Å"Wah†, â€Å"Lee†, â€Å"Fung† and â€Å"Ming† or phases like â€Å"miss you†, â€Å"love you†, â€Å"Oh Dear†, à ¢â‚¬Å"Cheer up† and â€Å"I’m yours† etc. This is one of the strategy that Coca Cola came out to bring together to talk about Coca Cola again, a new concept that Coke came up and wants to promote is â€Å"Shareability†. Coca Cola understands the best way to connect people is to have something they can share or even can send it as a gift to their friends and relatives. Moreover, If you can’t find a nick name, common names nor phases that best represent you or your love one? No worries, Coca Cola had created a web page for customers to go online and create a virtual bottle to share it on social media (e.x. facebook, Instagram and Twitter†¦etc) with their friends and family. Coca Cola would never missed a single person who is interested in â€Å"Share a Coke† out. In other countries, such as the U.S. and U.K., customers with less common names (or basically if you can’t find what you are looking for), they are able to get a mini can customized with their name on it at one of their pop up stops. Because of Hong Kong don’t have the similar promotion, people are starting to sell the service of helping people to order personalized cans and bottles in the U.K. This also helped Coca Cola Hong Kong to create the basic foundation of pull strategy as supply was super limited and it I very time consuming to mail the products from overseas to Hong Kong making the products very hard to get. Another advantage of the success of the â€Å"Share a Coke† campaign overseas is that it offered the Hong Kong campaign a word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and WOM plays an important role as a communications tool in modern marketing. As Kotler (2009) suggests that if an organization can develop a marketing program to harness and  accelerate the use of personal recommendation effectively, the more likely it will be that the marketing program will be successful. This also acted as a demand-created pull strategy, as overseas people were gifting that to people who are living in Hong Kong and Hong Kong people were soon demanding to see this unique style of Coca Cola cans in Hong Kong. As soon as people got hold with a can of the personalized Coca Cola, they will share it on Instagram to show people how cool they are. Indeed, in Hong Kong, before the official campaign launched, Coke partnered with Volkswagen and sent personalized Coke can in a fancy box to younger generation celebrities like Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Shiga Lin and PakHo Chau†¦etc. On the cover of that fancy white box, Coca Cola encouraged celebrities to create a post on Instagram with hashtag shoareacokehk and cocacolahk. This encouragement of sharing those â€Å"Share a coke† cans on Instagram or Facebook created another pull strategy which would eventually catching the suppliers’ attention to inquiry to Coca Cola about those unique cans as celebrities are always the focus point for people to follow where the trend is. After this massive breakthrough, â€Å"Share a coke† cans and bottles were then secretly (without any proper announcement† sent to convenience stores like 711, OK and  supermarket likes Wellcome and ParknShop. As soon as they were in stock, people started to treasure hunt to trying to â€Å"share a coke with their love one and to post it on social platforms†, mainly on Instagram and Facebook. *See below images as examples. In a situation like this, the push strategy will play its part in meeting the objectives for this campaign which is letting the supplier know the demand for this product which is created by celebrities influences, social media powers and later advertising. Finally persuading retailers to both stock the product and to actively promote the â€Å"Share a coke† cans to their customers and finally making the product more accessible. Ever since Coca Cola started to encourage people to â€Å"Share a coke†, people have been uploading Instagram and Facebook posts on a regular basis. This is a creative way to make use of the profile strategy as numerous posts will be updated on Instagram everyday automatically under hashtag shareacokehk and cocacolahk and keeping stakeholders/audiences up to date with campaign information and the official Coca Cola Instagram would also share people’s â€Å"Share a coke† moment. This tactic is cost effective for Coca Cola (saved money on hiring a spoke person as many celebrities have automatically became a â€Å"spoke person† the moment they shared their personalized Coca Cola), it created a free of charge profile strategy as fans or lay people will soon follow what celebrities are doing and share a coke with their name on social media platform. This â€Å"Share a Coke† wave has caught media’s attention as bloggers and magazines were reporting this. Therefore, at a later time, personalized cans were also sent to famous bloggers, magazine editors and particular for those who have a high number of followers/fan base on Instagram. In order to â€Å"officially† announce and position Coca Cola in the minds of consumers with a view to differentiation and to inform prospective customers about the â€Å"Share a Coke† campaign, Coca Cola then started to advertise on traditional platform. It aired a television commercial on one of the biggest television channels in Hong Kong-TVB, pointing out the various nickname that people can find to mix and match them. Advertising on national television offer mass coverage, flexible format and uses sight, movement and sound  which fit in with the young adult demographic as things like that will attract their attention. They have also created posters telling people to share a coke with their mom and dad to emphasize the objective of this campaign- shareability of the product, to make people talking about Coca Cola again. Coca Cola also rented several outdoors places at causeway bay (e.x. Sogo), creating a venting machine like billboard starting â€Å"Share a coke with the person next to you, Share Coca Cola, Share happiness† and putting all the available names on there for making potential customers aware of the offering. Advertising outdoor creates a good coverage as a support medium and as the location (Sogo, Causeway bay) is where all the young adults go, it creates a perfect interesting background for young adult to take a picture and share it on Instagram as it is not so easy to spot such a large scale Coca Cola machine in your daily life. *See below images as examples. Ogilvy Mather (the advertising agency behind all these) had also found Jonathan Mak (who editing the Apple logo in remembrance of Steve Jobs) to design a poster inspired by â€Å"Share a Coke† to advertise this campaign. You can see attached, to depict two hands sharing a Coke. This poster has served as something unique, young and trendy to matches with the target audience of the campaign. Evaluation of effectiveness: should be related to the campaign objectives and the particular tools chosen, e.g. advertising could be post-testing, tracking studies, likeability or enquiry tests. Particular market research techniques using qualitative or quantitative methods should be proposed, e.g. focus groups, surveys. A researcher quote in Wilson (2006: p.29) suggests that, â€Å"The proposal is the most important part of the whole research project†. Before we evaluate the effectiveness of the tools use, let me restate the objective of this campaign again, which is to reconnect with young adults and just have people talking about Coca Cola again. In order to evaluate whether or not the television commercial tool is effective or not, I would use likeability test  as to researching to what degree people enjoyed the advertisement and really feel like they have connect with the â€Å"Share a coke† campaign. I propose using quantitative research which is described by Wilson (2006) as a structured approach producing quantifiable data for statistical analysis, gathered from a population  sample or census. I propose that we will create a 5 questions questionnaire asking a combination of descriptive and casual questions like â€Å"What do you feel about Coca Cola‘s â€Å"Share a Coke† campaign†, â€Å"Have you watch the TV commercial about â€Å"Share a coke†Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"Would you consider drinking Coca Cola as a trendy thing after watching the commercial ?†, â€Å"How do you feel about the â€Å"Share a Coke† concept and do you think the commercial has stated what we are trying to offer?†, â€Å"have you shared a coke with anyone after watching the commercial†. I suggest using Facebook as the platform to pass on the questionnaire to random audience that is within the demographic that we are aiming at as it is the most convenient and cost effective way because on Facebook you can set your target audience age to your desired one. Two identical questionnaires should be sent out to the same group of people who are aged between 18-25 across the campaign period to see if the audience has any perception changes over time. We could also get from the data whether or not we are reaching the right target auidences and whether or not this advertisement is doing what we want it to do. The second tool that we are going to evaluate is Instagram as Coca Cola has created it’s own hashtag for the campaign #shareacokehk and #cocacolahk and as our target audience is young adults, Instagram has been a major communication tools for the demographic. Also, Coca Cola has been posting all updates on its official Instagram page and this should be where we get all the noises from as Coca Cola has posted on all it’s advertising communication tools to share it on Instagram. Morevoer, Coca Cola has emphasized shareability over this campaign so the effective use of Instagram is notwithstanding one of the most important evaluation to do. Using Observation research to collect quantitative data would be a good way to analysis the effectiveness of this heavily used tool. I suggest for a consecutive of 30 days, researchers to go through around 100 potential hashtags posting on Instagram, starting with the two official hashtags â€Å"shareacokehk†, â€Å"cocacolahk†, cokehk†, â€Å"ilovecoke†Ã‚  then following any potential hashtags such as phases on cans†¦etc. Researchers will record daily change rate of each hashtag search, we can then compare shareability of each hashtags. We can also record likes from each post and see which personalized cans/bottles grabs the most attention. From the evaluation of the effectiveness of Instagram, we can increase shareability of the campaign (as, again it’s one of the major goal to get people talking about Coca Cola again). With the quantitative data that we got from this research, we can perhaps add more hashtags that people are likely to use and also we could use those information to amend or add in names that are in popular demands to keep the idea fresh. We could also see whether or not we are hitting on our target audiences. In Conclusion, the â€Å"Share a Coke† campaign is a clever idea. It is further proof how something so simple can still create a lot of buzz on the internet and in social settings. This â€Å"Share a Coke† campaign has fully fulfilled Fill (2006)’s definition of marketing communications. â€Å"A management process through which an organization seeks to engage with its various audiences. To accomplish this, the organization develops, presents and evaluates a series of messages which it sends to and receives from its different audiences. The objective of this process is to position the organization and its offering in the minds of particular audiences and in doing so encourage the  development of relationships that are of mutual value.† Coca Cola has proven to us that with the right marketing communication tools, an aging brand can sure be made younger again and reconnect with the you nger generation. Have you â€Å"Share a Coke† with your loved one today? Reference http://www.coca-colajourney.com.au/stories/local-idea-goes-global-share-a-coke#TCCC http://www.sor9y.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Screen-Shot-2014-08-24-at-2.06.38am.png http://www.milk.com.hk/content/coca-cola-share-coke-hong-kong-ed http://www.icoke.hk http://www.sor9y.com/2014/08/24/share-a-coke-name-combinations/ http://rudileung.com/tag/share-a-coke

New Company Business Plan Adventure International Travel Tourism Essay

New Company Business Plan Adventure International Travel Tourism Essay Adventure International Travel would be a sole proprietorship company that will provide adventure trips and activities such as skiing, river rafting, mountain climbing, biking, etc. along with other services such as lodging, car rental, airline tickets and so on. The location of the company will be in the central of California. The idea behind setting up this business is its high growth rate; travel industry growth rate is 4% and 10% of adventure travel per year. AIT will take advantage of this growing sector by providing full adventure packages with the support of experienced staff and effective marketing. The estimated set up cost for AIT would be approximately $102,500, out of this figure $85,000 will be a loan from First National Bank and remaining will be the personal investment. The large percentage of AITs target market would be health conscious, ages between 18-34, and families with annual household income of $50,000 and it will maintain 10% margins on all airline tickets and 20% gross margins on other services such as lodging, car rental, etc. AIT will start with 4 full time positions (manager, marketing and advertising director, accountant, and travel agent). It expects slow growth in first 2 quarters of operation because it will be new in the market and will take time to establish. Details about market analysis, strategy, management, and financial plan are described in this study. AIT is a travel agency that provides adventure trips and consultation to its customers with a view to make their vacation worthy. Providing adventure trips is our primary business and hence we generate profits from it. The required capital for setting-up the business would be approximately $103,000, out of which some investment would come from personal and remaining would come from long-term loan from First National Bank in north-west location (Edward G. Hinkelman, 2004). EXPENSES: this will include rent of the office, consultants fees, cost of insurance, electricity, water and other utilities bills. The large portion of investment will go in setting-up the computer systems. LOANS: a loan of $85,000 would be taken from First National Bank. (Startups, 2010). AIT will be a sole proprietorship owned business that will be located in Central California. Once the Business achieves its goal we may go for a partnership with other agencies to expand our Business. This probably is done after 18 months of operation. AIT has searched for 3 potential locations for setting up the Business. All these locations are in the central of California and are between approximately 1200-1500 square feet of area. After achieving the goal within defined time period in the travel industry AIT would be among the top 30 agencies in California with population of 38 million in 2010 (Allan Beaver. 2005). AIT provides travel services to both individual and group of customers. We provide special offers to corporate clients also. We provide full travel package that includes air tickets, lodging, car on rent, rail passage, sightseeing, etc. Our aim is to keep differentiate ourselves as a specialist in adventure travel agency (Adventuresportsonline, 2010). AIT will provide a high standard of services including air tickets and travel packages. Top of it we will provide services like accommodation and entertainment, customer satisfaction, and assistance in handling the passport. Moreover, we offer quality services with competitive rates focusing mainly on Adventure travel. There are two categories of Adventure travel, hard and soft adventure. Both categories involve physically active and athletic activities. Soft adventure activities involve less physical work and risk as compared to hard adventure activities. Economic indicators suggest that there is a high rise in demand for adventure travel services. We can position ourselves as a niche services provider in the field of adventure travel. AIT will deal with all the top-notch suppliers with accomplished backgrounds. If any of the suppliers failed to meet our requirements for high standards of quality we will discontinue our business with them (Ibid). The travel agency business is very highly competitive in market and the latest technology, computerized reservation systems (CRS) using the internet has changed the way how agencies operate. With the help of internet both agencies and clients can search for best deals in the market. Air fare brokers offer more discount on online reservations. It has resulted in price competition. CRS can increase the speed and efficiency of agencies to respond to customer transactions. It has also resulted in increased set-up costs for other travel agencies those wish to be competitive. Increasing industry competition and the number of travel options that are available have forced smaller travel agencies to become specialist at least one of the travel types and AIT would try to establish as a specialist in adventure travel. AIT believes in establishing customer relationships for its long-term sales and will provide full adventure packages with free consultation and lower prices (Trekamerica, 2010). Brochures such as travel locations, airlines, train passage, car rental companies, etc. would be obtained from the suppliers of these services and wholesale houses with whom IT would deal. On the request of customers, AIT will mail these brochures to them electronically. Also, other marketing mix activities such as direct mailing, printed advertising, pamphlets, etc. will be utilized as needed. Customers contact information can be retrieved if database is maintained by AIT (Howard S. Rowand). AIT need to establish strong relationships with the suppliers who provide travel related products and services. AIT will select two major airlines as its primary ticket providers. As per industry standard we can keep 10% margin on ticket sales. With the help of market research we have identified working relationships with many of the service providers globally. There is an opportunity to keep margins up to 25% in profits in the location; AIT has selected to start business. AIT will keep monitoring the quality of its offerings by taking the advantage of trade fairs, market publications, and other information that is related to travel industry (Travel trends, 2010). It would be better if AIT follows the recent trend of technology in client reservations i.e. Computerized Reservation System (CRS). The CRS will help us in identifying the customers need and in retrieving the required information in just few numbers of clicks. It will increase the speed and efficiency of communication with clients and suppliers. Also, CRS will help us in maintaining the customer database for future references. Excessive use of internet in searching information and communication would be needed (Travel industry wire, 2010). 3.6 Future Services When saturation point will reach then AIT may think to open offices in other locations and may look to participate in other segments of the travel industry. AIT will keep researching for further potential opportunities in market to expand business. The long-term goal of AIT is to achieve global position in providing top class adventure travel services at low costs. We will try to make profits by increasing the number of sales instead of increasing in prices. 4.0 Market Analysis Summary AIT plans to provide adventure travel services in all the greater parts such as California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Utah, Colorado, Washington, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii, and North Dakota. Adventure travel is one of the sub-categories of leisure travel and further divided into soft and hard adventure travel. Travel agencies in the U.S are generating more than $50 billion of revenue annually and out of which soft adventure travel is generating approximately $40-50 million and $12-15 million for hard adventure travel (tours to United States, 2009). 4.1 Survey Conducted AIT has conducted the market survey for its customers and it has observed the following (Survey money, 2010): Out of the group of 51 individuals Occupation 43 (84.3%) are students + working. 10 (19.6%) are only working 2.0% 1 others Age 22 (43.1%) are between 18 to 20 28 (54.9%) are between 21-34 of age 1 (2.0%) is above 34 Interested in Adventure trip AIT is surprised that due to stress in life, people are moving towards adventure trips to have some fun and relaxation in their life. 49 (98%) are interested in adventure trip 1 (2%) is not interested, and 1 did not decide yet. Annual income of families 22 (45.8%) have $50,000 of annual income 11 (22.9%) have $60,000 of annual income, and 15 (31.3%) have above $60,000 of annual income 3 skipped the question. 4.2 Market Segmentation AIT is targeting health conscious couples and individuals with average of $50,000 annual household incomes as customers. AIT will focus on people with the interest of adventure activities such as river rafting, mountain climbing and biking, skiing. The large percentage of men who were interested in taking adventure travel was between the ages of 18 to 35. But these days the number of women travelers is increasing rapidly. According to survey of women traveling together in 2008, women comprises of 49% of adventure trips. The average spending of men on adventure travels are more than women. AIT will also provide adventure packages to married couples aged between 25- 35 with children (Adventure women, 2010). 4.3 Target Market Segment Strategy The location of AIT would be in the pacific northwest of U.S because this region is rich in the natural beauty and provides outdoor activities to fitness oriented individuals. This area has people with more per capital income than any other part in the country those like to take part in such soft and hard adventure activities. These people will be the AITs target market. This area has many big companies and most of these companies organize such adventure trips for their employees as a group task and to increase group cohesion. 4.4 Market Trends One of the notable trends in the field of travel industry is Increased Deregulation. Deregulation is directly proportional to the need for differentiation of products and services that is if deregulation increases, the need for differentiation of products and services also increases and has resulted in decrease in the prices of airfare and other travel and tourism related services. Other trends include caps on commissions of travel agencies by many of the larger Airlines resulting increase in adventure travel and reducing profit margins. More than 147 million adult travelling populations (about 50% of adult population) of the United States have taken an adventure trip at least once in their lifetime and out of this figure 98 million have taken in the past years. Nearly 31 million of the adult population have engaged in hard adventure activities such as river rafting, mountain biking, and scuba diving and around 25 million population is engaged in both hard and soft adventure activiti es in which people have high interest and participate during their adventure vacations are camping (84%), hiking (75%), skiing (52%), scuba diving (31%), sailing (25%), river rafting (24%), and mountain biking (24%). These customers are young and affluent, aged between 18 to 34 and one fourth of them have $50,000 (Â £ 32,500) or more annual incomes (Adventure travel industry growth statistics, 2009). 4.5 Market Growth The travel industry has a high growth rate. Reasons behind this growth are healthy domestic and international economies and the devaluation of foreign currency in other areas which has made travel cheaper for United States residents. According to the Tourism satellite accounting (TSA) world travel and tourism has generated close to $ 8 trillion of revenue in year 2008 and expected to generate approximately $ 15 trillion over the next ten years. Due to the global economic downturn it has experienced a slowdown in growth (In 2008 it was 3% in comparison to 3.9% in 2007). By looking at the past experiences the long term forecasts believe that the growth for world travel and tourism between the period of 2009 and 2018 would be around 5% per year, supporting 289 million employment and approx 11% of total global GDP by 2018 (Ibid). 4.6 Market Needs Most of the customers are unsure about the location where they wish to go for adventure trip. So travel agencies should provide better knowledge about destinations to their customers. These days customers are price conscious and look for agencies with competitive price. Time is also one of the precious commodities. AIT would be the solution to save time and money and insure that customers are fully satisfied with their vacation. 4.7 Service Business Analysis Before 2000 travel and tourism industry in the U.S. was the countrys third largest retail industry and according to the department of commerce, it is now at number one. There is a 100% increase in the revenue generated from travel and tourism industry in the last decade. The U.S. travel agencies generate more than $100 billion of revenue each year. Travel industry is divided into two main categories 1. Business travel and 2.Leisure travel. Each of them contributes about 45% of the total revenue and remaining 5% of revenue comes from combined business and leisure trips. Travel market is than further divided into domestic into domestic and international travel. 70% of the revenue is generated by domestic travel. Business travel can be separated into medium to large business trips and small independent businessman trips. The classification of leisure travel Customers is based on the type of trip they take, budget, or age (Ibid). The four primary groups of customers under leisure travel are:- Adventure lovers, special-interest groups, honeymoon couples, and sightseeing trips. Rich travelers with high incomes. Budget conscious travelers, and Families with children, group of students and seniors. 4.8 Competition and Buying patterns At present there are number of adventurous activities and types of travel such as theme parks, motor home trips, less expensive self-planned trips and cruises that are available to people to choose from and contemplate an adventure vacation, have created huge competition in the travel industry. Also, many high income people like to invest money in other financial services instead in having vacation. There are many travel agencies that are creating direct competition by providing adventure travel packages. Lifestyle, age and income are three major factors that influence the decision of customer to travel and the type of travel to participate in. According to survey, on average an adventure traveler takes at least one of the adventure travel every 12-18 months (US Travel, 2009). 4.9 Main competitors Rollins and Hayes: They are based on the eastern costal area and are the most famous and respected travel agency in the world that provides adventure trips. Since last 20 years they are in travel business and providing adventure packages to their customers. They are very successful in travel business. This gives them total control over the entire vacation. Rollins and Hayes have the advantage of their established reputation, strategic alliance, and experience in providing high quality trips with economies of scale. The negative thing about them which could be an opportunity for my business is that their packages are expensive and appeal only to rich customers with high incomes. Sundance travels: It is a traditional travel agency based in Colorado and has been in the business for last 10 years. Slowly they have made the move towards adventure trips and are now well known for it. Their major strengths are reputation, past experiences, and financial solvency. And their major weaknesses are high personnel and management turnover and they are lacking behind in constructing better road map for future growth. Global Adventure: They started travel business in 1995 in the Los Angeles area and now successfully established and well-known as adventure travel specialists. The Los Angeles is a very competitive area because of its large number of tourist attractions and other travel agencies. Global has achieved good position through their highly skilled management and successful marketing communications (Ibid). 4.10 Distributing a Service The distribution channel in travel industry pattern is from supplier to agent and then to customer. A conference system can be used for distribution between agency and suppliers. Airline reporting corporation (ARC) and International airlines travel agents networks (IATAN) are the two conferences through which agency and air travel providers communicate. The primary work of the agency is to hold the fixed number of airline ticket vouchers from the airline reporting corporation and then responsible for storing and collecting the payments for the vouchers. To keep the prices down and to attract more customers, agencies are buying airline tickets in large quantities and selling them online (Microstrategy, 2010). 5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary AIT has planned to adopt the following strategies to achieve the goal of becoming leader in the adventure travel business in the Pacific northwest of U.S. AIT would establish its reputation by providing differentiation of products and services to its clients. This could be possible through better Marketing Communication programs at AITs target market using various forms of media. By providing supreme services to the customers so that AIT can gain repeats Business and build trust. This can be done by providing superior services in all stages of the transaction. By promoting adventure travel as a healthy, exciting, and interesting activities and by publishing photos and testimonials of customers who participate in such activities in companys newsletter, website and other advertising Medias. 5.1 Competitive Edge Competitive edge of AIT is its dedication, interest in adventure travel, focus on building long term relationships and trust, and experienced staff. AIT will provide differentiated travel services to customers with the better utilization of Management experience, cost and commitment in maintaining quality service. 5.2 Marketing Strategy The basic goal of the AITs Business is to create and keep clients for future. The Marketing Strategy of AIT will reflect this goal in building its reputation in the Pacific North western area. Though AIT will operate in the travel industry but it will provide much more than just an adventure trip. It will provide adventure and freedom to enjoy it. Due to busy era most of the people spend 50 weeks of a year in their office only. AIT will encourage them about the challenge, excitement, ability to do, and importance of an athletic endeavor. AIT will try to promote the benefits of having an adventure travel and theses benefits may include body fitness, ear to ear grins, personality development, excitement, and lots more (travel agent success, 2010). 5.3 Promotion Strategy During the opening ceremony of AIT there will be a grand party and we will organize and sponsor many athletic related events such as 2km fun race, 5km marathon, mountain climbing and biking, etc. AIT will provide travel related packages to winners and other consolation prizes to participants. It will be easier for AIT to promote its services through interaction with people present on ceremony if all employees working with AIT would from the local athletic clubs background. During the opening ceremony and other fun events, AIT will give presentation on the services and trips it offers. AIT will negotiate with local health clubs and other promotional activities through these strategic alliances (saac, 2010). Specialty advertising association of California will serve marketing service to AIT because they are very famous and provide better advertising service at lower costs. AIT will also promote its services on local Radio stations. Orkut, Facebook, Twitter are also acting like an effec tive tool for promoting services online. AIT will create communities named as Adventure Travel Lovers on these social websites and will publish information about its travel offerings. Personal selling is also very effective promotional tool but AIT will keep it limited to safe cost on phone bills. According o IT facts, in California 96% of households have internet access, so AIT will focus more on online promotional activities. AIT also planes to station sales in major public places such as shopping malls (Ibid). 5.4 Distribution strategy AITs distribution strategy will focus on the direct selling in the area where it is possible to reach at minimum cost and for other areas World Wide Web will be use to establish distribution capability. This will increase the ability of AIT to establish a national reputation. 5.5 Marketing Programs AIT will use traditional marketing communication methods to reach its customers. Every month AIT will conduct surveys to know the taste of both soft and hard adventure lovers and their profiles such as where they live, where they work, what is their profession, etc. According to IT FACTS California, most of the travel customers purchase either over the internet or through travel agents and AIT will assist them in both ways: online and in-personal. The use of internet will provide a better and an effective methods of communication with clients and suppliers. In starting AIT will focus on primary customer group and this group is defined as the number of customers who have purchased an adventure package before and who are interested in buying it. In addition to Internet, AIT will follow all those marketing tools with which customers feel comfortable such as travel magazines, direct mail, in house meetings and personal selling. Initially, AIT will start operating in the local region than within 18 or more months of operation it will extend sales into other national and global markets. It will keep informing about its season, off season offers through newsletter every month (Ibid). 5.6 Positioning Statement Both individuals and corporate clients who are interested in having the adventure travel, AIT is a solution for it because it is a premier adventure travel agency that provides full package including transport, accommodation, sightseeing, consultation, and adventure activities. 5.7 Pricing Strategy AIT will decide its pricing according to the market standards. As per the current market standards (10% to 16%) it will maintain margins of 10% on all travel services (it facts, 2010) and will try to keep 20% margins on remaining products and services that will depend on the pricing of providers. It will keep the prices low (just minimum margin 10%) as compared to other travel agencies in the region to maintain a competitive pricing policy. AIT will try to make its reputation as the best travel service provider in the region and will charge the best for services (resources. net, 2010). 5.8 Sales Strategy The main aim of the AIT is to deliver the benefits of products and services that it offers and promotes. It sells the freedom of life to customers and there are numerous benefits of this freedom such as healthy and balanced lifestyle. AIT will keep reminding its old and new customers about the importance of having the adventure trip and will hold a tag line as There is more to life than building bigger barns. AIT will provide full assistance with adventure travel and its primary concern is to provide high standard services and to make customers satisfy instead of maximizing the profits without concerning customer satisfaction. If AIT follows this, it will reduce costs and gives profit in long run because maintaining a relationship and good will with customers is always less expensive than to develop a new one (Ibid). 5.9 Sales forecast The monthly sales forecast is projected in the table below. AIT expects that in the first quarter of operation there would be a less number of sales but it has been estimated that 3 years growth would be around 20%. 5.10 Strategic Alliances With purpose of promotion AIT will develop strategic alliances with California family fitness centre, spectrum athletic clubs, and many others according to need of the business. Alliances with providers of adventure travel in other US. States and abroad will also be established (California family fitness, 2010). 6.0 Action plan/Milestones 7.0Management Summary However, AIT will start as a small business organization and will hold sole proprietorship, so employees working with it would have to share their duties and responsibilities. There would be a general manager who will be responsible for decision making. It is necessary for all employees to be capable of accepting all types of responsibilities of the business. During hiring period of employees, applicants should meet the following requirements: They must have at least 3 years of experience in the travel industry and activities, AIT will promote. They must hold certification in certified travel counselor from a reputed institute for example Institute of certified travel agents (ICTA) (totaljobs.com, 2010). 7.1 Organizational structure In the beginning AIT will start its operation by hiring four full time positions and these positions are describes below. 8.0 Financial plan The financial plan for AIT is discussed in the following sections. During first 2 quarters of operation, AIT expects slow growth because it will be new to market and other seasonal factors. All the estimated costs are based on the current market standards. AIT has decided to keep sufficient cash to overcome the situation of negative cash flow, if required. There may some differences in the figure during setting up the company due to gross margins, but this will present a realistic financial plan (Travel financial help, 2010). Important Assumptions National growth will not affect the growth of travel industry for the next five years. The demand for adventure travel will keep growing. International situation for providers and suppliers of services would remain positive. All calculations are carried out in Dollar ($). 8.1 Key financial indicators AIT has developed a chart which is shown below and describes major financial indicators for the first 3 consecutive years of operation. The U.S. economy has recovered lot from recession that will support the positive growth in adventure travel business. 8.2 Break Even Analysis AIT has decided to keep 20% gross margins and accordingly break even analysis is carried out. The table below describes the BEA, including monthly sales BE points (Ibid). 8.3 Projected profit and loss AIT will try to improve its operation progress in the third quarter of the 1st year after establishing itself in the market. It will improve gross margins from 22% in 2nd year and 23% in 3rd year. The below graph shows estimated annual profit and loss details. 8.4 Projected cash flow Both monthly and yearly estimated cash flow is projected in the below graph. Yearly cash flow is calculated by taking 60 day collection period. AIT has considered positive cash flow during the mid of the first year of operation (Ibid). 8.5 Projected Balance sheet Estimated balance sheet is shown below. 8.6 Business ratios-Below are the AITs Business ratios, estimated based on Standard Industry Classification (SIC) index code 4724.- Appendix

Up The Down Staircase :: essays research papers

Up the Down Staircase   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By Bel Kaufman The main character of this book is Sylvia Barret she is a recent college graduate, and works as a high school English teacher. Sylvia would like to work in a nice private school, like so many of her friends. Instead Sylvia takes a job with the board of education, in a nieve attempt to reach out to the under privileged inner-city children in public schools. Sylvia battles with so many choices in this book. In the end she makes the right ones. Another character that is important to this book is James J. Mchabe. He signs his name with Adm. Asst. (administrative assistant). Sylvia calls him â€Å"Admiral Ass† because he is always looking over her shoulder. It seems like Mr.Mchabe’s only propose in life is to bother Sylvia and the other teachers. The admiral always seems to find something wrong with the manor the teachers run their classes in.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bea Schachter is another teacher at Calvin Colidge High School. Bea has been a teacher at Calvin Coolidge for a very long time and she automatically makes Sylvia her friend. Bea shows Sylvia the ropes; what to do, what not to do, where to go, where not to go. That kind of stuff. Bea is a good teacher, and a good friend to Sylvia. One of Sylvia's students is Joe Ferone. Joe is a rebel and a hoodlum. Joe barely ever comes to class. Sylvia really wants to help Joe. Sylvia tries to schedule after school sessions with Joe, but he never shows up. Towards the end of the story I get the feeling Sylvia was starting to fall in love with him. This story takes place in a New York City school in Manhattan, in the nineteen- sixties. The book covers the span of one school semester form September to February. Sylvia Barret, a new teacher is starting her first day in room 304. She finds out that teaching isn’t all that she thought it would be. Her first friend is Bea a veteran teacher who helps Sylvia out by explaining how Calvin Coolidge high works. The writer takes all the craziness of a normal high school and embellishes them; for instance the school guidance counselor is always using big words and thinks all the students need help. And Mr. Mchabe the administrative assistant who is nosy about everything. The Janitor who is never available.

The Details on Security Change After 9/11

The word â€Å"cliche† is sure to have been used hundreds if not thousands of times for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in September 11, 2001 or commonly known as 9/11. The meaning of 9/11 first on the domestic scene is that America joined the ranks of those that suffered the brunt of terrorism for decades such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. America lost â€Å"its innocence† since this terrorist incident is of greater magnitude compared to the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993 or in terms of the socio-political impact, it really brought home the message that â€Å"no one is safe.† On the global scale, 9/11 meant that even a superpower or the â€Å"only superpower† can fall prey to a low-intensity type of warfare known as terrorism. It prove that such an act can affect economic and market outputs considering that it weakened the stock exchange and flights were cancelled for a few days throughout the United States. 9/11 also redefined the meaning of terrorism and â€Å"holds lesson for other states, not just America, by demonstrating the U.S. resolve and ability to remove regimes that harbor or sponsor terrorism, 9/11should have strengthened the deterrent message to governments that would contemplate aiding terrorists. (Knopf, 2002)† It showed that whether it is state-sponsored terrorism or ideological group-led terrorism like Al-Qaeda, governments and nations of the world must unite to battle this modern-day organized plague. In response to 9/11, the U.S. government implemented the Patriot Act of 2001 or completely known as â€Å"†Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. This piece of legislation contains sections that defines and effects controls and measures in the fight against terrorism such as: Enhancing domestic security against terrorism; International money laundering abatement and anti-terrorist financing; Removing obstacles to investigating terrorism; Providing for victims of terrorism, public safety officers and their families; Increased information sharing for critical infrastructure protection; Strengthening the criminal laws against terrorism; and Besides the Patriot Act, 9/11 brought about the existence of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through House Resolution 5005 and whose major mandate is to prevent terrorist attacks within and reduce the vulnerability to terrorism of the United States. Since DHS became the focal point of the U.S. response to terrorism some major government agencies were transferred to the DHS. One of the major outputs of the DHS is coming out with the National Response Plan (NRP) in December 2004 (DHS, 2004). The NRP â€Å"is an all-discipline, all-hazards plan that establishes a single, comprehensive framework for the management of domestic incidents. It provides the structure and mechanisms for the coordination of Federal support to State, local, and tribal incident managers and for exercising direct Federal authorities and responsibilities. (DHS, 2004)† Having been aligned with the National Incident Management System (DHS, 2004), the NRP had more 32 signatory government departments and agencies. Although it is an incident response plan, the NRP carries policies â€Å"to protect national security, coordinates the activities of the other members of the law enforcement community to detect, prevent, preempt, and disrupt terrorist attacks against the United States. This includes actions to prevent, preempt, and disrupt specific terrorist threats or actual incidents that are based upon specific intelligence or law enforcement information. (DHS, 2004)† Although brought out in general terms, the new security measures in place gives a signal to the domestic marketplace that vigilance and stricter enforcement of security rules is already in place. Trade and commerce with the United States became more stringent especially in terms of cross-border access between U.S., Mexico and Canada. On the whole, the effectiveness of the change security posture after 9/11 is being met on two fronts. One group agrees with the measures believing that it really curtails terrorist activities. On the other hand, another group declares that starting with the Patriot Act, then the rise of the Department of Homeland Security and the implementation of the National Response Plan, all these are questioned due to their singular and collective effects on rights, freedom and liberties Americans enjoy. But as in any history of the United States, the debate or division brought about by the new security measures in effect is always welcomed since this is one of the true tests of democracy – when two or more groups agree to disagree. Five years after 9/11, the full measure of the efficacy of the security policies and methods in place can only be truly gauged when a future major terrorist incident can be prevented and the perpetrators captured – only then can some of the â€Å"questionable human rights violation measures† can be vindicated! But for now, we can only â€Å"hope and pray† that such incident will not happen again or else another event that would live in infamy would be in our midst.

Grammatical Function Definition and Examples

Grammatical Function Definition and Examples Grammatical function is the  syntactic role played by a word or phrase in the context of a particular clause or sentence. Sometimes called simply function. In English, grammatical function is primarily determined by a words position in a sentence, not by inflection (or word endings). Examples and Observations The five elements of clause structure, namely subject, verb, object, complement, and adverbial, are grammatical functions. In addition, we distinguish predicator as the function carried by the main verb in a clause, and predicate as the function assigned to the portion of a clause excluding the subject.​Within phrases, certain types of units can function as modifiers, more specifically as premodifiers or postmodifiers.There is no one-to-one correspondence between functions and their possible formal realizations. Thus the functions of subject and direct object are often realized by a noun phrase, but can also be realized by a clause. (Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker, and Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2014.) Linguistic Context and Grammatical Function The production and interpretation of an utterance act is anchored to the constitutive parts of language: syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics. While syntax is composed of structural units, for instance, constituents in traditional grammar, phrases in functional grammar and generative grammar, groups in systemic functional grammar or constructions in construction grammar, it is the linear ordering of the individual parts within a hierarchically structured sequence which constitutes their grammatical function. The adverb really, for instance, realizes the grammatical function of a sentence adverbial with wide scope if positioned initially or finally, as is the case in the utterance really, Sarah is sweet. If the adverb really is positioned medially, it is assigned the grammatical function of the adverbial of subjunct with narrow scope, as in Sarah is really sweet. Or, the proper noun Mary can realize the grammatical function of object in Sally kissed Mary, and it ca n realize the grammatical function of subject in Mary kissed Sally. Thus, it is not the grammatical construction as such which is assigned a grammatical function. Rather, it is the positioning of a grammatical construction within a hierarchically structured sequence which assigns it a grammatical function. (Anita Fetzer, Contexts in Interaction: Relating Pragmatic Wastebaskets. What Is a Context?: Linguistic Approaches and Challenges, ed. by Rita Finkbeiner, Jà ¶rg Meibauer, and Petra B. Schumacher. John Benjamins, 2012.) The Grammatical Functions of Subjects The most complex grammatical function is that of subject. Consider the example in (1).(1) The tigers hunt prey at night.Tigers precedes the verb. It agrees with the verb in number, as becomes clear when it is made singular: The tiger hunts its prey at night. In the active construction, it is never marked by any preposition. The corresponding full passive clause ... is Prey is hunted by the tigers at night; in the passive clause, the subject of (1), the tigers, turns up inside the prepositional phrase by the tigers.The above criteria- agreement in number with the verb, never being preceded by a preposition, occurring in the by phrase in the passive- are grammatical, and the noun they pick out in a given clause is the grammatical subject of that clause. (Jim Miller, An Introduction to English Syntax. Edinburgh University Press, 2002.) The Grammatical Functions of Direct Objects and Indirect Objects In traditional grammatical descriptions, the grammatical function borne by her in the English example in (41) has sometimes been called the indirect object, and the book has been called the direct object:(41) He gave her a book.The phrase the book is also traditionally assumed to be the direct object in examples like (42):(42) He gave a book to her.The classification of the book as a direct object in both (41) and (42) may have a semantic rather than a syntactic basis: there may be a tendency to assume that the book must bear the same grammatical function in each instance because its semantic role does not change. ... [T]he LFG [lexical-functional grammar] view differs: in example (41), the phrase her bears the OBJ [object] function, while in example (42), the phrase a book is the OBJ.Within the transformational tradition, evidence for the LFG classification for English came from certain formulations of the rule of passivization, which applies uniformly to transform an object into a subject. (Mary Dalrymple, Lexical Functional Grammar. Emerald Group, 2001.)