After high school Essay

As we get older, more and more problems begin to form. When we reach our teenage years though, it becomes worse. One problem I think the hardest is for young adults is deciding what we want to do for the rest of our lives when we are so young. You can go to college, military or the working field depending on your preference. When we’re in high school, we have to raise our hand and ask to use the restroom, go to the office to make any phone call no matter how important it may be and have ridiculous dress code rules. You are treated like a child from kindergarten all the way up to senior year and yet they expect you to make the most important decision of your life then. One thing that people do straight out of high school is go directly to the work field. Although its normally in most people’s best interest not to, not everyone is made for college. Unless you are extremely lucky, it has been found that people who didn’t advance to other education after high school make 85% less than those with a college diploma. My brother has a roommate in college and his dad dropped out of college after his first year or two and he makes more money than most people will ever see. His wife doesn’t have to work and his kids have it made when it comes to the materialistic things in life. He owns his own real estate company in Pittsburgh and sells and rents houses to people. He does most of his own work so he doesn’t have to pay people to do it, which is very convenient for him. Although most people do not get as lucky as him, that’s okay for some people because money isn’t everything though. Sometimes it’s better to take time off of school instead of wasting all that money when you don’t even know what you are planning on doing for the rest of your life and going straight to college. There are many reasons why people decide to not go to college, not because they just don’t think that they can do it. Sometimes people have kids before they plan, family problems or even they just can’t get help to pay for it so it holds them back from attending. College is an expensive thing that most people don’t want to pay for. You have years of loans to pay back and for a lot of people; they end up miserable at their jobs after a few years. It is also very hard to get help to pay for you college education. When my cousin tried getting help for college, because she had a full time job and no kids she could get barely any money even though she wasn’t getting any help from her parents. If college still isn’t the right thing for you but you don’t want McDonalds to be your only  definite in for a job, the military is a great option. Although you have to work your butt off for it, the military gives awesome benefits. Of course it’s nothing that the NBA players make, which is ridiculous, but it is still a lot just for being in the military. A player in the NBA averages about $5.15 million per year and all the do is dribble and shoot a basketball for a living where people in the military have to work their tails off every single day to fight for our country and they only get about $70 thousand per year. There is a lot of schooling that they will pay for you so you can still get an education while being in the military. Not only will you get your schooling paid for, but also you can even get paid for going. Also, they have programs like ROTC where you can still train for the military but you are in an actual college getting your education. As well as getting your education paid for, you also get free medical care, financial security and you can retire around 20 years before other people do. If you get all of that stuff paid for, is there even anything left to buy? Food and housing. No worries, in the Army, you receive a regular paycheck and free housing including meals. If you live off of base, you will still receive a housing allowance. Even if the amount of free meals and the checks don’t cover all of the food you want, some restaurants and grocery stores offer military discounts, which will also save a lot of money. My dad owns houses and rent them out to people and the first thing he looks at is what kind of job they have to make sure they can keep up with rent. Last summer there was a guy from the Army that tried to rent of my dad and he told him that the monthly paying isn’t going to be a big deal because he gets checks from the Army specifically for his housing so it is totally free for him. Although college isn’t everyone’s best option, I believe it’s more worth it than working forever at a job that barely gets you by. Colleges can really help you out when you aren’t exactly sure what you want to do. Some even make you take a full year of general education classes just so you are sure that you want to be in that major. Nobody should waste thousands of dollars just to change their mind like 50-70% of college kids end up doing. Also, most colleges have classes that help you transition from high school to college and help get good study habits and things like that. For most kids, what they do for the school like sports, music, theatre and clubs is the most important part of high school. Proceeding to college gives you the opportunity to further  your career in things like that where there are plenty of sports, clubs, different bands and also sororities and fraternities. Although that would be going to college for the wrong reasons, a college education in general expands your knowledge base, makes you more organized and exposes you to a whole new world of learning. There are also so many different types of colleges though. Depending on your preference, you can go to school for a few months or 12 years. There are community colleges, tech schools, four-year schools and also schools that are totally based on what you want to do. At the four-year schools, you have to take a certain amount of general education courses where as a college with a certain amount of month program, all of your classes are dedicated for your major. Every school that you go to has a variety of majors to choose from which also make the college option hard. There are some things that people will never even hear of until they go to college and even then, there are thousands of jobs you can do with most majors that people will probably never even know throughout their entire life. A lot of people don’t realize that a really big benefit of going to both college and the military is the life long friends that you make. Of course you’ll always have your friends from high school, but college and the military both give you the opportunity to start over and make new friends. As you can see, there are benefits to every option you decide to do when you graduate high school. There are also a lot of cons to the option that you decide. It all depends on the person and what they are like. It’s just a very hard decision to make when you are barely old enough to stay outside past 11pm. We are very uneducated about the all the different majors in college and the benefits of or other options if we decided to not go to college. We have only lived about a quarter of our life and we are expected to decide what we want to do for three more quarters of our life. This decision is the one that is going to affect you for the rest of your life and I just don’t think that we are educated enough to make it.

History and Influences of Mexican Americans and the United States Essay

Looking around the United States, it is not hard to see the influence that Spanish-speaking nations, namely Mexico, have had on us. Every day we see signs in Spanish. We hear it as we walk through the streets of Madison and Milwaukee. We feel the impact it has on us in our public school system. We also see the controversy it causes on the news. What I will be attempting to explore in this paper is the origins of Mexican Americans and their continuing influence on the United States. I believe it is important to first understand the history of the relationship between Americans and Mexicans to understand the preconceived notions many Americans have towards Mexico. Although both nations are technically â€Å"Americas†, for the duration of the paper I will refer to the United States as America. After winning its independence from Spain, Mexico first had large-scale contact with Americans during the early 1800s when Americans were migrating farther west to what is present day Texas. Mexico allowed these citizens to reside despite the tension and friction that was building between Whites, Indians and Mexicans in these territories. Texas citizens declared themselves an independent nation, and due to the United States recognition of such, a war was prompted between the United States and Mexico. Mexico lost the war as well as its territories in North America. Mexican citizens who stayed behind in the lost territories became American citizens (Marger, 2012). One of the things that always confounded me about racism in the south, and states like Arizona, is the complete indifference or ignorance of this fact. I have always wondered how the White Supremacist mindset works when Mexican Americans have a natural ancestry in these states and were the first citizens of these states. How can we still see bumper stickers that say â€Å"Learn English or Go Home†, or â€Å"Go back to your own country† when the first citizens of these states were Mexicans? I believe that a cause for this is the lack of emphasis of early Mexican American history taught in schools. I I believe that if this were emphasized, these specific ethnocentric arguments would be dispelled sooner. Immigration of Mexicans and other Hispanics to America is not going to stop, so to ignore their political influence would be foolish. Demographics are showing that the Hispanic population is on the rise. There are an estimated 6. 6 million illegal immigrants from Mexico alone residing in the United States (Marger, 2012). The European American population, although still the largest in size, declining. (Marger, 2012). Since there are an increasing amount of people in the United States who are a mixed race, such as myself who is part Mexican American, true numbers of those who identify as part Hispanic are not yet known. (Marger, 2012). I believe that due to this, it is more crucial than ever to understand what kind of influence Mexican Americans will have on the socioeconomic and political structure of the future America. As much as certain groups of people would want to deny the influence of Mexican culture, as well as that of other Spanish-speaking ethnicities on the United States, the population statistics, (as well as the 2012 Election results, in my opinion) prove otherwise. Hispanics are the largest minority group (Naumann, Benet-Martinez, Espinoza 2013), and it is estimated that by 2050, 46% of the United States population will be Hispanic. (Marger, 2012). Insofar as political influence is concerned, 2008 held 19. 5 million registered Hispanic voters, and it is estimated that 23. 7 million registered voters were Hispanic in the 2012 election. To more specifically cite the influence of Mexican Americans in today’s voting world, there are 33 million Mexican Americans in the United States and 73% of them were born in America (Naumann, et al 2013). Despite attempts of the Republican Party to capture the vote of Hispanic Americans, 70% of them are still voting Democratic. (Naumann, et al 2013). Although Cubans tend to vote primarily more for Republicans, the larger population of Mexican Americans is still voting for Democrats. (Naumann, et al 2013). By analyzing these data, I can only conclude that the dire need for the Hispanic vote from the GOP is the sole purpose of the existence of Marco Rubio in modern politics. A question arises, as much as Mexican Americans influence us, how much do we influence them? The answer would have to depend on how in favor they are of assimilation. Studies have shown that most Mexican American youth would prefer a â€Å"biculturism† form of acculturation, preferring to hold on to their ethnic customs but also to embrace new American ones (Naumann, et al 2013). It was also shown in these studies that the more deep-routed Mexican Americans tend to be in their ethnicity, that the likelier they are to vote liberally (Naumann, et al 2013). Understanding Mexican Americans role in the workplace currently will also help explain motivations as to how they vote and continue to influence the rest of America. A study published in 2005 showed that Mexicans, while living in Mexico, have fewer expectations for advancement in the workplace, including to upper-management positions. This leads them to believe there are less forms of discrimination based on age, sex and ethnicity (Bennington, Wagman, Stallone, 2005). Although these studies were done for Mexicans, not Mexican Americans, I believe that during the newest wave of immigration this attitude could carry over, which could explain at least one reason that despite the large population, there are not heaping amounts of Mexican Americans in upper-level positions. For work life itself, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mexican Americans have at large suffered the same impact of the recession other ethnicities have suffered, having Unemployment peaking strongly in the 2009-2011 years and just now in 2013 starting to make a recovery (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2013). I believe this relates to the influence Mexican Americans have on us because since newer immigrants do not seek power as quickly as other ethnic groups, it can lead to certain prejudices of them being unmotivated, which in turn would influence behavior of White Americans to treat them as subordinates. In summation, I believe that educating the true history of Mexican Americans (such as their origin as joining the US as citizens after the Mexican War), can help stop certain forms of prejudice, as well as helping Americans to realize that they are an ever-increasing demographic that is not going away anytime soon. Their influence is growing in US Politics, and this will have to be recognized if certain political groups wish to survive in the new century. I believe that if there is more respect given to them while they are a minority group, the more respect they will give to White America once Whites lose their status as the dominant ethnic group.

Hinduism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Hinduism - Essay Example The paper will discuss the religious beliefs that are practiced by Hindus as well as their dialogue. Beliefs and dialogue One of the fundamental beliefs among the Hindu community that distinguishes it from other religion is its definition of the â€Å"meaning or purpose of life† (Oppenheimer, p. 1). While other religions’ primary objective focuses on allegiance to a supernatural power, Hinduism’s definition the purpose of life balances allegiance to the supreme authority and the need to fulfill bodily desires. Depending on a person’s level in life, the religion defines different goals to be pursued at every stage. The purposes of life at respective stages as defined under the religion include the need to achieve an individual’s purpose. As a result, the Hindus believe that every individual exists for a particular purpose and that purpose should be fulfilled in the person’s present life, before death. The religion also believes that every indi vidual has a defined level of personal success that should be pursued and achieved. Similarly, every Hindu is entitled to fulfill personal desires that include â€Å"enjoyment, sexual and other desires† (Oppenheimer, p. 1). The religion’s definition of life further provides for personal intellect among its believers. These beliefs distinguish Hinduism religion from other religions that puts emphasis on the supreme power rather than on the believers.

Purpose and Function of Newspeak Research Paper

Purpose and Function of Newspeak - Research Paper Example This shows that the language is widely used in Europe, particularly in Germany. The contextual theme of this study is based on a focus to clarify the purpose and principles of the Newspeak. As such, the study hopes to point out that in the event that the natural human atmosphere is affected by bad politics, the result is a corruption of the language; hence, the thoughts of people. Thus, this argument presents the main concept in support of inventing Newspeak. Largely, it can be argued that the invention decision of the language was informed by a desire to fulfill the ideological needs of the English Socialism or Ingsoc that was present by then. However, this form of language has been dormant and rarely used till later years such as 1984 since no one used Newspeak as the exclusive communication means, orally or written. During these periods, leading articles such as published by Times were written in the Newspeak language but required a the services of a specialist for the tour de force to take place. The expectation was that Newspeak would act as a replacement and supersede the Oldspeak (standard English) by around 2050 (Adams 60-72) However, the language steadily gained ground as all members in political parties at this time were optimistic and eager to incorporate the Newspeak words in their speeches. This was so that they would be recognized and defined by the new grammatical constructions that accompanied their language (Moustaki 50-6 1). At around the year 1984 when the uptake of Newspeak language was at its peak, the availed dictionary for the language through the Ninth and Tenth editions were provisional; hence, largely contained archaic and superfluous words and grammatical formations that required suppressions.

Calture and landscape Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Calture and landscape - Research Paper Example The country can be hot and dry in one region and at the same time cold and freezing in another (Dwyer and Alderman, 2008). However, the only universal connection between these different regions is the indigenous people. They all posses a enthusiasm for life and make any guest swiftly feel relieved. The estancias, tango, and gauchos are the country’s most well known attractions and once there, guests find life’s tempo exciting. The natives only stop for siesta. They play hard, enjoy life to its fullest, and work harder. Most guests go straight for the country’s headquarters; Buenos Aires, which is a thriving modern and cosmopolitan city. It is full of character and well known for its exhilarating nightlife, fantastic food and excellent shopping prospects (Palang et al., 2003). Hotels come in a range of standard and price, those offering more facilities and better service being in the upper price bracket. In the capital, Buenos Aires, sumptuous hotels are spread al l over the city while not expensive hotels are mostly located in Avenida de Mayo. Anywhere you choose to hang about in Argentina, service is usually excellent, and nearly all quarters have air conditioning. Anywhere you tour in Argentina, you will not be short of activities to take part in and things to see. It is a great family vacation as well as being a preferred haunt with tourists (Mayda, 2013). The food is outstanding and the shopping is healthier. The nation of Argentina is separated by its weather patterns. The south and north of the country experiences a very different weather patterns throughout the year. The northern Argentina experiences a subtropical climate with rainfall throughout the year. The heat can frequently be high and the air is often humid. One will need to pack frivolous linens and clothes if you are on vacation in this area. The central region of Argentina typically experiences lovely weather with humid and hot interlude during summer, from December to Febr uary, and cool and wet weather patterns during winter, from July and August. December all through to February is busy in central region, as lots of Europeans arrive to seek out the winter sun (Rubenstein, 1999). Tierra del Fuedo, in the southern region has a sub arctic temperature all year round. It is perfect for winter spots and it is not so perfect for those looking to getaway to the sun. Heavy and warm clothes are a necessary for those travelling to the south. For residents of the northern part, Argentina gives a possibility for traveler to enjoy at least two summers in a year. However, the country’s great variety and the extended geography shows that visiting is pleasant at any season of the year. The climate of Argentina ranges from subtropical in the north to steamy and humid in the center while it is cold in the southern part. The upper Ades region experiences erratic rainfall with much flash flood during summer, scorching heat, and snow at higher elevations (Duncan e t al., 2007). The lowlands receive enough rainfalls that support the swampy forests and the upland savanna. Rainfall decreases as you move to the west while shallow summer floods are commonly experienced in the east. After quite along period of the summer, winter period is pronounced. This gives chance for a dry season and takes off the brutal summer heat. On the

Criminal Justice System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Criminal Justice System - Essay Example Otherwise, the people would lose confidence in their capacity to protect the people and keep them safe. The most insistent factors that must be considered in the case given are first, the protocol of the police station or simply the rules that they must follow, second, the rights of the suspects and third, upholding justice for the victim. It may seem that all these are very distinct and therefore uncorrelated at first glimpse, but a thorough study will show that they are very much consistent with each other. Given the situation, what I would probably do is to insist to my partner that we redo the interview with me in the room and the same being videotaped. I would make an effort to notify accordingly that affirmative action must be done. This would assert a number of the major things that must be considered in an ethical decision. It would not be far fetch to consider that the confession was coerced. Not to mention that both are minors aged only at 14 years old. â€Å"The ethical t reatment of others requires that we treat them as rational agents who are authors of their own decisions, and not as tools that we may use or manipulate as we like† (Kleinig, 2008). It is by duty that I uphold that justice is served. The mandate for interviews was established for a reason.

Political Economy of Work and Health in Silicon Valley Case Study - 8

Political Economy of Work and Health in Silicon Valley - Case Study Example Santa Clara County was originally one of the counties of California and formed part of statehood. When California was added to the United States in 1848, Santa Clara County attracted many other towns around it after the gold rush. The towns were supply centers for California’s gold rush dealers. A brief description of the Chinese Immigrant and Native Americans The Chinese immigrants first came to America in 1838 and the inflow peaked in 1850. The Chinese were flocking to California for the gold rush. It was difficult to assimilate Chinese into Native American culture. While in America, they maintained their ways, but their culture was considered by Native Americans as inferior. A brief description of the â€Å"Temp Slave† Economy Tempt slave economy is a new promise for personal freedom and individual creativity. It provides new ways of jobs creation in which one can design out of temporary consulting engagement and employment. In temp slave, people must volunteer to be employed and offer employment to others.

Stock Market Development in Qatar Economy Essay

Stock Market Development in Qatar Economy - Essay Example It is believed that inflation bears a positive influence on common stocks. This is so because the shareholders tend to earn more money for their goods and services when they sell them during the time when there is a high inflation rate in the market. This gives a positive relationship between an inflation and the stock market prices. When one, therefore, tries to assess the impact of inflation on the stock prices performance, there is a positive relationship which is achieved between the two. Economists measure economic growth in through the use of an increase in the size of the economy of a nation. Gross Domestic Product is a widely used measure of an economic output. The term is normally used to refer to the total value found from the final goods and services that are produced within a country’s borders within a given year. When measuring GDP, normally the ownership of a particular goods and services are not normally considered. The measure, however, considers the only the f inal goods and services that consumed by the final user but not those goods and services that were used as inputs in the production of other goods and services. Researchers have found out that there lies some relationship between the stock prices and the future growth of the real GDP. Two explanations exist to prove this fact, and the first explanation is the one that states that there are changes in information that might occur in the future about the RGGDP, and such changes in information can change today’s prices in the stock market.

Deer Hunt Essay Example for Free

Deer Hunt Essay It is 5:30 am on opening morning of deer hunting season and my alarm explodes into a racket that would wake an army. I roll out of bed and rub the sleep from my eyes. I only slept six hours last night because my family and I were preparing for the hunt, getting the guns ready and laying out our orange clothes. As I begin to get dressed, the smell of fresh pancakes wakes me up. It is at this time I realize the season is upon us. Since January I have been waiting for this day to come. Today begins the annual nine day season that brings our family together each November. After stumbling down upstairs I go to the computer and turn on Da Yoopers’ â€Å"Da Turdy Point Buck†, the song our family must listen to before we head out the door and into the woods. With the song blaring through the house, I walk into my brother’s room, turn the lights on, rip the covers from his bed, and narrowly escape a swift kick from his leg. After a breakfast of pancakes my brother and I jump into his truck and head for the hills. We own 120 acres three miles from the house, so we must drive to our destination. Any other morning there would be no vehicles on the road, but this particular morning we pass about ten other trucks all taking their passengers to their particular hunting spots. Three inches of fresh snow fell last night, creating a blanket of freshness that reflects the last rays of moonlight. As we drive into our property we see fresh deer tracks and my heart starts pumping, I have been away from Minnesota for a few months and this morning is the first time I entered these woods since September. A few hundred yards into the woods we see three dear walking the road. They bound off into the darkness in flashes of brown silhouetted by snow. We park the truck and before we shut the engine off Jimmy tells me we will sit until 9:00, then I will walk to where he is sitting, and we will go home. We shut the engine off and do not speak again, for any human noise made will be heard by deer within a quarter mile. Trying to make as little noise as possible I walk to where I will sit. Along the way, I creep over a hill and see four deer. Immediately upon seeing me they streak through the trees; I stop and listen to their feet pounding into the earth, and realize there are many deer in the area and my chances of seeing a deer while sitting will be very good. After 15 minutes of sneaking through the oak and maple trees I find the tree I will sit in. My father set the stand in the tree a few weeks before my arrival. I crawl up and as I sit down it is just getting light in the east. I sit and wait. As it gets lighter and lighter I wait for the first gun-shots of the season, and sure enough, POW. The season has begun. I watch the morning pass by, an occasional raven flies by calling to its family, and all of a sudden something catches my eye. I look to the south and over the top of the hill comes a deer, my first deer of the season. I watch and realize it is a fawn; it is this year’s baby and is bounding over fallen trees and around trees. Right behind is it’s mother, they are running, probably frightened by some other hunter. I sit and watch these two deer trot right by my stand. Then for some unknown reason they stop thirty yards from where I am sitting totally unaware of my presence. They stand there totally alert, occasionally looking from where they came, their coats full of warm brown hair that will protect them from the harsh winter that awaits them. I watch them and I am part of the woods, I have become part of the tree for that moment. After a few moments the doe and fawn bounce away, into the unknown. I spend the next hour watching the woods for movement, looking for the slightest movement that will indicate the presence of some animal, maybe a deer walking through the woods feeding, or maybe a squirrel on its never-ending hunt for food. At 8:45 I get up and walk to my brother, the cold weather has found its way into my body through my many layers of clothes. I walk ever so silently hoping to find a deer over the hill, grazing in the field. I see nothing but when I get to my brother he tells me I drove five deer past his stand. We walk back to the truck and head for home, we didn’t shoot anything this morning but the hunt was a success, we both saw many deer and we were in the woods during the most beautiful part of the day. As we drove through the woods towards home I am totally content, there is nothing more I could have right now, the experience of being in the woods, and my family.

Nanyang Optical Company Strategy

Nanyang Optical Company Strategy Overview Nanyang Optical is a well established company in Singapore, with more than 30 years of experience in retail, wholesale and manufacturing in the eyewear industry. They are one of Singapores largest optical retail chains with more than 20 outlets operating in Singapore, Indonesia and China. The reason why Nanyang Optical is able to get to where it is today is because of the product design and development strategies they have adopted throughout the years. Nanyang Optical uses both the market pull and technology push strategy to attract new customers and retain old customers. The managing director of Nanyang Optical, Mr Yang Wah Kiang, is a man with foresight. He was able to see opportunities in coming up with innovative eyewear designs, which eventually gave them an edge over competitors. His entrepreneurial abilities, together with his creativity as a product designer, led to successful creations of award winning eyewear. This included the Urband design, which product development process will look studied in this paper. Background Eyeglasses were created in the 13th century with the sole purpose of aiding the user to read and write [1]. Developments in the eyeglasses were in the functional aspect rather than on the â€Å"fashion† aspect. It was not until the 1980s that customers insist on having eyeglass frames as both a functional equipment and fashion accessory. Since then, design of eyewear began to pick off with many clothing designers diversifying their resources in designing high-end mainstream frames [2]. Companies around the world, in Japan, China, Europe, are designing eyewear for the mass market. Both their frames, similar looking within their classes, vary only in colors and/or materials. Niche designers such as Alain Milki and Toki specialized in unique and more expensive frames with great customer appeal. However, customers have to pay a premium for such products. Nanyang Optical took advantage of the situation to come up with innovative eyewear that has its own identity and character. Mr Yang came up with simple yet strong frames which were aesthetically pleasant. This move, together with some marketing strategies, gave Nanyang Optical a competitive advantage over other retailers. Scope In chapter 2, the general strategies adopted by Nanyang Optical, such as the market pull and technology push factors will be presented. In Chapter 3, the product development process of a particular eyewear, Urband will be studied. This will be followed by an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the development process in Chapter 4. The Nanyang Optical Strategy Product differentiation is imperative as customers hunt for the cheaper alternative between two similar products [3]. Nanyang Optical was able to identify opportunities [4] in the fashion eyewear industry, designing high differentiated frames that are functionally superior, specifically for the mass market who desire niche designs and high-end market, with affordable prices relative to clothing designers eyewear. Nanyang Optical adopted both market pull and technology push approaches in their eyewear designs, with a customer focused competitive strategy. Market Pull Strategy Flexis, Urband And Link frames The Flexis, Urband and Link â€Å"innovation eyewear† are shining examples of new platform, market pull products. These frames are marketed to anyone of any age, even old people who feel they are â€Å"young at heart†. Flexis appeals to customers who desire a full rim frame that is lightweight, comfortable and has minimal visual obstruction [5]. The Urband frame attracts the masses with its innovative design of a light, modern, almost indestructible frame that is aesthetically superior. Its titanium frame variant offers a sleek, urban style whereas its acetate counterpart portrays a more youthful look with its thicker, hipper build. With all these features, it is priced lower than luxury brands. Link frames are catered for the niche segment of mass market with its simple design and its wide variety of shapes, colors and styles for the front piece. Customers are given a special casing, shaped as an oval with a center cut out for attaching to their bags to create a fashion statement. Link spectacles can be easily accessed and stowed without the hassle of removing the case. Urband and Link were chosen as winners of the 2006 iF material award, a valuable award viewed by many designers. Although Nanyang Opticals competitors were able to design such frames, they required special tools for assembly and disassembly, causing inconvenience to retailers and customers. Nanyang Optical was first to develop fuss-free innovative eyewear in the market, leading other competitors who claimed to sell â€Å"innovative eyewear† with Prada, Channel or Gucci logos on their frames or sold innovative design frames at twice to four times the price. Japanese innovative eyewear company Toki, the closest competitor to Nanyang Optical, is unable to offer attractive prices as a result of high manufacturing costs in Japan [6]. Excellent Customer Service And Boutique Stalls As part of its corporate values, Nanyang Optical ensures that customers receive the best service and shopping experience, adopting a more expensive channel contact in the form of branches to educate customers about its differentiated and innovative products. The result would be customer loyalty and greater value. Customers contribute feedback on the quality of the products and obtain rapid response in form of improved products and services. Nanyang Optical founded the Alexis Eyewear Boutiques in 1988, which house high-end exclusive eyewear in prime city locations. These outlets target local customers and tourists, providing them with premium services. Winning the Best Eyewear category for three consecutive years was a testimony to their services and excellent customer relationship management [7]. Technology Push Strategy Customers demand corporate social responsibility, causing a paradigm shift from â€Å"less pollution† to â€Å"carbon negative products that have a positive effect on the environment†. Companies have to balance the triangle of sustainability, competitiveness and innovation to ensure future success [8]. Nanyang Optical has embarked on changing their stores and products to â€Å"Green† products, utilizing a full circle recycling system based on recycled materials [9]. Despite having the constraints and limitations of using recycled materials, Nanyang Optical was able to go one step further to create a fundamentally new product that is international award winning, eco-friendly and eco-iconic design such as LinkSkin, made out of recycled materials. Other models including Eyelet used 70% recycled materials with no soldering in its construction, a process that could add emissions of CO2. The award-winning Urband design used no springs, screws or soldering, yet having a stronger structure compared to its competitor models. With its strong design team from Eye-biz, French fashion designers, good quality manufacturers from China and a top management team focused on innovation, eco-design, Nanyang Optical will continue to stay ahead of its competitors in providing a wide range of compelling products to pull the markets, gain customer loyalty and value and innovate new technology products for the benefits of customers and the company. Product Development Process Of Urband In this chapter, the focus will be on the resources and time taken for the development of Urband frames. Urband frame was a brand new concept which uses S-clip to replace the usual springs and screws. Nanyang Optical divided the product development process into three interconnected parts: product function design, product fashion design, and manufacture, with the latter two parts being outsourced to its partners. This method makes good use of all the resources and adopts suitable product design strategy like concurrent engineering to optimize its product design process and handle the new technology requirements and fashion trends. In most cases of eyewear design companies, it takes two to three years to finish the design process of a new product. Therefore, it is vital to arrange the product process properly and gather all the available resources to minimize the cost. Product Function Design This part covers the whole product developing process. It usually lasts for 18 to 36 months depending on the type of products. Nanyang Optical is mainly responsible for the technical improvement and feature development of its new products. In order to take advantage of the low manpower cost in China, Nanyang Optical owns a 1,000-square-foot RD center in Shenzhen. This center houses 10 senior local Chinese research and development professionals and product designers whose main focus is on the technical issues, such material and new frame design concepts. Developing new products is a tedious and time consuming process that involves significant investments and endless obstacles. When Nanyang Optical first came up with the new S-clip design for the frame, it took nearly three years and several iterations to perfect the design, choose the proper material and settle on the final models. Though this design was harder to manufacture in comparison with more conventional designs, these evolutionary new frames were without any springs, screws or soldering and hence they made eyewear stronger and eliminated the age-old problem caused by screws loosing. [10] This new design helped Nanyang Optical to steadily rise among the western rivals. In recent years, Nanyang Optical was quick to respond to customers inclination towards a greener environment. Together with its powerful product design team, Nanyang acted on its social responsibility and began its product development towards eco-friendly and reusable eyewear. Product Fashion Design In this area, Nanyang Optical partnered three French fashion eyewear designers who have experiences with top brand company as well as a sharp trend sense in eyewear fashion. As soon as the prototypes of Urband frames from the China development center were ready, the three designers would be responsible for creating contemporary styles, branding and packaging for Nanyang Optical to enhance the product appeal. The designers will also assemble the product with their French taste of beauty and handle the delicate marketing push sales, hence retaining the high-end frames and attracting more customers. This process usually takes about 6 months. Nanyang Optical believes that French fashion is perceived to be the best and consumers would tend to buy and pay more to purchase French brand, which would allow them â€Å"to have a much better chance of succeeding internationally† than a Asian or an American brands [2]. Manufacture This part will begin after the fashion design is completed. If the manufacturing went smoothly, the latest product could be finished in 1 month. In order to concentrate on the development of eyewear, Nanyang Optical does not operate a factory, which would cost too much effort to deal with the detail fairs. In fact, they outsource their frame production to a Shenzhen company, which is located in a well-developed place with eyewear production facilities. This allows them to lower the manufacture costs. As the unique design like Urband or Link from Nanyang Optical has high failure rates and high production cost, the product development center would send one team to stay with the production company to deal with the production problems as well as inspect the quality, and report the manufacture burden to the development center in time. [2,10] Other Resources Nanyang Optical also cooperates with SIMTech, one of A*STARs center in sustainable manufacturing technologies, to assess the life cycle of its business operations and identify potential areas for improving sustainability. SIMTech has also aided Nanyang Optical in making industrial polymer waste into fashionable eyewear frames by cutting the recycled pellets. This product is not only eco-friendly, but it also helps Nanyang Optical in saving its production cost. [11] Analysis Of Product Development Process In this chapter, the steps taken for the product development process will be evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses. Design In coming up with new eyewear design, the managing director, Mr. Yang, assembled a team of ten research design professionals and trained product designers. The professionals were hand-picked and paid competitively. Having a dedicated product development team allows them to focus intensively on research into facial contours, fashion trends and optical technicalities. For example, it was discovered that titanium could not be used for the S-clips because friction caused titanium to discolor from grey to black. Stainless steel was subsequently adopted for the S-clips. Hence, teams dedicated to their own specific areas allow them to have more time and concentration to do what they are good at, in order to recognise problems and overcome obstacles more easily. Partnership The forming of partnerships with the 3 French designers allowed Mr Yang to leverage on his partners expertise and gave himself more time to focus on issues that were better suited to his own skill set. This allows product development to work concurrently and at the same time give the French designers full responsibilities to work on fashion design, packaging, branding and marketing aspects. The combined product design and fashion efforts were successful when Urband and Linkskin were selected as winners of 2006 iF (International Forum) material award and a 2007 Red Dot award. The Dulles, Va.-based Industrial Designers Society of America named Linkskin a finalist for its 2008 International Design Excellence Awards [12]. More recently, Urband Origami collection had got another two design awards, Red Dot Design Award winner 2009 and 2009 iF material award gold [13]. While Linkskin won 2009 International Forum Design Award Gold. Branding And Marketing Launched of Urband at the SILMO (an essential trade show for professionals in the optics/eyewear sector) industry fair in Paris in October 2005 was very successful as the French national newspaper Le Figaro chose the titanium Urband as the industrys #1 new design and the acetate Urband as #3. Apart from the additional media coverage, one publication even placed Urband alongside mega-brand Oakley in its reviews. The positive reviews and media coverage puts the product in a good position for sales in the market. This showed how important going for the right kind of media coverage is. Mr Yang was smart to launch the eyewear at Europe as he wanted the brand to be identified as European in order to have high prestige and greater pricing power. He also chose the correct fair to launch his eyewear as the fair was a stylish affair, thus giving his eyewear a positive outlook. Manufacturing Outsourcing of the manufacturing aspects allowed Mr Yang to gather all his resources to focus on creativity and improvement on the design of the frame. However, the initial outcome in search for outsourcing to factories was disappointing even though China was responsible for much of the worlds eyewear frame output. Few factory managers were willing to manufacture Urband or Link frames because of their unusual designs. The problem Nanyang Optical faced was that most work has to be performed by hand. This was made more challenging with the many variations between styles and colors. Another problem was that employees have to be given special training and with the high turnover rate, training for new employees has to be carried out frequently. These led to quality control problems, more rework and low yields. 10,000 titanium Urband frames were produced in China in a test run. The components had been outsourced to several factories and the frames had been assembled by hand by Eye-Biz employees. The production was considered a failure because Mr Yang had ordered enough components for 4,000 frames, but only 1,300 assembled frames passed the quality inspection. He had to order more parts and eventually 10,000 finished frames were assembled and approved. â€Å"It was a production nightmare† said Mr Yang. Therefore, when outsourcing is used, the disadvantage would be having the need to work closely with the factories, provide technical support and oversee quality control. Feedbacks The 10,000 frames were distributed in Europe to gather consumer feedbacks and generate industry buzz. The frames manage to sell well, but some consumers later return them to retailers as the color painted onto the titanium faded after several months. Mr Yang resolves this issue with a better color plating technique. Hence, we see how feedbacks will encourage continuous improvement in on-going product development and enhance the brands reputation as a reliable and fashionable product. Conclusion In this paper, we have seen how Nanyang Optical was able to identify the correct opportunities and come up with the right kind of eyewear designs at the appropriate time. They brought in a new kind of innovative eyewear for the mass who wanted niche designs at affordable pricing. These designs were able to cater to customers of all ages, hence attracting many customers. Besides this, Nanyang Optical was responsive towards customers feedback by improving their products and services. This was helpful in building customer loyalty. When there was a move towards a greener environment, Nanyang Optical was also quick to start coming up with eco-friendly products made out of recycled materials. Their sensitivity towards market needs and technology direction allow Nanyang Optical to succeed and maintain its own pool of customers, attracting more potential ones at the same time. In the process of product development, Nanyang Optical was able to take advantage of the low labour cost in China, as well as leverage on the creativity of its French fashion designers. The French designers were able to give a French outlook to the new eyewear, hence increasing the chances of the eyewear in succeeding internationally. Nanyang Optical also practiced concurrent engineering whereby prototypes of new designs were made as early as possible in order to discover any problems in the early stages. Outsourcing certain parts of the development process was a good option for Nanyang Optical as it not only allows them to be able to focus on what they are good at, but also allows them to achieve higher standards in areas they are not experts at. Nanyang Optical was careful in marketing their products. They chose to launch their new eyewear at a prestigious European fair, thus raising their own standards and allowing them to price the products at a higher range. However, not everything was smooth sailing for Nanyang Optical. The biggest obstacle they faced was the challenge in manufacturing the unusual eyewear. This was because most work was to be performed by hand, hence making the process very labor intensive. Training of employees needed to be carried out frequently due to high turnover rates, aggravating the quality control problems and lowering the yields. Every product development process has its own unique set of problems. The company must be prepared and well-equipped to handle all kinds of situations in order to stay competitive. The distribution of workload among partners is also very important as this will contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the entire product development process. Every stage in the development of a new product, from the initial design stage to the final launch stage must be planned with care to maximize the chances of success. References [1] Glasses (2009). Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Wikipedia Web site, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasses [2] Wee Beng Geok and Nigel Goodwin, Nanyang Optical: beyond production design from idea to launch, The Asia Business Case study, September 21, 2006 [3] Timothy C.G.Fisher and Robert G.Waschik. (2002). Managerial Economics: A game theoretic approach. New York: Routledge. [4] Leong Kah Fai. (2009). Chapter one: Introduction to Product Design. NTU. Singapore. [powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from Nanyang Technological University Blackboard. Site: http://edventure.ntu.edu.sg/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_317678_1%26url% [5] Singapores First eco-friendly Eyewear Store. (2009). Retrieved September 24, 2009, from Nanyang Optical Web site, http://www.nanyang.com.sg/products.html [6] Toki. (2006). Retrieved September 24, 2009, from Toki Web site, http://tokieyewear.com/index.php [7] Chen Chun-Hsien. (2009). Chapter seven: CRM and Mass Customization. NTU. Singapore. [powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from Nanyang Technological University Blackboard. Site: http://edventure.ntu.edu.sg/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_317678_1%26url%3d [8] Eco-innovative Design. (1997). Retrieved September 18, 2009, from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Web site, http://www.oecd.org/home/ [9] Singapores First eco-friendly Eyewear Store. (2009). Retrieved September 19, 2009, from Nanyang Optical Web site, http://www.nanyang.com.sg/eco.html [10] Robert Grace, Designer eyeglasses fit eco-friendly niche, Plastics News, September 8, 2008 [11]Singapore and US Institutes Collaborate in Environmentally Impactful Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies, ACN Newswire, April 12, 2009 [12]Welcome to LinkSkin eco-friendly eyewear world. (2009) Retrieved September 18, 2009, from LinkSkin web site, http://www.linkskin.com/ [13] Urband: designer of light and comfortable contemporary eyeglasses. (2009). Retrieved September 21, 2009, from Urband Web site, http://www.urband.com/

Important Of Science And Mathematics In English

Important Of Science And Mathematics In English Malaysia is a language of Bahasa Melayu country. And the Malay is an Austronesian language spoken in Malaysia. The total number of speakers of Standard Malay is about 18 million. There are also have 170 million people speak Indonesian which is from the Malay. In the Malaysia have four community that is Malay, Cina, Indian, and the Asing. Although in the Malaysia have the difference community but all the community also is know the Malaysia language that is Bahasa Melayu. Bahasa Melayu is the main language in Malaysia but that is harder use in the national world. In this year, I get the news from the government is going to change the language from English to the Bahasa Melayu to teaching science and mathematics. That is a bad news for the still in study student. The most of important language in the world is the English. Englsih can use in any city or state, because English is the internationalization language in the world. The English language is generally considered as an internation al language in the lingua franca of the global community and it is a language speak and written by many people around the world. It is really considered as one of the most important language for us or all the people in the world. Englsih is an official language in the 52 countries. It is the most of useful language to learn for international travel. 2. In the May 2003, the Ministry Education of the Malaysia implanted the teaching of science and mathematics in English. Since the English language is an integral role in the teaching or the pedagogical. At the same time, I previous the statement concern with the global status of the English language. In the implementing this program, student must able to prepare themselves to an international level. Because this can be able to representing of the science and mathematics concept. Student also can discuss matter with other student more easily in use English language. Knowledge is not belong to any one country. It is treasure which is shared by everybody on the earth. This can be provides more importance of importance teaching science and mathematics in the English. Most of the website also conform explanted style of supply the message regarding the scientific and mathematical matter are create with the English language as the main medium of communication. On the logically, considered all the student will have a wider English language skill. Teaching science and mathematics by use the English will improve student their knowledge bank and language skill. 3. Although I think in school from learning science and mathematics in English that is not a matter. I also never have a very strongly opinion on this matter of the right in the medium of instruction. In the science and mathematics have their own special language for the concepts. The most important question is the teacher and students they can easy communicate effective which using English in teaching sciences and mathematics. The language debate which language will help our children learning more better. Although we always argue about the answer in the theory, but in the theory and the big problem is that the government choose to implement policy and it is without the good preparing by anyone for it. And I think that is under an ideal situation, when at the primary school must learn the basic grammar in English. So that when continue study in college will more easily study. As the student in progress, more English will be intro into to the curriculum up to the point. So they are ha ving the sufficiently comfortable in the language to learn it. That is what we will ideally do that. In the same time, we can close at least focus strongly on the poorest student their language skill while they all still study at the primary school. So the student will be able to adapt with the regular class in the school. And student will more easily go through the whole school system learning sciences and mathematics in use English. I donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t care what the language you teach science and mathematics. I just take care about the teacher can communicate with the student more easily. I almost suggest the teacher will teach science and mathematics in use the English language. We are going to need a lot of intensive classes to help the student to learn their English language skill. 4. Now I will show a few of advantages of teach science and mathematics in English. There have some of the important point to support the title: Malaysian is a well-known country for the ability to know at least three languages, that is Bahasa Melayu, Mother tongue, and the Englsih. This will made more comfortable for the tourist come to the Malaysia. Student can adapt easy when their finish primary school then enter university, especially is the oversea university. Student their maybe not is a geniuses, but at least we can let they improve their language skill very well by study both of the all subject in English. If we need to keep the nation competitive, we must have the fluent command of English is very important. Teaching science and mathematics in English will make Malaysia stay competitive in the international arena. I think the Education Ministry should forget the personalities and must improving policy. They must do the correct thing and not doing things for the sake of political mileage for the nation. Most of the effective way to learn the language is depends on the environment. If we make a good environment for the student. Then the student will learn well in the good environment. Not of that, more important is the students have a best competitive edge in the long term of learning in university and job scope. At the last, I think more of the parents are really need to look by their child when end of the study. In order to improving English language skill of the sciences and mathematics. Teacher may enable to teaching student more effectively use the English in the classes. In the classroom, teacher will start develop start use English language for while teaching student them as well as give the question related the subject by the language need. And teacher will focus on how to improve student their English language skill like speaking and writing by using English. 5. I really support teaching science and mathematics in English. I know have half of the subject in the national school is being taught in use the English and including Islamic studies. I believe teaching and learning of the science and mathematics in English will not only pave the way for the student to study and also will motivate students to learn more than one language effective. Many politicians they did not understand the Education Ministry is try to achieve two targets when also implement the new policy for the student. Student they all also can benefit through the policy and they are thoroughly to know the three master language in their life. So let to teaching science and mathematics in English please. Conclusion At the last, in my conclusion is the English is really important for the all human. English is an international language in the world. Where you go to the other country or the oversea country, English is always beside of you. That is a language for communication with the other people in other country. And also will increase the affection between the people. So teach science and mathematics in English is really important. And I hope the Education Ministry did not change to teaching in use other language. Not canà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t change it, we can increase one more language inside the question to help the people. But the main language will be is the English.

Joan Miro :: essays research papers

Working Thesis:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Catalan struggle and Spanish Civil War greatly influenced Joan Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s art; Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s techniques of forceful strokes with paint and ceramics enable Mirà ³ to express his feelings and depict the Catalan people’s struggle through art.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Surrealism in the 1920s was defined as a fantastic arrangement of materials that influenced Mirà ³, due to the fact that he was one of the most original and sympathetic artists during the Surrealism periods. Mirà ³ was born into the Catalan culture in April 20,1893 in Barcelona, Spain (Munro 288). Having to be born into the Catalan culture gave Mirà ³ an opportunity to have an intense nationalist activity. In which much attention was paid not only to political expressions of the need for autonomy, but also to the re-Catalanizing of every day life (Higdon 1). â€Å"It was necessary to fight so that Catalan, our language might be recognized as a cultural language† (â€Å"Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬ ). In 1910 Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s parents bought a masia which is a sort of traditional farmstead of Catalonia, where the family has its roots on the paternal side. Mirà ³ described the masia in his painting The Farm of 1921-1922 (Figure1). Clement Greenburg a close friend of Mirà ³ who is also a critic, said that Mirà ³Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s art is based on ideas â€Å"of painting as an irrevocable two dimensional medium† (Munro 289). Greenburg also stated â€Å"Mirà ³ is known for his almost total lack of interest in political matters† (Munro 289). The only thing that really kept Mirà ³ interested was his people and their culture. What really shot Mirà ³ down was the Spanish Civil War, he stated that â€Å"I am not in favor of separatism. I am in favor for Spanish unity, European unity, and World unity.† He believed that they should be able to celebrate their myths, and abide by their own laws (Higdon 1). Being Catalan was pretty hard on Mirà ³ as well as his people and their culture. For one, the government tried to shut them out or at least make them in to a Spanish-speaking country. Yet the Catalans had to push on their struggle for freedom. Mirà ³ used his paintings to show his urge for unity, and wanted his people to have the right to practice their customs (Munro 288). He was extremely devoted to his people and their aspirations. He wanted to bring out Catalan traditions as well as their language (Higdon 2). Mirà ³ career in art was sort of brought on by destiny.

The Influence of Attitudes on Race-based Affirmative Action Essay

The Influence of Attitudes on Race-based Affirmative Action Abstract President John F. Kennedy proposed the first major legislation to combat discrimination in the workplace, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which led to President Clinton’s Affirmative Action legislation in 1996. This legislation was based upon existent prejudices within the workforce and was aimed to correct past inequities as well as present ones. Although American society has advanced a great deal since 1964 and even since Affirmative Action legislation was implemented, basic theories of human behavior assert that individuals will always hold prejudices and practice discrimination. Affirmative action policies have been criticized by nonbeneficiaries who believe that its policies do little to end discrimination and instead create unfair job opportunities for beneficiaries. However, a considerable amount of research has shown that many Americans are in support of affirmative action and that those who are not in support of its policies are simply unaware of how affirmative action truly works. Discrimination against minorities in the United States has existed for centuries, and each generation makes its own attempt to end this discrimination. The Civil War brought emancipation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped protected groups gain employment, and the Affirmative Action legislation of 1996 completed the gaps left by the Civil Rights Act. Although prejudices in American society have diminished greatly since the Civil War and even since the Civil Rights Act was passed, discrimination is still present within the United States. Because there is no guarantee that employers will hire based solely upon merit and abilities, legislation is necessary to ensure that members of protected groups are not treated unfairly during the hiring and promotional processes. Affirmative action policies help regulate employment opportunities for women and minorities so that they are not robbed of job opportunities because of their status as a woman or minority member. Affirmative action policie s act as the babysitters for organizations, and while they may need revision, they are certainly still necessary. The Civil Rights Act of 1964   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  While Affirmative Action is a fairly new government policy, its roots lie in the Civil Rights Act of 1964; however, America’s attempt to end discrimin... ...gmatizing effects of affirmative action: An examination   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  of moderating variables. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 185-206. Stewart, M.M., & Shapiro, D.L. (1999). Selection based on merit versus demography:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Implications across race and gender lines. Paper presented at the Socity for   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Atlanta, GA. Triandis, H.C. (1996). The psychological measurement of cultural syndromes. American   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Psychologist, 51, 407-415. Trope, Y. (1986). Identification and inferential processes in dispositional attribution.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Psychological Review, 93, 239-257. Weeks, K.P. (2002). Levels of prejudice and motivation as explanations for race   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  discrimination on selection interviews. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  1910-1923. White House. (1995). Affirmative action review: Report to the President. Retrieved   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  November 3, 2003 from the World Wide Web: www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  OP/html/aa/aa-index.

Sura light

Light Sura The Sura I have chosen to analyse for my assignment is the ‘Light Sura'. The reason I chose this Sura is that it deals with many social issues that are still very evident in Islamic life today. It gives a very detailed view of what God expected of its followers throughout the Sura and what punishment would be handed to them if they did something unwilling to Gods orders. Throughout the Sura a strong message is sent to the believers of Islam. A woman is used as an example of someone who has sinned n a terrible and unlawful way and this is described throughout the text.In my analysis of the Sura I am going to use key verses that give a clear indication of what the passage is about and what clear messages is sent down from god. This is a medinan Sura that relates to the social values in the Islamic world. One of the main themes of this Sura is evolved around many regulations and laws of the Muslim community such as, marriage, obedience, modesty and the main on which is highlighted throughout this passage adultery. Muhammad's wife Aisha was falsely ccused of adultery which was associated as a huge crime in the Islamic world.Punishment was very harsh on anyone found guilty of these crimes, however these strict ways also sent a message to the Islamic community that believers should never step out of line. This is clearly highlighted in verse 24:2, â€Å"The adulterer and the adulteress scourge ye each one of them (with) a hundred stripes. And let not pity for the twain withhold you from obedience to Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day. And let a party of believers witness their punishmentl†.I think this punishment uggests that everyone is equal in the eyes of Allah and although Aisha is an honourable woman and Muhammad's wife, she is still punished the same. It is important in the eyes of Allah and the prophets that women are honourable and they are making an example of it in this Sura. It's very clear that this Sura focuses on the social values in the community and another example of this is shown in verse 24:32, â€Å"Marry off the single among you and those of your male and female slaves who are (fit for marriage). If they are poor god, God will provide for them from his bounty:Gods bounty is infinite and he is all knowing2†³. It is Muhammad's Job to preach these messages to the Islamic community in the hope that followers will listen to Gods message. Through that verse the message is clear that god wants men and woman to marry, but through marriage comes stability and maturity. It is evident that he wants people to marry so they aren't idle all the time and so they won't cause trouble in the community. Simarily in verse 24:33, â€Å"those who are unable to marry should keep chaste until God gives them enough out of his bounty.If any of your slaves wish to pay for their freedom, make a contract with them, and give them some of the wealth that God has given you. Do not force your slave girls into pros titution, when they themselves wish to remain honourable, in your quest for short term gains of this world, although, if they are forced, God will be forgiving and merciful to them3†³. This verse relates a lot to the career of Muhammad from when he grew up in Mecca. During this time, tribes had a lot of slaves working for them and they were usually mistreated.Prostitution was a way tor young woman getting through lite as they could not get married. Muhammad sends a strong message in this text as he tries to preach to the owners of the slaves that it is against Gods teachings that this sort of behaviour should happen in this religion. This is a very smart message from Allah as it encourages people to marry and decreases the chances of trouble and violence by the Islamic followers. Muhammad is Allah's messenger and it is shown throughout the passage that he wants to keep the community together by reinforcing the values rom the place (Mecca) they came from.Muhammad was born and ra ised in Mecca but moved to Medina. This sura relates a lot to the career of Muhammad as he brought followers to Medina when he moved. These were the people who emigrated in God's way. At that time there were a lot of tribal wars happening due to divisions imposed by leaders. Muhammad was part of the Banu Hashim tribe and according to (Cook, 2000) â€Å"the rival tribe Banu Abd Shams imposed a boycott which the pagans for some two or three years refused intermarriage or commercial dealings with the BanuHashim's until such time as they came to their senses in the matter of Muhammad4†³. However many members of these groups converted to Muhammad's religion. It is important to note that in this sura, the message is very clear to Muhammad's converts that there are laws to follow if you want to be part of the religion. I think it shows that Muhammad's past is evident in this passage by his teaching. Another important piece of information highlighted throughout the Sura is to do with the one God phenomenon. It is repeated time and time throughout the Sura that â€Å"God is of all nowing and doing†.This is important to the career of Muhammad as he had to preach this to his followers on a daily basis that there is one God and he is all knowing of your good and wrong doings. This small but clever piece of writing made sure that the message of this Sura was clearly shown, as Muhammad's followers would realise that God can see all your wrong doings which would permit them from thinking of committing a wrong deed as writing at the end of the Sura, verse 24: 64, â€Å"God has full knowledge of everything5†.It is very clear from above that the career of Muhammad is evident throughout the Sura by the teachings relating back to the prophets past. In this Sura, Muhammad is preaching about how to become a good Islamic follower and the punishments that will happen if followers lean away from the laws.

Nature of the Murderers Essay

Compare the Techniques that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell use to present the Nature of the Murderers, the Motives and the Consequences.  The two books I am going to compare are ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ by Ruth Rendell.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is an intricate crime detection novel written pre-war in the 18th Century, where Doyle relays facts to the reader incredibly cryptically and at strategic points. These facts, if pieced together correctly, eventually inform the reader of the result of the book and what characters fit in where. It starts with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson solving, really a puzzle rather than a mystery as they find a walking stick left in their office by someone unknown. This however develops into a full-scale mystery that involves murder, betrayal, dishonesty and revenge. This type of novel was popular around the time of being first published because they somehow matched true stories of the time, for example, Jack the Ripper. ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ is a short story written post-war and has a much more modern slant on things. It is told through the eyes of the eventual culprit so as to only relay information that the narrator deems to be important and this resultantly deceives the reader in the overall ending of the story. The beginning of the story is a depiction of a happy stable marriage between the narrator and his wife but starts to go downhill from there. The story uses themes of betrayal and murder.  The nature of the murderers in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ are quite different as Stapleton in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is in mind to commit the murder so as to have personal gain by inheriting his families’ wealth. In ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the narrator is committing the murder in an act of self-denial as he is working with the view that if he canâ₠¬â„¢t have his wife, no one can. In both ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ and ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ neither author goes into any detail when describing the murders and it is left for the reader to form their own picture or suspicions as to what might have happened. In ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ the first suspicions are set onto a mythical hound that roams the moors. This was a completely plausible theory at the time as a vast number of people still believed in such happenings. However in ‘People Don’t do Such Things’ the first suspicion is set onto the eventual joint victim. This method of putting someone else in the picture of committing the murder is much more modern as this is what generally tends to happen in modern day society. Mythical creatures roaming moors are somewhat absent from what we seem plausible. In both ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the murderers are both killing a member of their family but for very different reasons. The motive of Stapleton in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is to get rid of family members blocking the way between him and the his potential inheritance thus deriving a large amount of personal gain. The narrator in ‘People Don’t Do Such Things however kills a member of his family because of depression. He is depressed because he was under the illusion that his marriage was perfect and that a close friend of him and his wife was nothing more but this turned out to be wrong. This eventual false friendship was unknowingly cleverly set up by Reeve – the close friend – and was manipulated to his advantage. He suddenly felt like he had been used when he found out his wife had betrayed him but the person she had had the affair with didn’t want her anymore and neither did the narrator. This left her with nowhere to go and consequently caused problems for both people and son the narrator decided to get rid of the problem once and for all. Both murderers gained self-gratification from the experience but from different motives and from different situations. The two stories also differ from each other when the consequences of the murder are bought into play. In ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ Stapleton’s plot is discovered and unravelled by Sherlock Holmes. In the end Stapleton doesn’t get bought to justice but dies by drowning in a swamp in an attempt to escape Sherlock Holmes, some might say he got what he deserved. In ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ the narrator doesn’t lose that much, except a feeling of guilt will have settled in his mind, as in the end the wrong person is convicted of the murder. This comparison is a clear example of how the same sort of situation can have more than one, completely different outcome. As a general comparison both authors have written about the same situation but have followed on in different directions as to where the story ends up. Also the fact that the stories where written at completely different times in history affects the way in which the story is constructed and consequently written. Different aspects of the story are directly related to the surrounding society at the time when the story was written such as the language used which can be a major pivot point as to whether the reading audience can understand the authors writing or not. I think this is evident in both ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ and ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ as the language used in ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ is clearly different from that used in ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’. This type of differential between the two stories can greatly affect how parts of the story are relayed to the reader. As I live in the modern world I can relate to and understand ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ much better than ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ because of the differences between the way of life in the 18th Century when ‘The Hound Of The Baskervilles’ was written and relatively close to the present when ‘People Don’t Do Such Things’ was written.  Overall I think that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Ruth Rendell both present the nature of the murders, the motives and the consequences in a definitive and individual way but both methods are separate from each other simply because of the difference in the surrounding societies’ believes and understandings.

Sweet Basil Marketing Plan

In order to Increase market share and sales, Sweet Basil will target dine-in, take-out, and take-n-bake pizza lovers In the cities of Treated, Rewind, USA, and Monrovia. The strategies for increasing sales are to first penetrate new markets, then increase usage and size of customer orders. This will be conducted through unbeatable value and the finest ingredients that cannot be received anywhere else in the area. The marketing mix for Sweet Basil will consist of mobile marketing, flyer distribution, a website, social media outlets, television advertising and email newsletters.The objectives for many of these avenues are to provide coupons and discounts as well as gain consumer loyalty. The business does a great Job already with returning patrons so it is time to focus energy on effectively penetrating new markets. Sweet Basil will look to Increase sales by 40% or $110,400 and achieve a market share of 30% In Treated and 20% In the surrounding clues. This will ensure success and will provide a break even before the first 6 months. 2. 0 Situation Analysis Currently, the economic market condition in the united States and California is primarily recession.Overall, the pizza business is doing k. Tit flat sales of about $38 billion for the past 3 years (Kara 2011). Consumers are becoming much more particular when it comes to value and where they spend their hard earned money. Sweet Basil pizzeria is doing quite well during the recession but it is having trouble inquiring new consumers. Prices of flour, produce, and cheese are on the rise so It Is important to Increase business and revenue to cover these associated costs. These forces are uncontrollable In the macro environment along with the rising unemployment from the recession.It is important to instill value and personalized maintain/increase repeat customers. There are many successful dine-in and take- out pizza companies that fail to provide the opportunity for consumers to purchase take-n-bake pizzas. Consumer s are going to ultimately purchase from the establishment that provides the best value and quality mixture. Sweet Basil offers dine-in, take-out, and take-n-bake pizzas, leaving the delivery market to competitors. With this in mind, Sweet Basil is very capable of increasing sales with the development of take-n-bake pizzas and a solid marketing strategy. 2. Market Summary Sweet Basil Pizzeria is an extremely reputable pizzeria in the city of Treated, California. Besides being well known, Sweet Basil also maintains a strong competitive advantage with its owner, James Decrease, being a hotel restaurant management graduate from Purdue University and restaurant industry veteran for well over 25 years. James has been able to carefully select his target market due to his extensive industry experience. As mentioned before, the current pizza market is motionless at around $38 billion per year, which isn't so bad considering worldwide market conditions.Many loyal customers have been moving du e to rising foreclosure rates and this hurts return business. An astonishing 93% of Americans eat pizza at least once a month and approximately 3 billion pizzas are sold every year (Hinkle 2009). This leaves plenty of room for competition and growth for Sweet Basil take-n-bake pizzas in the current market. Even though Sweet Basil's target market demographics is tailored to consumers in the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding areas in southern California, we reserve the right to increase the area if growth is substantial.The average salary of southern California Jobs is $55,000 a year (Simply Hired 2011), which leaves plenty disposable income for the on-the-go working class individual. Many consumers in southern California lead extremely busy lifestyles, which makes it hard to cook for a family. There are currently seven pizza restaurants/parlors in Treated, California. None of these pizza establishments offer take-n-bake pizzas for sale, so the only real competition is frozen pizzas at the super market. Our consumers enjoy high quality pizza with fresh ingredients at an affordable price.This provides incredible value to the customer and a much better alternative to people having to bake store bought frozen pizzas. Sweet Basil provides its customers with an extensive value for their hard earned none. Consumers choose Sweet Basil pizza because we serve their needs through our unique ingredients and fresh homemade sauce and dough. People want more than Just a bland, regular tasting pizza and we tailor our unique blend of basil, garlic, and oregano to pizza lovers throughout the Los Angels area.Sweet Basil serves over 10 different types of specialty pizzas creating enjoyment for all types of palettes. Our pizza can be picked up with no wait and is never sold unless it has been made within 7 days to increase the quality that you'll find in the frozen section of the super markets. Since no other pizza establishments in Treated offer take-n-bake style pizzas, we will be able to control the market for consumers that are looking for a fresh alternative. Nearly every single frozen pizza brand from Disgorging to Stouffer increased it's sales in the 52 weeks between summer 2009-2010 (BIB International 2010).Disgorging made the most out of the entire top 10 frozen pizzas in 2010 Digestion's sales throughout the world, it's important to notice that they increased sales from 2009 to 2010 and that the market doesn't show any signs of decreasing. Pizza is an American tradition that most people love to eat and Sweet Basil's quality ND delicious ingredients create the competitive advantage. 2. 2 SOOT Analysis * Strengths: Sweet Basil's strengths consist of a number of things currently going into the take-n-bake market.For one, Sweet Basil is the only pizzeria that currently offers take-n-bake pizzas; the competition is very minimal other than store bought frozen pizzas. Second, Sweet Basil has a stellar reputation amongst the surrounding community, catering to schools and businesses reaching new customers daily. Sweet Basil only uses the freshest ingredients and everything is homemade including the bread and delicious sauce. The pizzeria is located in a prime location, right next too Seven-Eleven, getting optimal exposure from the public. Weaknesses: Currently there are a couple of solid weaknesses that can cause some undesired hurdles for Sweet Basil's take-n-bake pizzas. First off, Sweet Basil has not done any marketing yet for the new take-n-bake concept and all of the marketing in the past has been through word of mouth solely. Another weakness is that consumers are already familiar with the competition and that could make it very difficult to market to consumers that haven't tried Sweet Basil pizza before. Finally, Sweet Basil pizzeria doesn't have any distribution outlets other than the restaurant located in the city of Treated and delivery is not offered.These issues certainly need to be addressed and solved so that they don't affect Sweet Basil pizzeria negatively. * Opportunities: While pizza continues to be popular in America, it is evolving. Fierce discounting and coupling by top players has squeezed other pizza Sellers (Kara 2011). This leaves a great opportunity for Sweet Basil to offer coupons and discounts through a variety of medias and advertising. Another opportunity is that the market appears to be very teddy for take-n-bake/frozen pizza purchases. This can certainly provide Sweet Basil with a chance to reap some of the market share with its high quality, affordable pizzas.Second, Sweet Basil's take-n-bake pizzas don't use up any additional resources or time than their freshly made take-out or dine-in pizzas, making start up costs insignificant. One possibility in the future could be to contract with grocery store chains to offer frozen pizzas more conveniently to consumers. Sweet Basil can increase revenue by attracting customers that don't live close to the pizzeria or prefer o make pizzas a t their own home. * Threats: Potential threats for Sweet Basil include possible competition from neighboring pizzerias in the area should they decide to start a take-n-bake operation.Another possible threat could be an increase in direct and indirect costs such as electricity for freezing the take-n-bake pizzas. An increase in gas prices could also be a possible threat for sales of pizza because consumers may not be willing to drive to the pizzeria. An increase in labor costs due to the slightly complex routine behind making take-n-bake pizzas ready for customers. 2. Competition As briefly stated earlier, there are currently 5 other pizza restaurants in Treated and we compete for pizza loving customers on a regular basis.These competitors great sum of customers that can be earned with the proper marketing campaign. The seven places to get pizza in Treated are Pizza Hut, Domino's, Hungry Hosier's Pizza, Treated Pizza Co. , Little Caesar, Flying Pizza, and Cost (which is Sweet Basil's only real take-n-bake competition other than grocery store brands). People can purchase freshly made pizza to order at all of these establishments, but these competitors eave not developed a take-n-bake concept yet. This leaves the market wide open for Sweet Basil to compete with better-known chains such as Cost and grocery store brands.The seven pizza establishments in Treated do not pose as much threat to Sweet Basil's Take-n-Bake pizzas as the store bought brands and Cost pizza. When considering true competition it is important to observe the characteristics of the take- n-bake pizza that Sweet Basil will offer. The pizzas are going to be 16†³ in length, which is fairly large for take-n-bake pizza. This means that single-serve frozen pizza sonnets really pose a significant threat because we are marketing to larger parties and families who are constantly on the go. Sweet Basil's large 14†³ pizzas will come with a variety of toppings.With this in mind the only store boug ht competitors that are offered at nearly all super markets are Disgorging, Tombstone, Red Baron, California Pizza Kitchen, Freshest, and Tony's (BIB International 2011) in order of popularity/sales. The other main competitor that Sweet Basil has to beware of that is gaining popularity is Cost's take-n-bake frozen pizzas because they offer more rationalized service and quality than the other brands. Cost pizzas are also larger in size (16†³) and cost a little more than the other brands (Cost 2011). 2. Product Offering The new product offering of Sweet Basil Pizzeria is very concise and direct. The take-n-bake pizzas will only be offered in the 14†³ size and will consist of only five different varieties such as pepperoni pizza, cheese pizza, vegetarian pizza, Sweet Basil Favorite (all combo toppings), and BBC pizza. All of these pizzas are made with the finest local produce from Mike's Foods and ingredients provided from JACM DOD service distribution. Sweet Basil Pizza will be extremely fresh, having been made within a week from the date of purchase.Customers can feel assured they are getting a high-quality pizza with greater freshness than any other brand currently in the target market. Valued consumers will also be able to call in orders if they require special toppings or especially large orders. Consumers will also be able to purchase packets of our most popular ingredient â€Å"Sweet Basil†, which is a combination of secret spices containing garlic and basil. This mixture is absolutely delicious and makes any pizza caste even better than it normally would. 2. Keys to Success The major factors that will make Sweet Basil a huge success among the competition in the Los Angels area is our stellar personalized service, finest ingredients, competitive price, and homemade sauce/dough recipe. Personalized service and quality/recipes are the main advantages that Sweet Basil Pizzeria is aiming to use as their competitive advantage. Sweet Basil alrea dy has a considerable customer dimension from its fourteen years of success and this must keeping up to date with ingredient costs, researching local stores and purveyors to ampere value/price mixtures.According to the National Restaurant Association, the top trend right now is locally grown produce (Stevenson 2010). Sweet Basil only purchases the finest, locally grown produce from Mike's Foods in Treated. The new take-n-bake product that sweet basil offers is no more expensive than providing it's everyday to-go pizzas to valued customers. This makes the overall product cost extremely low and creates a major factor in the success of this new idea for Sweet Basil Pizza. The pizza and restaurant business is a difficult industry to tackle; product/industry knowledge is a necessity to succeed.Sweet Basil is always staying familiar and up to date with current practices in order to remain competitive. This factor is something that Sweet Basil will surely continue to practice and exploit. Continued customer satisfaction is a concept that Sweet Basil will continue to present to its valued patrons. 2. 6. Critical Issues As a pre-established company, Sweet Basil maintains an exceptional product, gaining return customers and recognition daily. The major critical issues for Sweet Basil is to: * Gain market exposure- Sweet Basil doesn't currently spend any money on marketing to Treated or its surrounding cities.Word of mouth from satisfied customers is a great type of free marketing but it doesn't increase quickly enough. Sweet Basil will now be able to offer a product to customers that live further away; therefore, it should target more customers using different avenues of marketing. Train additional staff- training is a 2-3 month period depending on the speed of the employee and this could slow the business down if not forecasted properly. Since Sweet Basil doesn't deliver, it is currently run with no more than 2 employees at a time.If customers and sales increase signif icantly, sustainability will rely on the ark force. New hiring measure may be needed. * Monitoring quality assurance and customer service- the pizzeria must maintain a reputable amount of quality and service in order to ensure that the growth strategy doesn't Jeopardize the current benchmark. Quality will be monitored by gaining feedback from customers and allowing them to offer suggestions through questionnaires. * Expansion- expanding through the creation of additional parlors in Dearth's surrounding cities may be a necessity if it proves both profitable and sustainable.This is more off long-term critical issue but must be recognized nonetheless. . 0 Marketing Strategy The primary target for Sweet Basil's marketing strategy will be towards households and businesses in the cities of Treated, Monrovia, USA, and Rewind. Americans love pizza and it is clear that everyone in these cities should be marketed because of pizza's popularity and sustained growth throughout past years. For no w, Sweet Basil only offers take-out, dine-in, and take-n-bake services to its patrons, which leaves delivery open to competition.Sweet Basil realizes that they can serve 65-70% of Pizza Power Report). Undoubtedly there is a substantial amount of market share that an be earned with the proper market-challenger attack strategies. Sweet Basil anticipates being able to sell more pizza to current customers, sell to market segments that have not previously been targeted, and gain a higher market penetration. Word of mouth advertising has been Sweet Basil's sole source of advertising for the past fourteen years and now the time has come to try a new initiative to increase growth and profits.Although word of mouth advertising is extremely effective and well trusted from consumers, Sweet Basil finds that most loyal clients did not hear about the pizzeria until the first couple years of residing in Treated. With this in mind, the pizzeria will kick off some new marketing strategies to increas e its overall exposure to the businesses and households in its target market. Sweet Basil will look to gain new customers through new-market segment strategies.More consumers need to be aware of Sweet Basil's unparalleled service and great tasting pizza; word of mouth advertising will not penetrate as many consumers as supplementary advertising. Sweet Basil also looks to engage in encirclement attacks throughout the before-mentioned cities in order to gain exposure into some of the competition's territory. Finally, Joint partnership advertising will be conducted to decrease overall advertising costs. Paper flyers will be attached to every take-out box, promoting take-n-bake pizza to current patrons, which well result in increased usage.Flyers that include coupons will be served to residential and commercial properties in order to increase new customers. This will help Sweet Basil primarily increase sales over time but will also help in gaining exposure to the target market. A recent study shows that 46% of pizza consumers report that coupons or promotions influence where they decide to purchase their pizza (Barrett, 2010 Pizza Power Report). If these statistics prove to be true, Sweet Basil will surely be able to earn new business amongst the community.Sweet Basil will also exploit other forms of integrated marketing communications through website development, mass SMS marketing to loyal patrons, and usage of social media platforms. The website will allow consumers to view the menu and leave comments, questions, and concerns, which will be viewable for everyone to see. Catering is a huge source of Sweet Basil's success and consumers will be able to navigate through catering options and information. People will also be able to add themselves onto the weekly email that will be sent out to include coupons and special promotions.This will help Sweet Basil in obtaining more market exposure to current and new clientele. â€Å"With so many people now using the Inter net to search for products and services it is now acknowledged that having a business website is Just about as essential as having a telephone† (Touched, 2001). Sweet Basil will also utilize mass text message marketing in order to promote specials and promos that are offered each week. This will be initiated using Decontrolling. Mom to ensure that these messages can be sent every other week to market different promos and special items to consumers.Each customer will be asked if they would like to receive promotion emails and text messages from Sweet Basil. The success rate for permission based mobile marketing campaigns is around 25% Oarfish, 2006). This will ensure seamless impersonal communication to Sweet Basil's loyal patrons. Lastly, Sweet Basil's marketing include the development of a Faceable, Namespace, and Twitter account so loyal patrons can feel more united with Sweet Basil's service and undeniable quality food. The Namespace and Faceable pages will allow customers to view the menu and catering options that Sweet Basil offers.This type of marketing is virtually free although it is time consuming to continuously update. Sweet Basil will also utilize cable television marketing in order to market to new customers. Advertising will only be targeted to Time Warner Cable's Foothills and West Covina coverage areas in the San Gabriel Valley (Coverage Area 2011). Mostly sports programs on ESP. and popular shows on Bravo will be targeted to enhance Sweet Basil's exposure to their target market. This will be exercised during the first 90 days of marketing plan.All of these integrated marketing communications will allow Sweet Basil to reach a large market of new consumers as well as continue to gain increased business with existing patrons. These marketing strategies were also selected due to their low cost and minimal time consumption required. 3. 1 Mission Statement â€Å"We exist to provide the best quality dine-in, take-out, and take-n-bake pizza to the Route 66 communities of the San Gabriel Valley. This will be accomplished through unmatched customer service, value, and great tasting pizza; creating a memorable experience for all to enjoy'. 3. Marketing Objectives Sweet Basil will achieve a few concrete objectives through its current and future marketing actions. The first and most crucial goal for the pizzeria is to conduct new- market segment strategies in order to earn new customers throughout Treated, Monrovia, USA, and Rewind. This strategy will be initiated immediately at the start of Quarter 2 this year now that Sweet Basil's take-n-bake pizzas are now in production. The target market objective is to increase overall market share, earn new customers, and amplify purchases to increase sales by 40% from now throughApril 2012. Collectively, Sweet Basil seeks to increase overall market share to 25% of all dine-in, take-out, and take-n-bake purchases in Treated and 13% of market share from Monrovia, Rewind, and USA. This al so includes 15% market share transactions from employees of local businesses in Treated and Rewind as well as 25% market share to households in Treated, Rewind, Monrovia, and USA. In order to accomplish these goals, Sweet Basil will have to gain at least 30 new customers every week on average and the goal is to be able to retain 90% of them.This strategy ill allow the pizzeria to maintain strong, positive growth each quarter through it's increasing customers. Another objective is increasing consumer usage to where customers are purchasing Sweet Basil products at least one more time per week. This will include increasing the purchase volume of each consumer as well. New consumers will be able to be measured by asking them how they heard about Sweet Basil to begin with and afterwards asking them if they would like to receive coupons and promotions by email and text in the future. Sweet Basil's target is to achieve the before mentioned market share by the end of 2012.Sweet Basil will a lso set promotional objectives in order to reach new customers through brand and company awareness as well as implementing strategic sales promotions. Millennial will information through word of mouth (Mr.. Youth, 2011). A major objective will be to grow the pizzeria's followers on Faceable and Namespace to 750 people by the end of 2011 to engage in more promotional initiatives. Seasonal and promotional entrees will be posted on these social media sites every other week to maintain consumer usage. The address, phone number, menu, and catering options will all be included n these sites as well.Sweet Basil will be hiring an individual to hand out door flyers to residential households and businesses in the cities of Treated, USA, Rewind, and Monrovia (starting in the city of Treated). This marketing effort will be conducted every Wednesday and Thursday from am to pm for the residential areas and every Monday for local businesses. Similar flyers will be on every take-out pizza box as we ll to notify customers of the option to purchase take-n-bake pizzas. No additional employees would have to be hired for the business as long as business doesn't increase more than 50%.The flyers will include specials and combos that can be purchased in exchange for the coupon on the flyer. Each flyer will have a coupon to receive 1 free slice with a purchase of any take-n-bake pizza. The flyers will also contain a coupon to purchase a take-n-bake pizza for 25% off. Additional specials will be included on the flyer and sponsors will be able to advertise on the other half of the flyer. The sponsors will incur all costs for the production of the flyers and will also include Sweet Basil's website, Faceable, Namespace, and Twitter information for nonusers..These flyers will be very similar to the email and text messaging blasts that Sweet Basil will be conducting every other month. Sweet Basil will look to enhance partnership efforts with local businesses, schools, cities, and clubs in o rder to increase exposure and maintain growth. Catering services and pizza specials will be offered for discount prices depending on the size and occasion of the order. Sweet Basil looks to increase its catering by 5% to businesses and residential areas. This will also help Sweet Basil gain more exposure and market share from satisfied customers. 3.Financial Objectives Sweet Basil will be targeting a number of sound financial objectives in order to increase profits and sustainability. As stated in the marketing objectives, increasing sales by 40% during the first 365 days is the target for Sweet Basil. Overall, Sweet Basil aspires to collectively reach 30% market share for Dearth's dine-in, take out, and take n bake pizza sales by the end of 2012. The goal for Rewind, USA, and Monrovia will be 20% overall market share. Currently, Sweet Basil obtains 30% of it's business from take out orders, 50% from dine in business, and 20% from catering.With the current market conditions, Sweet B asil's overall gross income amounts to $23,000 on average per month. The gross income should amount to at least $32,200 per month on average by April 2012 in order to realize a successful marketing plan. This would amount to an extra $110,400 in gross income a year, which would only be substantial if costs remained low. Sweet Basil doesn't require hiring an extra employee for the additional expected business so long as it doesn't exceed a 50% sales increase. Social media sites such as Faceable, Namespace, and Twitter are free which makes it a valuable marketing source financially.Sweet Basil will be using decontrolling. Com to send out SMS blasts including specials and deals for and allows for 5,000 customers to be included. The annual cost for this service then amounts to $960/year while emails are virtually free to send to loyal subscribed customers. Sweet Basil's website will be created for $1000 through a current part- time employee that is also going to school for web design. T his will be built during slow business hours at the restaurant to decrease hourly costs for the web development. The web domain will cost around $100 dollars a year to maintain.One f the expensive strategies for Sweet Basil Pizza is the cost of hiring on an employee to work Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday for 24 hours a week handing out flyers. The employee will be paid $8/her, so the annual cost will come out to about $12,000 if gas costs are associated. The flyers will be free to Sweet Basil because the sponsors will incur that cost. The most expensive marketing source will be advertising on Time Warner Cable during the first 90 days of marketing plan initiation. As mentioned earlier, only ESP. and Bravo will be targeted and we will run 4 commercials per day on both networks.With a cost of $40 per spot, Sweet Basil will incur a total cost of $28,800 Just in television advertising costs. An increase in sales will not result in a significant increase in utilities since the restauran t hours will remain the same and because the pizza oven is always left on. The cost of running the oven 2417 isn't much different from the cost of turning it off at night and the oven takes an hour to warm up to 600 degrees when opening in the morning. After all the costs are subtracted, Sweet Basil can make a return of $67,540 but the increase of ingredients, labor, and materials have not been subtracted from this mount.All of the before mentioned other than pizza ingredients and material will remain the same regardless off 40% increase in sales. 3. 4 Target Markets As stated earlier, Sweet Basil's target market will consist of all pizza lovers in the Route 66 cities of the San Gabriel Valley. In recent studies, 93% of Americans eat pizza at least 1 time a month, (Pizza Plan, 2011) which means there is a sizeable target market for Sweet Basil to penetrate. There are 21,782 residents in Treated, 46,672 in USA, 37,523 in Monrovia, and 1,433 in Rewind, which brings a total consumer ma rket of close to 110,000 people (city-data, 2009).Rewind consists of businesses for the most part, which gives Sweet Basil an opportunity to increase dine-in sales to workers during the day and catering services for luncheons and special events. Consumers report that 45% of restaurant pizza orders are for take- out and 20% of orders are for dine in (Barrett, 2010). The general strategy for Sweet Basil will be â€Å"differentiation† as described in Porter's generic strategies (Marketing Management, 2009). Sweet Basil offers an incomparable product compared to the rest because they use the best and highest quality ingredients while having the nines recipes.The key source of this distinction is the â€Å"sweet basil powder† that patrons can top on their pizza after it is made. Take-n-bake pizza is not offered in any other restaurants in the area other than Sweet Basil, which gives them an advantage for consumers that want a more unique taste. Consumers have a need for gre at tasting quality pizza that can be purchased right when they want it with little wait time and low cost. Sweet Basil certainly meets this need with the before mentioned points of difference and being able to dine-in and take-out as well. ND be out quicker than if they purchased fast food.Many consumers like driving by on their way home from work to get a late night special $6 one topping pizza that is hot and ready between 6-pm to feed their family after a busy workday. Others choose to stock up on take-n-bake frozen pizzas to serve at their convenience. Catering services are offered to businesses and patrons that have the need to feed a large event or party and a much more extensive menu is offered in order to add variety. Sweet Basil patrons range from all ages and nationalities, which is the advantage of offering a product that 93% of people engage in at least once a month.Pizza is also a relatively inexpensive way to feed a family and large parties of people in residential are as. This makes pizza ideal for people that are currently affected by the downfall of the economy and increases in unemployment. High school kids and local workers are a major part of the afternoon dine-in business that Sweet Basil receives during the week. Nearly 95% of Sweet Basil's business comes from returning customers, which proves that there is room for new customers. This also roves that the product tastes great and has an eminent price-quality comparison. . 5 Positioning Nearly all Americans enjoy eating pizza because it is a delicious and quick meal, which gives Sweet Basil an advantage over selling other products. In a recent survey initiated by Technetium, results show that 68% of those that have children 18 and under living in their household say that pizza occasions usually involve children (Barrett, 2010). This shows that pizza is a very popular amongst families but Sweet Basil does well with single person households and local workers since pizza is sold by he slice un til pm.This also helps in closing the gap for Sweet Basil's consumers and leaves only those that prefer ordering their pizza and having it delivered. Sweet Basil is not trying to offer delivery service any time soon, but many patrons prefer Just coming in to take-out their pizza rather than ordering delivered pizza from a competitor. This is exactly how Sweet Basil positions itself to consumers; the prices are low and affordable, the quality of food and flavor is unrivaled, and the experience is optimal. As mentioned earlier, â€Å"Sweet Basil† powder adds for a uniqueness that ant be tasted anywhere else which positions the business very well.All pizzas are created from scratch, using a large mixer for dough and fresh store bought produce, meats, and ingredients from local purveyors. Pricing strategies are used as well to effectively position Sweet Basil's food offerings. Sweet Basil sells pizza by the slice for only $1 where other companies may charge up to $3/slice. Sweet Basil also sells its large one topping take-out, dine-in, and take-n-bake pizzas for $8, which is a phenomenal value considering all of the top grade ingredients used.This creates a rice-quality comparison that isn't reciprocated from any competitors in the target market. Sweet Basil is able to position itself to a completely new market with the recent creation of its take-n-bake pizza. Minute reports that frozen pizza can be found in 66% of all households (Barrett, 2010), which gives Sweet Basil a nice competitive advantage over other pizza businesses in the San Gabriel Valley. Sweet Basil notices possible opportunities if they were to contract and create partnerships with local grocery stores and markets. Another possible opportunity in the future would be to